First Day In The Park

We got into West Yellowstone on Monday 14, two days ahead of schedule.  The weather has been great and we not encountered any delays.  So we decided to play tourist and go into the park on Tuesday.  We got up early, pack a picnic lunch and headed out to Lamar Valley.  Dave had read on several blogs that there were bear sighting in that area.  We were hoping that our luck would be better than last year.  On the way our first animal sighting other than bison was none other than a chipmunk crossing the road.  We continued on our drive and came across a traffic jam.  When we saw the rangers along the road we knew it had to be a bear.  There off in the distance was a black bear and her cub.  You can tell from the picture we weren’t very close.

We drove all the way to Slough Creek and still didn’t see anything but a couple of prong horn, nothing earth shattering or worthy of a picture.  On our drive back to Yellowstone Picnic area at the Roosevelt Junction we saw a small herd of prong horn that where going up and down a slop by the road.  We moved further down the road and saw a herd of big horn sheep galloping down the road, what an awesome sight.  They seemed like they wanted to come down the road, but the cars seem to scare them.  Check out the pictures.

When we got to the picnic area we had eaten our lunch and were sitting there when a man came into the area and told us there was a grizzly and her cub just below the ridge.  They thought she might be moving up our way.  We put everything away and had the doors to jeep open just in case.  However there wasn’t any need, she did come up ridge but immediately went back down and near the road.  We decided to get in the jeep and head out to the road.  There were lots of people standing outside their cars and along the road.  We watch the bear walk along the road and eventually she crossed the road right in front of us.  What a site she was less then 100 feet in front of the jeep.   On our way back we did see another grizzly but I couldn’t get a shot.

All and all it was a great day; we saw 5 bears (2 black and 3 grizzly’s), several bison, and pronghorn, big horn sheep jams.

Check out the tiny black thing in the middle

One of several bison jams of the day

Lots of red dogs (newborn bison) in this crossing

When the red dog is slow the momma's nudge them

Can't decide what they want to do

Pronghorn right next to the road

Running off the road

Big Horn Sheep

Big Horn Sheep running around

Coming off the ridge

What a site to get mom and cub

I guess he was impatient to get across the road

Lazy Elk by the Mammoth Admin Building

Check out the reflection in window of the jeep, I put the camera out the window

Bison Parade