Day 14--Fourth Day in Yellowstone

I forgot to tell you that we visited Artist Point yesterday toward the end of the day. This is a viewpoint relatively near Lower Falls that allows visitors a more direct view of the falls. Smoky's photo of Lower Falls posted last night was taken from Artist Point.

Canyon wall from Artist Point, near Lower Falls

You can get an idea of how the name came to be when you look at this photo Smoky took of the canyon walls around the Artist Point lookout. In the right light, it truly looks like an artist's palette. This was an inspiring location. Smoky's photo looks almost like an abstract painting!

Now for today. We headed back to Lamar Valley, through which the Lamar River flows. Smoky and I had just a few hours left in Yellowstone today before returning to Bozeman, and we thought Lamar Valley would offer the widest selection of wildlife and some pretty amazing scenic views. I'll be posting photos from today as soon as Smoky gets them ready. For now, here's a summary of what we saw:

• Nine grizzly bears -- most were pretty far away, but one was feeding on the mule deer kill we saw two days ago.
• One black bear -- this could have been one of the black bears we saw two days ago. He/she was pretty active today, jumping across a stream and walking along a log!
• Lots of bison and their red dogs
• A marmot resting on a rock
• One full-curl big horn sheep
• Several sets of pronghorns
• More ravens
• Some female elks (we understand it is close to time for them to give birth)
• Ruddy ducks in Floating Island Lake
• A couple of coots in the same lake
• A Williamson's sapsucker (from what we read, this one is rarely seen in Yellowstone)
• Several sandhill cranes
• A red-tail hawk
• Some ground squirrels

Smoky also caught a quick view of a badger, but by the time we had turned the car around, he was out of sight. All in all, it was a good day for wildlife viewing.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be posting a lovely scenic photo taken along the road into Lamar Valley and some other photos by Smoky. The scenic offered a stunning view of white-capped mountains with a small lake in the foreground.

Tomorrow is rest day and a chance to visit some quilt shops with Susie before we leave on Thursday for the drive to the Tetons!

--Shann