Wildlife Encounters

We’ve been in the park for 4 weeks now and just finished working 8 days straight.  We finally decided it was time to make a run to Cody.  It’s 80 miles to Cody, which 26 are inside the park with a speed limit of only 45 mph.  No doubt this becomes an all day event with haircuts, shopping and lunch.  As soon as we exited the RV Park we saw a small deer right beside the road, she cooperated with us and lifted her head for the shot.  Onward to Cody, we had just rounded the upper portion of the lake when I spotted something that look like a bear in a meadow not far from the road.  I ask Dave to stop so that I could get a better look; luckily we were the only ones on the road at that time.   Low and behold it was a large black bear.  As I was taking pictures the bear seem to see us and lifted his head for a good picture.  These pictures we taken with our small Camera, we had decided not to take the camera with the better lens.  I guess this tells me to always carry the camera with the longer lens.  

We completed all our errands and were loaded down with groceries, enough for the next 3 weeks, so we headed for home.  As always I seem to sleep part of the way home as Dave drives us back.  Ya know with a full stomach and afternoon sun makes for a good nap.  We are now inside the park and starting our climb over Sylvan Pass, this pass is 8530 feet with deep valley on one side and a sheer mountain on the other.  The climb to the top of the pass is 4.8 miles with nothing but road, not a place you’d see any type of wildlife.  We saw cars stopping and were looking to see what the problem was.  There in the middle of our lane were two bison making there way over the pass.  Not a place you’d encounter a classic bison jam but we did.   Not only do the bison block the road but also the other cars stopping to take pictures blocking both lanes.  What a mess.  It took us 10 minutes to get through and so frustrated that we didn’t take any pictures.

Looks kind of young

Not a bad shot from the road, you can tell it's a bear.

Taken from Butt Lake Overlook, our store is across the lake behind Dave

We are planning on a hike this afternoon but I have such a great  Internet signal I decided to go ahead and post.

Full Day In The Park

We’ve been very busy these last few weeks.  One we were getting the store ready and then making sure everyone, as well as ourselves was getting the hang of working in the retail market.  This is our second time off so we decided to do some Yellowstone stuff.  We got up and decided to drive thru Hayden Valley to find the wildlife.  That is other than bison, we can see them all the time.  At one point we saw a pelican and pulled over to get a picture.  When I was ready with the camera he decided to take a nap and hide his head.  As we drove further into the valley we saw cars lining the road, this normally means wildlife is near.  We parked on the side of the road and then we saw what everyone was looking at.  It was a coyote and an otter.  We don’t know why the coyote wasn’t interested other than they weren’t hungry.  I have included the picture and the otter is to the right of the coyote.

We came back and had lunch and decided we wanted to go for a bike ride.  We wanted to ride up the Natural Bridge trial but it was closed due to bear management.  Which means bear could be in the area.  Since it was still early we decided to drive over to Lone Star Geyser and road the 2.35 miles to the geyser.  It was a good ride to get our feet wet.  Once we got there the logbook indicated the geyser would not go off for 3 more hours.  We sat around for a little while until the mosquitoes got to us.  As usual on our way out, the geyser had a small eruption.  These pictures are also included. 

As we were turning into the Lake Area again cars were lining the road.  This time we saw a small fox right next to the road and not far from the dorms.  Sometimes you are just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. 

These are our first pictures of an otter and a fox in two years.

Take care, and hope to report again soon.

The Otter is that dark brown 1 inch to the right of the coyote, this is cropped as far as possible.

Bison running down the hill

At Lone Star Geyser after riding 2 miles

The geyser is slowing down and we are heading back.

Fox near the road.