Day 12--Second Day in Yellowstone

I realized this morning that I had posted some information yesterday that was incorrect. I also had some new photos from Smoky to post, so please check yesterday's entry for new information and some new photos. While we're talking about photos, I'll add Smoky's photos from today tomorrow, so check back later to see them.

Bison with her "red dog"

[Updated photos below]

Today was a grand day. The weather turned out to be really nice, even better than predicted, with temperatures in the 70s much of the day. From Mammoth Hot Springs campground, we joined our friends, who are not only being great hosts but also excellent Yellowstone guides, and headed east toward Tower Junction. We crossed the Gardner River and stopped first at Black Tail Ponds, where we saw lots of bison and their calves. Did I mention that the calves are called "red dogs"? 

Black bear cub on the way down!

Two young bison sparring

Near Elk Creek we saw a black bear, but it was some distance away. At Tower Junction we turned south toward Tower Fall. Just before the Calcite Spring pullout, we saw a bunch of cars along both sides of the road and a lot of people. When we saw two park rangers, we figured we were in a bear jam! It turned out that there was a mother bear with two or three cubs on one side of the road and another black bear approaching on the opposite side. The mother bear sent her cubs up a tree with orders to stay put. Smoky calculated that there must be at least $250K worth of camera equipment in this bear jam!

The rangers do a great job of controlling the crowd and keeping the situation unstressful on the animals involved. 

We backtracked to Tower Junction and continued on down the road to Lamar Valley, which is a wide, grassy area along the Lamar River where bison and other animals congregate. We saw more bison with their little ones, and in the distance across the river were some grizzlies! One of the people watching pointed these out to us. They were pretty far away, but we could see them with the binoculars and the spotting scope. There were two mothers with what looked like last year's young. Just a little further down the road, we spotted a recent kill, which had its share of ravens and a bald eagle feeding. Just before we spotted this, a buff-colored coyote crossed the road behind our vehicle. Susie caught a glimpse of red around his mouth; we later concluded that he had been at the kill, because he returned while we were watching to have a little more to eat. 

Trout Lake, Yellowstone

Bison at Trout Lake

Further down the road we stopped for a hike up to Trout Lake, where Roger and Susie hoped to see otters. We were supposed to bring them good luck today. None of their previous trips to Trout Lake had resulted in otter sightings. Unfortunately, today was not our lucky day, but the lake was incredible. We walked around the perimeter of the lake, and on the far side, we had a close encounter with two bison, who had come in for a drink. We had seen them approach so we were proceeding cautiously. The land around the lake is rolling, so it was easy to lose site of the bison as we walked. One closest to us seemed as surprised as we were when we rounded a rise and realized how close we were to each other, but we proceeded carefully and made it over the footbridge to the trail. Both bison continued down the trail the other way, thank goodness!

On the way back to the campground, we saw more bison and more bison (some were in the road blocking traffic), along with a couple of eagles and another coyote. It was a great day for wildlife sightings! Back at camp, we had Roger's now famous homemade pulled pork for dinner, along with Susie's orzo black bean salad and slaw. Yum, yum.

--Shann