Dave & Margie's Yellowstone / Denali National Park Summer: 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.