We had a wonderful time on our trip so far. We started from Stansbury Park and stayed in Canyon campground in Yellowstone for 2 nights. We left very early Tuesday morning for the drive to Lamar Valley…sheesh. We sure wish Tower Road was completed. But very worth it. We saw bison, pronghorn, Sandhill cranes and a grizzly! I love my new scope. 67x magnification lets you see so much detail on these animals. We went to Hayden Valley Tuesday night and the wolves were howling for almost 45 minutes! It was soooo amazing!! Somewhat sad we couldn’t find them with the scope, but just such amazing sounds!! We went back the next morning and heard them yipping and howling again, but could not find them. There are so many rolling hills in Hayden Valley so the animals just disappear as they move about.
On a side note – gas prices! We hear all the time about how expensive gas is in California but it was over $4 in Nevada, Utah and Idaho! I tend to pay much more attention when driving with Tut. We did get up to 9 mpg while pulling Lil’ TG. Haha. But we were surprised that the price was just as high all these other places as our supposedly overtaxed prices.
Anyway, back to Yellowstone. I forget how far apart everything is in a National Park. So much driving. We like it though because we are always on the hunt for animals in fields. I just feel bad for Dave when I fall asleep as I start to get carsick. It was surprising how crowded it was, even after school has started for the kids. When we got to the Lamar Valley an hour BEFORE sunrise, there were well over a hundred people at a couple sites looking for bear and wolves. I’m still not comfortable in crowds, even if it is outdoors. We found other less crowded places to watch for animals. And we did talk, at a distance, to some other crazy people who get up at 4 am to drive out and critter watch! We did see an interesting interaction between two coyotes at a kill site (where the crowds had watched wolves feeding earlier). One was pretty wounded and so watchful while it tried to eat. Then a healthy coyote came up and chased the three legged coyote into the river. Sad when you know the hurt one won’t survive the winter.
On Wednesday we moved to Grant Village campground for 4 nights. We went to all the various hotspots for the next two days, even Old Faithful. And again, the crowds. The park is strict about wearing masks while inside buildings, but outside people crowd together unmasked. Gaaa…so we went early Friday morning to hit all the overcrowded spots before everyone else got there! Good thing we are morning people!
On Saturday we met up with Eric E to revisit the Lamar Valley and it was quite a productive day! He drove in from Bozeman and met us at Mammoth. At 6:45 am!! We saw so many different animals that morning. It started with sooo many bison, many crossing the roads to get to the river side. And then go back to the original side!! Then we saw a couple of grizzlies, a black wolf, elk, pronghorn, cranes, osprey, golden eagles, coyotes, mountain goats and a very fat black bear! On our way back to Grant after leaving Eric, we searched for moose but have yet to find one. We went to so many wonderful marsh habitats- I know they were there just laughing at us! Then we went down Fountain flat Drive and watched another osprey and a golden eagle fishing for quite a while. Very cool.
Today we left Yellowstone and came to Colter Bay in the Grand Teton National Park. We closed down the Grant Village campground for the 2021 season. Tonight, we went looking for moose again, and found a lot more elk! Several bull elk, bugling back and forth. Being out here, in this beautiful environment, makes you realize how really insignificant each of us is in the grand scheme of things. I heard about the passing of a friend’s wife after a long battle with breast cancer and it really gets you thinking. This is his second wife to die from cancer, and he is younger than I am. Dave and I are very fortunate to be pretty healthy and able to get away for this trip. I’ll take a deep breath of high mountain air in Kathy’s memory each day while we are here.
