We rolled on by our Pika spot with plans to stop on the way home and then at Madison we went south towards Old Faithful to see if we'd get lucky. I guess we did if you count Bison!!
That was all we saw so it was back to Madison and on to Norris and then Mammoth. After leaving Mammoth we crossed the High Bridge and just before you get to Undine Falls I'm looking off to my right and up above us walks a Black Bear!! It was snowing SO HARD that I didn't get a single usable photo of him - he was behind the trees and kept moving and finally got ahead of us and then he quickly darted across the road. Always fun to see an animal where you've never seen one before!
That was it for excitement for awhile - we pulled into the Yellowstone Picnic Area and found a couple Bison heading towards us so we got out for some photos of them.
Just down the road we found a pull-out with cars, people and cameras so we found a parking spot and got out to see what was going on. Somewhere out there in the sagebrush was a Black Bear on a carcass and we only had to wait a bit before he raised his head.
There wasn't much more action than that so we finally packed it up and headed down the road. And what do we find???
A Baby Bison!!!! (My favorite!!)
That was the only one we saw all day so I was glad he was close to the road. Since the herd of Bison were getting closer we got back in the truck and didn't make it too far and had to stop for a few shots of a Pronghorn.
Lamar Valley is greening up and full of Bison.
We finally found the Wolf Watchers at the big parking area just past Hitching Post. They were watching Wolves on a carcass in Soda Butte Creek. They were about 300 yards out from the parking area and the parking area was full so we drove on by and when we came back a few cars had left so we pulled in to watch.
The first shot - I took that from the truck as we drove on by.
Then another Wolf came to the carcass.
We had our lunch while we watched and finally headed back thru Lamar Valley. Where the Lamar River goes thru Lamar Canyon I had seen 2 Ravens sitting on something in the river - I tho't that was odd until I figured out it was a carcass so as we came back thru we stopped to find it.
But we got side-tracked by 2 Marmots!!
Don and I tho't this was probably the male.
And this one the female.
She kept an eye on us but he was out and about.
He finally went up on a rock and for some reason he reminded Don and I of someone else we know.
Wonder who it is . . .
Oh well - it'll come to me.
And here's that carcass in the river that we'd stopped for.
The Black Bear was either gone from his carcass or just snoozing so we couldn't see him so it was a quick stop for us. But down at the Yellowstone River Bridge we found cars lining the road. They had spotted a Cinnamon Black Bear just off the road.
Our next stop was at the entrance to Petrified Tree - which is still closed to cars - so we parked at the end and got out for a walk. We met a couple guys who said they had seen a Black Bear but the only thing we saw was a Steller's Jay so he got his picture taken.
Oh! I forgot the Kestrel we saw just before we parked.
The last thing I snapped a photo of was the Bachelor Elk that always hang out in the same spot. The antlers are already starting to come in good.
We stopped and checked for Pika but it was rainy and windy - I don't blame them for not being out!
And that was our trip! Pretty good for our first one of 2017!!
Thanks for looking!!
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