WOW! What a day! I think we’re all going to need a vacation from our vacation. There is so much to see and do that you just want to go constantly, so we are a little tired today, but it was well worth it.
We started our day off with an incredible breakfast that Stephanie made. Eggs, bacon, grits and toast are a good way to start off your day. Kate and I both lost over 20 pounds before we came out here, but I feel we may be in danger of gaining some of that back. It’s pretty hard to resist good cooking and my will power is pretty weak around good food. Jim and Stephanie didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and probably for good reason. Around 11:00pm or so they heard car alarms going off and people screaming off an on throughout the night. If you remember Kate and my trip to Sequoia National park last year, you remember that car alarms and screaming pretty much always mean that there is a bear wandering through the campsite. I know Jim and Steph read that and probably made fun of me a little for being scared to go out of the tent to use the bathroom, but I believe the shoes were on the other foot now. Jim said he heard a bear breathing a few yards away and I don’t’ think they ever really got to sleep. I think they both had to go to the bathroom and were a little scared to get out of the tent. Now they know the fear Kate and I were experiencing last year. : )
Today’s big activity was horseback riding out of the Roosevelt Corral in the northeastern part of the park. Our ride was supposed to leave at 12:45 so we decided to head up that direction early and see what animals we could find along the way. We were not disappointed. We saw some people pulled of the side of the road checking out something so we hopped out and set up our scope. There was a grizzly bear munching on some roots and grubs about 200 yards away so we got to watch him for a while. Grizzlies are a little harder to find in the park, so we were really excited to see one on the first day of animal hunting. He was a little far away to get a picture but he was fun to watch. After we headed on our way, we had a bit of close encounter with a bison. By close encounter I mean we rounded a corner and about ran into him. He was about as big as the Suburban, so I’m not sure who would have won that collision. We got a great shot of him as he walked by the car. We’ve discovered that the bison pretty much own the roads around here and you’re just in their way if you’re driving.
Our next stop along the way was Tower Falls. It is a pretty big waterfall on the Tower River. Because of all the snow melt up here, the waterfalls are especially big this year which is pretty great.
As we were getting ready to pull into the Roosevelt Lodge we ran into a bit of a traffic jam, which usually can mean only one thing…BEAR! There was a black bear taking stroll along the side of the road right beside us so we got a great close up view of it. It had a cinnamon coat (black bears can actually be black, brown, cinnamon or blonde) and was meandering his way to find something to eat.
We had a little bit of time to kill after our picnic lunch, so we decided to sit on the front porch of the lodge while our food settled. While we were sitting there, another black bear strolled right through the parking lot of the lodge. We had a great view of him while we were sitting on the porch. The park rangers showed up pretty quickly to track him down, since bears that close to people can be dangerous.
After a pretty long wait, we finally got mounted on our horses for our 2 hour trail ride through the Yellowstone back country. If you ever take the 2 hour ride, be prepared to actually ride for about 3 and a half hours with no break. Not sure why they call it the 2 hour ride. Our guides weren’t the greatest in the world, and the trail was pretty dusty, but overall it was a great ride. As we were riding along a valley we came across 2 black bears feeding not 50 yards from us. I think our horses were pretty used to it, because they didn’t even give them a look. We weren’t allowed to take pictures on our horses so we couldn’t get a shot of them, but it was another great bear sighting. The ride probably could have been much shorter but there were a couple of people whose horses kept stopping to eat. You’re supposed to jerk the horse up and give it a good kick when it does that, but they would just sit there and let the horse eat, which slowed us down a lot. I guess not everyone can be an experience horse wrangler like me. : ) When we finally made it over the last hill and got a glimpse of the corral, it was like seeing the promised land. Both my knees, my butt and other unmentionable parts were very sore at this point and I was very ready to be off my horse, Chimmy. Kate’s horse was named Todd and had a pretty funny looking mustache. Jim rode Mouse, and Steph rode the prettiest horse, Blueboy. The scenery was incredible. As we approached the corral, there was a large open filed with some bison grazing, which looked like a scene straight out of Dances With Wolves.
After we washed up a bit and stretched our aching parts, we sat down for an early dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge. Kate and I had fond memories of eating here last time so we wanted to try it again. It’s a nice western atmosphere and the prices are relatively OK. Kate had a huge taco salad, and Steph had some Rocky Mountain trout. Jim and I tried some of the western meats just to say we had. Jim had a bison steak and I had an elk burger. I wouldn’t want to eat them all the time, but they were pretty good after a long day on the trail. Steph and I finished off the meal with a little dessert. And by little, I mean ginormous.
After dinner, we struck out in search of wolves. They really only live in one part of the park, which is close to where we were. You can pretty much only see them in the early morning or late evening so we were hoping to get a glimpse this evening. As we got into the Lamar Valley, we saw a lot of open plain with herds and herd of bison with calves. It was fun to see them all and made you feel like you were watching something out of a move or had been transported back to the 1800’s. We had to stop and wait for a herd of pronghorn antelopes to run across the road. We thought maybe something was after them, but we think they were just playing.
We came across a wildlife viewing tour at one of the lookouts so we hopped out to see what they were looking at. It wasn’t a wolf, but it was a grizzly bear. We got our scope on it and watched it while it was running around and playing in the water. Definitely a cool stop. Too far away for a picture, but that’s probably best with a grizzly bear, don’t you think? The guide said that the Yellowstone wolf researcher would be out and about this evening so if you saw him in his yellow car to follow him. He would know where the best place to see wolves would be. We rode for a while to find a good place to wait for wolves and didn’t ever really find a good spot or see the biologist, who we named Ranger Rick. We did happen across another black bear meandering down the side of the road, which made our 7th bear sighting of the day. That is a pretty good bear day by anyone’s standards.
We decided to turn around and look or Ranger Rick and finally came across his yellow car and set up our scope where he was looking for the wolves. He had a radio transmitter that track a few of the wolves that had radio collars so we figured this was the place to be. We looked and looked and looked…
But we never saw a wolf. One guy who was there said he saw one, but we’re pretty sure he didn’t. We did see 3 badgers, however and that was pretty cool. That’s an animal that Kate and I had not seen before. They were up on the hill playing and digging so that was fun to watch. Even though we didn’t see any wolves, we got good information on who to watch for to follow to the wolves. Kate, Jim and Steph decided to get up extra early tomorrow morning to go try to see the wolves, but I decided to sit that one out since they were planning on getting up at 4:00am. Will they see any wolves…you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow’s post.
It was getting dark so we packed it in and headed toward our campsite. We ran into several bison jams along the way. The herds were on the move and were crossing the road really close to the car. We were a little scared that one of them was going to charge the Suburban at one point. It was cool to be that close to them, but also scary at the same time. Some of the younger males were butting heads with each other, which was fun watch. We couldn’t go anywhere anyway until they moved, so it was good to have some entertainment.
We finally got past the bison in time to see the sunset over the mountains. It was beautiful and a great end to the day. We got back to our tents around 10:30 and hunkered down for the evening in the hopes of little bear activity and good sleep. Tomorrow is wolf watching and a trip to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. See you then!
Andy & Kate
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