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Index

May 24 =>

Is it really May 23rd already? We are having a blast in the parks and today was no exception. We saw nine bears today. Below is a summary of some of the places we went, people we met, and things we saw.

Since we were leaving the west side of Yellowstone, I wanted to take one last shot of Chocolate Pot, but this time from along the river bank.

We headed for Canyon to hike with some Y-Net friends. There we met Katie, Max, Jen, Bill, Peggy, Helene and Rene. We walked about 100 yards and ran into piles of snow covering the trail. Oh well, so much for that hike! We shared cookies, brownies and stroopwafles (that was lunch) and headed different ways -- although we would bump into each other again.

Heading over Dunraven Pass, we saw a grizzly coming down off the hill, cross the road and head downhill into the woods.

We headed for the badger den and we stared at the scene below for two hours before leaving. Hey, one person had been there for nine hours and only seen it once.

For those that remained another two hours longer, they were rewarded with mama badger and three kits. We will try again later. More patience, more patience.

We drove up through Lamar and saw antelope, elk and four "binocular bears." Below is a shot at 500mm. They had to be a mile or farther away. Elk are grazing on the bottom left and a sow and two cubs are to the right center.

No drive through Little America is complete without a picture of a red dog. They sure are cute for as ugly as they get as adults.

We drove back toward Tower Falls and ran into a bear jam near Rainy Lake.

After a couple hundred shots we drove up past Tower to see if there was any more activity. On the road, heading toward us, was a coyote. Sharon got this shot through the car window before he took off up the hill.

The Rainy Lake bear was still around but headed toward Calcite Springs as we passed this time without stopping.

Just past Petrified Tree we encountered another jam. Thinking it was a bear, we got out to see that instead it was a bull moose.

Walking away from Mr. Moose we saw this beautiful little wildflower.

We left that jam for two more bear jams as we headed to Gardiner for the night. One was a one-year old black cub and the other a small black bear near Phantom Lake.

One last jam and it was for three bull elk along the road. Sharon captured this one ducking down out of sight (fat chance with those antlers).

Pizza at Outlaw's was so good, especially since we had not eaten anything substantial in 13 hours. Now it's time for bed. Good night.