Day 5 - part 2....there's a bear over there!

As we are taking our time through Lamar Valley, we spotted our second coyote of the trip. We stop at a viewpoint and mention it to the couple that had also stopped. In return they tell us that they just saw a Grizzly in Hayden Valley.

I know this pic was used before, but the bear aware signs were a staple in our adventure.

WE'VE GOTTA GO!

Lamar Valley is in the Northeast area of the park....Hayden Valley is the South Central area. We had about 40 miles to travel at 35mph. Oh I hope we don't miss it.

We get to the valley and the central viewpoint is packed with cars. This is a great sign! There's still something here to look at!

We park at the first open viewpoint we come to, which is only a couple hundred feet from the central location. We walk down and sure enough, we can see the grizzly through our binoculars! Praise the almighty binoculars!

See that brown dot in the center of the picture? That's our bear. If you had some binoculars you could see it too.

But wait...he's making a turn towards the road. He's heading towards our car! We better go back to our car in case we have to leave.

The park rangers arrive and park near us. They march in the direction of the bear. As the bear moseys towards the ranger, the ranger repeatedly lifts his arms up and down as if he's "shooing" the bear away. The ranger yells at everyone "get in your cars NOW." 

We were already in our car. Taking pictures of course!

The bear looks irritated, he just wants to cross the road to get to the river.  A siren begins to alarm and the bear is hazed with bear spray! It was comforting to see that bear spray actually works, the bear turned and ran the other way, we could see his belly jiggling he was so close!

After checking into the Canyon Lodge, which is next door to Hayden Valley, we decided to find a hiking trail, for it was a couple hours before dusk and critters should be coming out to feed...like coyotes, this was number three for the journey.

We stopped at the Mount Mary trail. We got our waters, camera and jackets and started on our way. Once we got to a few feet off the road, we noticed that across the field, many cars are parked at the viewpoint and their spotting scopes are pointed in our direction. 

Should we REALLY push our luck with a bear encounter? We decided to play it safe and find a different trail, on the other side of the Valley.

"Ribbon Lake" Trail it is! My favorite thing about hiking in Yellowstone is the need to always be aware of your surroundings. You might startle a bison, bear or coyote if you walk to quickly over that hill. 

Yep, another Bison.

We stayed our distance and continued on our path. After passing through the valley we enter a small patch of trees. It felt as though I was entering somethings house. The bark was stripped, there was fur stuck on the tree limbs and  there were bison beds all around us. Let's hope it's still vacant on our return trip.

Further into the trip our noses began to burn and steam was coming up from the ground. Did we stray from the hiking trail? Is this ground stable?

It was the first time of the trip that I thought about how idiotic it was for us to be hiking around on top of a super-volcano.

Three groups of stinky, steaming woods later and we enter another field. Something fat and fluffy caught my eye as a Great Gray Owl flew from the ground up to a tree limb.

Even though he spotted us, he did not let that deter him from the task at hand....dinner.

While watching the owl, we had to keep an eye on the tree line. We heard some very loud cracks of tree limbs breaking. 

 

The sun was getting pretty low, and we still needed to hike back to the car.  Even though I could have watched that owl hunt for hours, the tree limbs were still cracking and we didn't want to get stuck out in the field in the dark.

We called it a night for day 5, and no, we never got to see what was making all the racket in the trees.

Day 5 - part 1 "Chief Joseph Scenic Byway"

The snug comfort of our Cody bed was not enough to keep us from rising early to get on the road for our trek back to Yellowstone. We started on Beartooth Highway and notice a sign for the "Chief Joseph Scenic Byway." It only took a few seconds to agree that this is the route we should take.

With breathtaking views all around us, we had to keep an eye on the road. We were continually reminded that we were driving through an open range.

Shawn even spotted a coyote. He noticed movement down in a valley, we pulled over and scoped him with our handy-dandy binoculars. He was very skiddish and ran in the opposite direction. Next we noticed what attracted him to the valley, a brown blob with a set of exposed ribs pointing to the sky. 

If only I had a better camera lens I could have showed you. Instead, you get pretty landscapes.

We made it back to the park, through the Northeast entrance.  I had heard rumors that the Northeast area is where the wolf pack resides. I was on the lookout for a wolf, or that darn bear that we have not seen yet.

We drive around a corner and we must be in luck! A group of people are looking over an embankment, two spotting scopes are set up, and cameras are out. It's got to be a bear or a wolf! We pull over and first take a look for ourselves, but we are not seeing anything.

I walk over to the group around the scopes, "what are you guys spotting?" I ask. 

"oh it's an Osprey!" someone responds excitedly. 

I tried to hide the irritated disappointment from my expression, after all, these people must not be lucky enough to live near water, nor have they ventured to fishing bridge where there is an osprey sitting on every fence post. Shawn and I packed into the car and continued our journey.

