Yellowstone Report - Day 5 & 6

Contrary to yesterday, the weather today (Monday) was great. Crisp, clear and cool in the morning. No action from the NE entrance until the Lamar Valley where the Druids were out again. Only 8 were visible this time, but they were running around and chasing each other and having a good old time.

At one point the wolves gathered together and howled...That is such a great sound as it echoes through the valley!

At 8:45 we had to pack up and move on because we had a hike to get to. We made a short stop for this shot from the pullout towards the Petrified Tree:



We met some friends and had a great hike past Lost Lake and about halfway to Calcite Springs before we retraced our steps a bit and exited by Roosevelt. We had talked about turning around a few times, but the weather was perfect and we were having fun.

Here are some shots from the hike:





The hike took us well beyond Noon, so we headed to Mammoth to have lunch. After that, we parted ways and headed down to Sheepeaters to see if any pika were out. No luck there even though the sun was shining. Too bad. No pikas this trip...

We headed back towards Tower. Since Blacktail Plateau Drive was closed, we decided to park at the exit and walk up a ways. No mammals, but I find the trees in that area very interesting:



The scenary in little America was amazing...:



Outside of seeing 6 more druids as the sun set in the Lamar, there was no other action the rest of that day unfortunately. But, we woke up at the crack of dawn the next day to hit the Lamar at Sunrise. I never get tired of fall colors mixed in with snow:



And, of course, the Druids were out again. This time we saw 15 of them playing, running, howling, and having a good old time. After they headed up the valley, we continued on to Slough Creek. Down at the bottom pullout, there was only one other car. Turns out they had 5 wolves scoped at the base of the hill where the Sloughs denned last spring. Not being experts, we didn't know if these were the Sloughs or not, but we made that assumption. After they disappeared, we headed to Elk Creek looking for moose. We got there just in time to see the backend of one disappear into the trees. It was even too quick for a patented Moose Backside picture..oh well.

Since we needed to return our scope and check out, we head back toward the Lamar. We found two last uses for our scope.

The first was those 5 wolves again. This time they were on a ridge just above the river in Little America. They gathered on the ridge and howled for us. Simply Beautiful! I really need to save up some money to buy a scope and camera for digiscoping...

The second was a nice sized Grizzly cruising down the riverbed in the Lamar. After enduring a mind numbing 1/2 hour bison jam at Trout Lake, we checked out of our cabin and headed back into the park for the last time... :(

We took a quick trip up to Mount Washburn for one last attempt to find bears. No luck with bears, but the mountain cooperated:



We spotted a bald eagle flying over the area near the self guided trail, but not much else until Mammoth. #6 was relaxing so I took an opportunity to snap off some shots:




Obviously, this guy was tuckered out. There is nothing like a hard nap after the rut:


We left the park sad, but exhilerated from another great trip. We decided to take Old Yellowstone road out instead of 89. We saw 44 pronghorn between Gardiner and Corwin Springs on that road. I guess they knew cold weather was coming since they were already in their wintering grounds.

Thanks for coming along for this trip report ride. We are already contemplating a May trip... :)

Yellowstone Report - Day 4

We saw all types of weather today; rain, sun, clouds and snow. Just what you would expect in the fall. We moved accommodations to Silvergate so we hit the Lamar Valley at first light.

Scopes were out everywhere and we quickly learned that all 21 members of the Druid pack were around. Apparently, they had chased an elk into the river and were watching it from a nearby ridge. Eventually, all 21 came out onto the valley floor and slowly made their way towards the elk that was still in the river. We watched 2 wolves through the scope as they swam across the river to surround the cow elk. We expected some action. However, the elk held its ground and didn't run. That probably saved her life. The wolves weren't interested in going after her in the river and they eventually moved down the valley.

All in all, it was an exciting experience to watch and we had never seen so many wolves at once. A great start to the day.

We ventured over Dunraven and down into the Hayden Valley. We noticed a bald eagle in a tree across the river and put the scope on it for a while. Such a pretty bird and the first one of our trip.

We continued on to the Lake Overlook with stops to look for otters at Pelican Creek, but still no luck. Patches of rain were everywhere and the view from the overlook was great:



We also spotted a bald eagle soaring high above us.

Back over Dunraven and a quick stop at Tower for a "bio break". Spontaneously, we decided to walk up to the campground. Up there we saw 11 bighorn on the hillside and a few bison that had occupied some of the now vacant campsites.

Since the day had been kinda of slow, we decided to go where we could guarantee some wildlife sightings. So, we headed off to Barronette for another round of "scope a goat".

On the way through the Lamar, we ran into a lone pronghorn. After avoiding the cars already pulled over, he ran towards us and leaped across the the road. I love watching them run:



At Barronette, we scoped 10 goats (including a kid) in 10 minutes. They are great fun to watch (note to selves...must go to Glacier National Park).

With the remaining light of the day, we ventured off to find moose at Elk Creek. On the way, a jam at Slough Creek made us stop. No, not wolves, it was a Grizzly instead. Pretty far up the hill but the scope brought it in large and clear. Nice...

At Elk Creek we had no luck finding moose, but we did find a rainbow:



So, the day started with wolves, ended with a grizzly, and had eagles, bighorn sheep, and Mt goats in between. Pretty darn sweet. Time to go to bed and do it all again tomorrow. :)

Yellowstone Report - Day 3

Well, the weather turned for the worse today (Saturday). It was rainy or overcast most of the day. Maybe this would bring more wildlife out. Today, we decided to take the western route out of Gardiner towards Sheepeaters. No critters were scurrying around the rocks, but we did see a nice elk by Indian Creek. Since, I was driving, I made Karen take the picture. I think it is darn good considering she takes maybe one picture a year.



