OK - back to our trip to Yellowstone!!
If you don't know already a trip to Yellowstone means the alarm goes off at 3:45 am. Yes. That is very early. While I'm showering Don is busy getting both his breakfast made and packing the lunch cooler. He's Awesome!! We're usually backing out of the driveway about 5 am - sometimes as late as 5:15 - but we always seem to manage to get to West Yellowstone about 7 am. Don has Mad Driving Skills!!
A stop to fill up for gas, more coffee for Don and a restroom stop and we're going thru the entrance - ready for our day!!
I've got my camera ready - in fact it's on my lap when we back out of the driveway! This day is slow along the Madison River. We do see a few Bison but not close to the road so we go on. We turn right at Madison campground and go south to see if we have any luck today (we have in the past!!). But it's very Very foggy going south. You can't see too far off the road. But we do find a few Bison standing near the road. The fog makes for a good photo of them.
We turn around and head back north. We haven't heard anything about the Grizzly with the 3 new cubs that we photographed on May 1st and we don't see any sign of her as we go thru Gibbon Canyon. "Sign" being other photographers parked and waiting for a sighting. She must have disappeared away from the road which is for the best.
It's pretty quiet thru Gibbon Meadows, Elk Meadows, Norris, Twin Lakes, Roaring Mountain, Swan Lake Flats. Nothing going on. And I am constantly looking for an animal - along the ponds, up thru the trees and on the hillsides along the road. Nothing to be seen.
But Look !!!! As we're still above Mammoth we can see down to what they call the "High Bridge" and there's a bunch of cars!! Maybe it's a bear!!??!!
Wait. No. It's a Bison Jam as the Bison are going across the bridge in front of the cars. Shoot! We will probably be right in that jam.
And we are. The Bison travel the road when there's nowhere to walk alongside the road. And there's not - not right there - it's too steep on either side of the road. So we slowly follow. Don swearing. If only he could drive everyone's car for them!! And sometimes I wish he could!! You get one person in front who won't get over in the other lane to go around and traffic comes to a stand-still. But we finally get lucky and the Bison find an open spot to get off the road completely and we're on our way!!
We've heard that a Grizzly has been hanging around a Bison carcass at Blacktail Ponds and he's still there this morning. (As I write this he's been there all week.) We find a spot to park - completely OFF the road so the Rangers don't yell at us! - and walk back to the hillside where everyone is standing. We've got a fairly good view from here so we start snapping photos.
And our fun doesn't last as he lays down for a nap. So Don and I walk back to the truck and head down the road. While standing there we heard several people talking about a Black Bear and cub at Petrified Tree so we head for that.
But there's no bear. The road down to Tower doesn't open for another week so we turn at Roosevelt to head thru Lamar Valley.
Just past the pull-out called Wrecker we find some Bison near the road. They're coming thru the sagebrush and crossing the road so we park for some shots of the babies. I LOVE baby Bison!!
There's lots of babies to choose from - some staying close to Mom, some walking with other babies. They walk. They run. They stop and stare at us. They nurse. I don't even have to get out of the truck! I just opened the door and sat there taking lots of photos.
We finally head on down the road. Not much to see in the first part which is called Little America. The "Wolf Watchers" have been down the road to Slough Creek Campground watching the Junction Butte Pack at their den. They see babies on occasion but Don and I go on by.
We go thru Lamar Canyon - an Osprey nest on the other side of the river - and come out in Lamar Valley. You can see a long ways and the valley is dotted with Bison. Almost to the Yellowstone Institute there's a Bison carcass. Nothing on it right now but Ravens so we cruise on by. Nothing else going on.
As we get to the Confluence - where Soda Butte Creek meets the Lamar River - I spot something in the water. Was it a . . . Beaver?? We park and walk back but find it's only a carcass of a Bison calf. I wonder what happened to him. Did he drown? Was he hit on the road and made it that far? We'll never know. I'm not sure anything will come in to get the carcass - he's right next to the road.
So we continue on - only seeing the occassional Bison - turning around at the Soda Butte Picnic area which is past Pebble Creek Campground. We head back the same way we came.
This time when we get past the Institute - close to the Bison Carcass - lots of people have gathered. We park and get out and find Travis & Sarah Bowen there - they've heard there's a Wolf on the other side of the road - wanting to cross to the carcass. We look behind us to the hills and -
There's the Wolf!!!!
He's looking out over the valley and finally travels away from us and crosses further down the road. We've gotten here just in time!
He goes further into the valley before turning to make his way to the carcass. Don thinks he's about 300 yards out so he's not real close - but close enuf he's NOT a Wolf Dot!!
He finally makes it over to the carcass - pauses to check out the crowd - and starts pulling on pieces. He really doesn't seem to "feed" and I'm wondering if the carcass is "open" yet. Not like he was trying to pull off chunks of Bison meat. He doesn't stay too long and gives up the carcass to the Ravens and wanders out further from the road. We tho't he was going to cross the river but just seems to be moseying along.
We finally leave as he doesn't show any sign of coming back to the carcass and head down the road to the Yellowstone Picnic area for lunch. Hotdogs and potato salad!!
When we finish we make another trip to check on the Wolf but he's still wandering in the valley and quite far from the road now. So we leave him and start our "heading towards home".
We check Petrified Tree again and guess what I spot???
A WEASEL !!!!!!
I am the Queen of Weasels!!! Wait. That doesn't sound like I want it to. I may have to re-think my title. But as tiny as they are in the first place - he's even tinier so far from the road. He runs along some deadfall and jumps off into the grass - can't even see him - back along the deadfall - and off again. They're so fast!! We give up on him since we won't get any good photos anyway and head back down the road.
There isn't a thing to see until we get back to Blacktail Ponds. The Grizzly is still there. The Rangers are quick to get to cars trying to park and telling them where they're at isn't going to work. You have to have all 4 tires OFF the road and most of that area it's just not possible. We couldn't find a spot so after another pass by the bear we go on.
When we get to Norris we head over to see if there's anything going on at Canyon. The road opened going south from Canyon and on out the East Entrance so more traffic today. They've been watching bears and wolves on a carcass at Otter Creek but there's nothing going on while we're there. Only a duck and maybe a Beaver?? We never got a great shot of his tail so it might have been just a Muskrat. Even when I checked my photos I still wasn't sure.
Back we go - the way we came. But there's nothing going on as we make the trip back. We stop at our usual spot for Pika but they're still not down by the road where we usually always find them. We hear a couple but can NOT spot the little devils. But just as I open my truck door I spy a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel sitting up on a rock.
We decide to go down the road to another spot. I don't like this one as well. Lots of deadfall, boulders - very hard to walk around at this spot. But we do finally get some shots of Pika. Not many as they don't stick around long - but a few!!
And that was our day. All-in-all - it was pretty slow. But you can't always have bears standing next to the road. I'm still waiting to get some great shots of a Black Bear but so far - it's just not happening. If I get to go next Sunday the road to Tower will be open - people have been hiking down and seeing a bear now and then so maybe I'll get lucky then.
Keeping my fingers crossed!!
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