After being parked on the road for 20 minutes, because of a motorcycle accident we drove through the middle of the BIG herd of Buffalo.

I counted 98 on just one side of the road (the brown spots across the middle of the field are the bison.) There were more in the distance near the river and on the hillside on the opposite side of the road. 

We listened to them grunt, we watched them butt heads and kick up dust.

And we came across one that like to bask in the attention.

At least we got a great shot with our little landscape lens.

From the safety of our car!

Day 4 - Out to Cody

We woke up early in order to drive from West Yellowstone to Fishing Bridge. We were hoping to spot the herd of elk we saw the night before.

Our trip started with "heavy" traffic.

We found the elk that we spotted the night before. The herd had about 30 elk in it, but they were spread throughout the field.

The Boss

After listening to a couple bugles we continued to our original destination for the day, the Pelican Valley Trail. This was the first trail I picked out and I am very excited to get started on this hike. The trail is 7 miles, long enough to feel like time was spent in the woods, but not long enough to be daunting. Little elevation change, and it's in a Bear Management area of the park! 

This sign wasn't in Yellowstone, it was at a boat ramp in Montana but it fit well here, and it's brighter than the ones that were in Yellowstone.

We were certainly going to see a bear today!

Or not...

While we were locking up the car the ranger came back from the trail to inform us of some bad news, she had to close the trail. There was a carcass near the trail which will attract predators and "we don't want anyone getting mauled," she explained in her Fargo accent. 

I really felt that I would prefer to take my chances. But we thanked her for her help and got back in the car. We decided we would drive east and just hike the next trail we came across....after the construction that we sat in for 30 minutes.....after the fire-scorched hillside...after the curvey-canyon roads...after the exit of the park...wait! We are out of the park and we didn't pass any other hikes? 

damnit!

So onward to Cody, Wyoming on the "Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway." We did see beautiful countryside. 

 

See the tiny blue dot in this next picture? That is Shawn. Just to give you an idea of how bits of the mountain range just pop up. It's so different than Washington, how we have gradual inclines, or trees to hide the formations. In Wyoming, you're on a flat plain and then suddenly, a wall of mountain jutting 1000's of feet towards the sky.

I was shocked at how desolate the area is. When Shawn pointed out that there was a cactus at this viewpoint I didn't believe him until I saw it with my own eyes.

We didn't do much in Cody. The Cowboy Inn was very very comfortable and friendly. 

A bunny was living under the porch!

Day 3 - part two -

After visiting Old Faithful, we got in the car to continue exploring the park. We came across "Firehole Canyon Drive." With such a dangerous sounding name, how could we not follow this road? This actually ended up being one of my favorite parts of the park. Maybe it's because I had no expectations.

The drive seemed innocent enough, we are still on the look out for wild animals. We turn a corner and woah! A mini volcano right off of the road! 

White Dome Geyser 

 

The colors of this little geyser were vibrant. The reds and oranges looked like lava spilling over the rock formation. As I was taking pictures the geyser actually erupted!

I got a little spray on me and we later found out that this geyser is very unpredictable. It can erupt in 15 minute intervals, or it could take up to 3 hours to blow! I feel pretty lucky that we were there at the right time. 

By now evening is setting in, animals are coming out of hiding in order to eat in the cooler air. Shawn passes by Mt. Holmes trailhead and notices that a nice meadow is pass a small patch of trees lining the roadway. We park and begin an evening hike. 

This was the first time I noticed, what would normally be a simple elevation change,  rapidly increasing my heartrate and I was beginning to worry that I was catching a cold. Shawn reminded me that we were between 8 and 9000 feet above sea level. Oh yes, the oxygen IS thinner up here. 

We spotted a Bison down the hillside of our trail. He spotted us and we froze. He stared us down for a minute then, lucky for us, he decided we posed no threat and began eating. 

We hiked for a couple of miles, until we came to a stream we couldn't pass without wading through the water, then we turned around.

On the way back we encountered a small....no a 2000 pound problem. Our Bison friend that wasn't threatened by us was now standing very close to our path.

We stopped to enjoy the views.

And got more pictures of the bison. 

We also learned that, although it doesn't make for great pictures, Bison with their head down, eating, is a much better position than when they notice you and take a step or two your way. 

After about 30 minutes of hoping the Bison would move farther from the trail, we left the trail and made a detour far far far away from the Bison. There is so much pressure in Washington state to "stay on the trail," that we forgot that most areas of Yellowstone, it's ok to leave the path.

We eventually made it back to our car, and decided it would be best to head to our hotel as we really didn't want to be driving in the dark.

Before making it to West Yellowstone, we passed by yet another photo opportunity.

