Once again, we saw mule deer just past the NE entrance which seems to be a common occurrence. Too much snow on the mountains to look for goats again. I guess we should have spent more time doing that the first 2 days. We did see 2 bull elk at the Mt. Baronette pullout. Then we spotted more mule deer around Pebble Creek which seems to be another party spot for Mulies.
As we approached Roosevelt, 2 cars had pulled over a few hundred yards up the road to Tower. Since we all know that cars pulled over in Yellowstone usually mean something is lurking about, we turned left to see what was going on. I immediately spotting a Coyote heading towards the coral so we pulled ahead of him and waiting for him to show up. He had some breakfast in his mouth that he was intent on burying for later but he either couldn't find a suitable spot or I distracted him. In any case, he happily moved out of sight with breakfast still in tow.
However, this is not what the cars were looking at because we hadn't reach them yet. Once we did, we realized that they were watching a grizzly who had crossed the road into the field across from Roosevelt. We were able to watch this bear for a long time and it was really fun. Eventually, the bear crossed the road leading into the Lamar valley just as a new yellow Yellowstone bus with a few passengers pulled up. However, they didn't really stop to see the bear which I found interesting. Maybe someone REALLY had to go to the bathroom? Why else wouldn't they stop? Once the bus passed by, the bear got a little startled and ran for a few hundred yards. That was a very cool thing to witness for the first time since they reach high speed in only a couple steps. Here are some not so great pictures from this encounter:
After the bear disappeared, we headed towards Mammoth. We spotted a small family of mulies near Elk Creek:
The elk were not very active at Mammoth. At least that is what we thought. We learned later that around the time we passed through Mammoth one of the bulls gored another bull in the side and the Rangers had to put the wounded bull down since he was too badly hurt. I guess that is still part of the natural cycle, but I am glad we didn't witness it.
The weather was better so I wanted to stop to do the Hoodoo hike. However, the little road into the rocks that I thought led to the trail head was just a little road into the rocks that curved back to the main road after a few hundred yards. Oops! I did get a morning fog picture out of it though:
I did know that you could get to the Hoodoo trail via the Glen Creek trail at the beginning of Swan Lake Flats, so we set out to do that. The parking lot for the Glen Creek trail has what appears to be a beaver dam in the neighboring water ways. Has anyone seen beavers here? Anyway, I have never seen Swan Lake flats look so good. Morning sun accented by snow capped peaks made for awesome views on all directions (and good reflections):
We had just started the hike when we heard howling come from further down Swan Lake Flats. This was the first time we heard wolves howl and it was great. We didn't see anything through the binoculars so we continued on the hike. Then, more howling came. This time, I noticed the pullouts down the road in Swan Lake Flats had more cars in them then I would expect. So, on a whim, we aborted the hike and hustled back to our car.
The large turnout past the Lake had people with scopes. So, we parked and set up the scope. Sure enough, 5 wolves (3 blacks two grays) were cavorted on the hillside. They bedded down pretty quickly but before they did we were able to "see" them howl…wait a second or two and then "hear" them howl. VERY COOL!! That made our day. I assume that these wolves were members of the Swan Lake pack, but no wolf expert was around to consult.
Next, we pressed on to Sheepeaters cliff for a bio brake and hopefully some Marmots. I wasn't sure if Marmots hibernated or not but I thought we would look just in case. In previous trips here, we always took the path to the right of the picnic area. This time, my wife headed left. We ended up in a rock amphitheater that has to be a great spot for Marmots. But, we didn't see any. We were lucky enough to get our first in focus Pika pictures:
On to Canyon now. Just past the Ice Lake trail on the road between Norris and Canyon, we encountered a coyote trotting along the road with a stick in his mouth. I thought this was odd behavior, but it got even more odd as the coyote proceeding to trot down the middle of the road on the yellow line:
Nothing was budging him off the line. We were very amused. Eventually, enough cars jammed up to force him off to the side so we passed him by. In my rear view mirror, I saw the coyote trot back onto the middle of the road once some of the cars passed. This coyote was very entertaining.
At Canyon we turned right towards Hayden Valley. Now was my chance for a little owl spotting. I have never seen an owl in the wild and thanks to all the Y-net tips, I knew sort of where to look. We found the double pullout (No other cars there however) and headed down the trail. But, then the trail intersected with another one and I didn't know whether to go right or left. We went right and walked around for a while but never did see the owl. Oh well, we could try again on the way home.
Next we headed down past Fishing Bridge to see what was out. It was drizzly and no wildlife wanted to be out in it I guess. We did decide to take the Pelican Creek Nature Trail since it is nice and short. We are glad we did because we saw this little guy who couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. It didn’t even appear to be walking that well yet so maybe it was days old. That does seem awfully late in the season though:
On the way back, we saw bison and a lone grizzly in the Hayden Valley and some more ducks at Le Hardy Rapids (still no Harlequins though). Back to Canyon for a hike to Clear lake. This is an OK hike but they should call it Stinky Lake and not Clear Lake if you want my opinion.
Once the hike was done we headed back past the Owl turnout. There were numerous cars here (it is mid afternoon by now) but the weather was starting to look bad and we knew that it would take a while to get back to Silver Gate via the long route so we opted not to hunt for the owl again. We did stay long enough to watch 2 photographers heading out because I wanted to see whether they went right or left at the intersecting trail. They did neither. They went straight cross country and into the woods. Doh! At least now I know the right way to go.
We took off and reached the Canyon junction. We just happened to notice that the road straight to Dunraven wasn't closed. So, we headed up the pass hoping to see some bears. Just past the Mt. Washburn trail parking lot we spotted a couple on the road looking up. I looked up as we passed and saw a grizzly bear. We parked in the next turnout and walked back. It was a sow and cub digging. She tore at the dirt with ease and sent piles of it flying backwards. We spent about 45 minutes with this pair. For most of the time it was just the 4 of us watching the two bears with light snow coming down. This was superb and slightly surreal because they were probably a little over 100 yards from us the whole time and we had never seen bears in snow before. This was our best Yellowstone bear encounter to date. Here are some photos:
At tower, we saw a black bear far up the Tower campground road. We were the only ones that saw this bear so we had him/her to ourselves for a while. The photo ops weren't great, but it was nice not to share the experience with anyone (it is OK to be selfish once in a while right?)
Past Tower, the mother black bear and two cubs were down lower this time so we stopped and spent some time with them. At one point, the sow stood up facing away from us and sniffed around. This was another first for us since we hadn't ever seen a bear stand before. This was turning into a day of bear firsts…
Light was failing now so we headed home. But this was certainly "Bear Day" for us. Of course, we saw many other great things as the tally shows:
8 Bears (3 cubs), 5 Wolves Howling, 3 hawks hunting, 2 coyotes, 1 pika and the usual staples. What a day of firsts. However, tomorrow will bring a new first. One that I didn't even know existed. So, stay tuned for "Migration Day".
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