We had lots and lots of packing to do for this trip so we did alot of it the night before and this morning it was just getting the cameras and luggage into the truck and we were ready to leave town after a quick stop for more ice.
Since we won't see this part of the Park for 5 days we make a morning stop to check for Pika and find one down at the grassy area in front of the rocks.
We see a few Bison as we head north to Mammoth and that's about it. That side of the Park is doing major road construction so maybe the animals are avoiding it too.
We cruise thru the Roosevelt to Tower area and by that time of day - there's nothing going on. Just as we get to the Tower Store a Fox crosses the road!! We park and walk down the path and wait on the far side of the restrooms and pretty soon he comes over the hill ! He stops to listen and then on downhill he goes.
He finds a spot for a nap so Don and I load up and head back down the road. Still nothing happening between Tower and Roosevelt so we head to Slough Creek to see what's going on with the Wolves and find there's one at the den area so we watch thru scopes and binoculars for a bit before continuing down the road.
Bison dot the landscape of Lamar Valley and we go as far as Soda Butte Picnic Area where we have lunch. Back to Slough Creek and we set up the spotting scope and find a Grizzly and her yearling cub far - Far - FAR away - and HIGH! -
That's her standing up on the rock and the cub is that black dot about an inch to the right of her. They are Very Far Away!!
We make our way back to where we can find Black Bears - there's one in an open area before you get to Hellroaring Overlook, finding one on a steep hill near Roosevelt, two that are making tracks across the side of a hill far from Petrified Tree that quickly disappear and one down below the road near Elk Creek.
We finally get lucky along Tower road and find a Black Bear and her new cub. Lots of great shots from these 2!!
We end the day with a count of 7 Black Bears and 3 Grizzlies. We're happy with our first day and head to our motel room in Gardiner.
On Thursday we had no luck at finding anything much to photograph so I'll include two shots of the only 60 that I took that day.
The morning fog at Tower was amazing!!
We missed seeing the Black Bears that day so took a drive down to the Canyon area - Lots of snow over there yet! Coming back to the Tower area we had bears sleeping in trees and others far from the road. Here's a Coyote we saw.
We can only hope that Thursday is better!!
Thanks for looking!
Cindy
Adding photos to the end of some of these!!
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