Roaring Mountain is a hissing hillside. I'm glad I didn't come here as a child. It would not be hard for my sister to convince me that monsters lived in the mountain and they were making the hissing sounds that were being released. The aroma of sulfur would only add to the story, after all, monsters don't take baths.

Day 3 Recap - We arrive at Yellowstone! (part 1)

We realized that we forgot to borrow binoculars from one of the many sources available to us. We had to make a decision, buy some for ourselves, or continue to Yellowstone, binocularless. 

We decided to get binoculars. It was probably the best decision of the journey. We used them a lot... although...if we didn't have them our Elk and Deer count would be much higher, but we were able to confirm that all we saw were stumps and rocks, not elk or deer.

 We arrive at West Yellowstone at about 9:30am. The line for the entry went very quickly and $25 for a week's worth of exploring is an amazing deal. Since it was still early in the morning we made our way to our first hiking adventure at Riddle Lake Trail.

It's a slow drive through the park, you're not only avoiding traffic, but you're watching for animals on or near the road. If you see several cars stopping at a view point, you might as well take the time to see what they see. Only 10 minutes into the park we saw our first group of cars making a quick stop.

We were greeted by some cows! Shortly there after we were driving through a meadow and spotted our first bison!

The meadow had little geysers all over it.

 And it was just a beautiful day.

We make it to the trail head just as the Seahawks game was starting. Shawn was a good sport, even though cell service was sporadic, he was able to keep up on the score of the game while out in the woods.

Walking through the woods we hear a thump...thump...thump-thump. Things are falling from the tree, there is no wind, what is going on?

We found our culprit, he was tossing pinecones onto the ground, to later come down from the tree and transfer them all to his nest. He yelled and yelled and yelled at us. We were yelled at by a lot of different squirrels during our stay.

A few more steps down the trail and I caught something move out of the corner of my eye, I stop suddenly and make sure Shawn is seeing what I was seeing. It was a wolf! My heartbeat speeds up, I gasp in disbelief, how could we be so lucky on our very first hike?! This canine was strong and tall, muscular and very healthy looking, and we actually got a picture!

Wait a minute...upon further investigation that was no wolf! That was a coyote! Yellowstone coyotes are much healthier than the city coyotes of Washington. Not as exciting as a wolf, but we at least didn't figure it out until we reviewed the pictures later that night. The excitement of a wolf sighting made Shawn forgive me for missing the Seahawks game.

After our hike, we drove back to the Old Faithful visitors center. We found a bench to sit on with a view of the geyser and we waited...and waited...and waited. After a few teaser "puffs" of water, the geyser unleashed her fury.

If you've never been to Old Faithful, it's like initiation into the park. You have to do it, but there are much more interesting aspects of the park to see.

Day 2 - Saturday - Sandpoint and National Bison Range

Today’s destination is to make it to Butte, Montana. Normal people would take a straight-shot on I-90…but we are not normal. We took the scenic route up through Sandpoint, Idaho. 

 We stopped in Sandpoint for Breakfast, it was a cute, clean town. The people were very friendly and the pictures I took of the butterfly wall seemed to  be a good representation of how I felt about the town.

 It’s definitely a town that relys on tourism. During the summer people are attracted to the large lake for water skiing and fishing.

We took this scenic route because it is near a National Bison Range. It’s a 20 mile scenic drive through Bison country….."well aren’t you on your way to Yellowstone?" one might ask. Yes..but I’ve never seen a Bison in a natural type setting, and let’s just make sure that I get to.

 The scenic drive took us through meadows and up and over mini-mountains.

 It was beautiful to see the valleys surrounded by the mountain ranges. The views were worth the $5 we paid to drive through the range.

Now onto the Bison.....we didn't see as many as I had expected, perhaps it was because we arrived in the afternoon and it was hot.

These two were lying in Bison-Beds right by the road (there was a fence between us.) Bison-Beds were spotted all throughout our journey, and besides poop, one of the primary indications that Bison frequent the area. They are oval shaped indentations of dirt that the bison have fluffed with their hoof and rolled around in.

 We stopped to explore a little hiking trail and we were stopped by this little beggar on the way back.

Around a few more corners we had more spectacular views

Then we came across a pack of Mule Deer, all with drool-worthy racks.

This is were we learned that we love our camera lens for landscape, but we are ready to invest in a better lens (and tripod!) for wildlife.

We passed by a herd of Pronghorns. We saw a lot of these herds roaming the fields of Montana as we were driving along our main route.

We got a close encounter while this guy walked right along the gravel road, eating the untouched vegetation.

And yet a slightly camouflaged Pronghorn, which I just thought made a good picture.

The last encounter we had was with a snorting White-Tailed Deer.

 His lady friend was nearby, it was possible that he was snorting and grunting to warn her of the danger that we presented. 

As you can see, he was drool-worthy as well.