We headed over to Canyon from Norris and then down into the Hayden Valley. There were a bunch of cars pulled out and we learned that there was a kill with a bunch Grizzlies. We pulled out the scope but really couldn't get a good view. After some debate, we decided to walk closer. There were about 10 people on a hill about 3/4 from the road. So, we hiked out and spent a while watching 3 grizzlies. It was great. The weather made for average photos, but you get the idea:



From there we went back to the Lake, Fishing Bridge, and Pelican Creek (looking for otters), but came up empty besides this young bison:



Back through the Hayden Valley, people had pulled over and were looking off into the hills. Turned out some wolves were in sight. So, out came the scope and we got to see 7 wolves in the tree line (6 greys and a black). No wolf experts were there to ID the pack but looking back on it, that was probably the Mollie Pack.

We continued on through the Hayden and there were now at least 30 people out looking at the Grizzlies on the kill and the rangers had moved the vantage point back a few hundred yards so our earlier decision to walk out there was a good one.

On the way back through canyon, we had our best coyote encounter of the trip. This coyote seemed to have its full winter coat already and knew how to blend into the surroundings:



The last major sighting of the day happened as we approached Elk Creek. A nice sized bull moose was about to cross the road and head up the valley past the exit to Blacktail Plateau.

Have you ever had one of the pictures that you thought that lighting was good, the composition was good, the background was good and the focus was good.

The only problem was that the animal was camera shy. Here is that photo:



He never did want to face the camera so that is the best shot I could get.

Anyway, it did seem that the cooler weather provided some better opportunities for us today. We saw everything that Yellowstone consistently has to offer in one day outside of a black bear.

Yellowstone Report - Day 2

We started out before dawn again today. Today's goal was to head down to the Lake and then over to Grand Prismatic in hopes that the sun was out.

We took Blacktail Plateau again, but spotted no animals. So, a sunrise picture will have to suffice:


We saw the usual assortment of elk and mule deer on the way down to the Lake. No major action in the Hayden, at Fishing Bridge or Mary Bay. Hmmm....maybe our luck is changing for the worse.

So, we continued on to the lake overlook. We had never been up here before and decided to take a look. We caught the attention of this guy on the way up:


The view from the overlook is great. Especially all the old trees nearby:


On towards West Thumb where we had a coyote encounter. This guy was really blond and moving pretty quickly.


Finally, we reached the parking lot for Fairy Falls and headed out to see Grand Prismatic from a higher vantage point.

Ever since reading about this vantage point on Y-Net, I have wanted to see it for myself.

But, the weather never cooperated until today. It was worth the wait:





After the hike we headed back to Gardiner the long way (Norris to Canyon to Lamar to Mammoth) but the wildlife stayed hidden besides the assorted bison, elk and this cooperative pronghorn:





The day ended with another moose sighting just before Floating Island lake, but the distance and darkness didn't make for a great photo.

All in all, another great day despite the lack of wildlife and it beats working!

Yellowstone Report - Day 1

After reading the multitude of reports about a "slow" fall this year in Yellowstone when it comes to wildlife, our expectations were a lowered a bit this trip. But, we have always had good luck and we hoped that it would continue.

After a late night arrival in Gardiner, we got up early and hit the park before sunrise. Blacktail Plateau Drive was open so we decided to take it as the sun crested above the horizon. This was a wise decision since we had our first encounter on this road. One of the moose from Elk Creek was hiding out along the road:



Unfortunately, this moose was moving pretty fast and that was the only shot I got off before he disappeared up the hill. However, the excitement wasn't over. A few hundred yards further we got out of the car to survey the fall color and scan the hillside. We spotted a black bear on the opposite hill but he too didn't stick around long. No decent picture, but it looked like our luck was holding since we knew not many people had seen black bears recently.

We continued down Blacktail Plateau Drive until we got to the portion that overlooked Elk Creek. We noticed cars stopped coming down the hill and followed their stares to a moose in the trees. Then, we saw another moose coming up the hill towards the road. So, we got in the car and drove down to the main road, parked and hopped out of the car.

We were just in time to see him cross the road:


3 Moose and a Black Bear before 9AM...welcome to Yellowstone!

Since we needed to pick up our rented scope, we headed to Silvergate. With scope in hand we headed back towards the Lamar Valley. Now, if you had a scope in this part of the park, what is the first thing you would do?. Yup, that's right, time for some "scope-a-goat" at Barronette. We only managed to see 3 goats as they grazed the cliffs nibbling the small plants in their paths. But, we always enjoy watching them navigate around the cliffs.

On to the Lamar where where, I couldn't pass up some tree and landscape shots:




In the afternoon, we headed down to Hayden to see if there was some action there, but we came up empty accept for this cooperative Gray Jay:


As the afternoon turned into evening, we went up to Tower to continue our search for black bears. They were all over this place in May so there HAD to be some..right?...wrong. We saw no black bears at Tower. In fact, that morning black bear was the only one we would see all week.

We did run into the resident herd of Bighorn Sheep at Tower as they munched on grass near Rainy Lake:


So, our first day was done. But, it was action packed so after a good dinner at Pedalinos, we hit the sack with high expectations for tomorrow.