10th Oct, 2011

Yellowstone National Park – Part Three –September 1 – 11, 2011

We saw a ton of wildlife at Yellowstone National Park!

We woke up one day at Bridge Bay RV Campground to find this Bison touring around the RVs!

And we saw these two Bison making their way across the street one morning…

Thankfully they waited until we drove by before crossing the road.

It’s not uncommon to see Bison (aka Buffalo) bring traffic to a grinding halt.

It feels weird to drive this close such a big beast…2,000 pounds!

It’s so much better to watch them resting in the distance…

…or watching a herd slowly move through the valley.

There were lots of trees that look like the picture above. Guess what – Bison are the cause! In the spring they use their horns to strip off the bark exposing sticky sap underneath. Bison then rub their winter fur against the sap and it sticks…creating “fur” trees!

We saw a lot of Elk too. The fellow in this picture has a nice set of antlers – wonder if he picked up any of the ladies…

The female Elk were more abundant than males. We saw the group in the picture above while taking a Ranger-led walk.

We saw this one crossing the river near West Yellowstone.

We also saw a few coyotes. This little fellow ran quickly across the street…

…and we saw this fellow nicely camouflaged…

…while this one stood out a bit more…

Check out this raptor!

Here’s a picture taken in Hayden Valley, where there is a lot of wildlife.

To see the wildlife it’s good to have a pair of binoculars – although a scope is even better. That’s Marianna in the green jacket checking out 4 wolves visible across the valley.

Even Grizzly bears are visible – although they are often far away. The picture above is taken in the Lamar Valley. Check out the brownish looking lump at the base of the tree near the middle.

Here’s a closer look. We took this photo from across the valley!

While we were in the area we checked out the Beartooth Mountains from the Beartooth highway.

The views were fantastic!

We drove by an abandoned mine on the way to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway – another amazing drive in the area.

Hard to believe these roadside views are not in a National Park!

The uplifts in the distance are amazing.

Check out this canyon!

As we headed out of Yellowstone via the Mammoth Entrance – we caught a glimpse of this old cabin – just had to include it!

We drove out the Roosevelt Gate as we headed north towards Glacier National Park in Montana. Next up, Glacier National Park.

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Responses

A shame you couldn’t exit on the Beartooth Highway! The ascent is fantastic and the descent into Montana is awesome! Is the road already closed for snow? Over on the Montana side is the Museum of the Rockies with people actually working uncovering dinosaur bones inside rocks. Is the Going to the Sun highway in Glacier open? Don’t miss it. Send pictures from the Prince of Wales (?) hotel in the Canada side!

Martin

The Beartooth Highway might be closed by now; Going to the Sun closed on Sept 19th. We thoroughly enjoyed both!

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