<= May 23

Index

May 25 =>

It was a lot cooler today, ranging from the 40's to 60's depending on where we were in the park. It was cloudy and rained most of the day after 4:00 PM. We did have a great day though.

First of all, I forgot to include this picture in yesterday's report that Sharon took of a beautiful blue bird.

Leaving Gardiner this morning, we had several mule deer alongside the road.

Near Blacktail Lakes were a couple of pornghorn antelope that were close enough to photograph.

There was a lot of far-away bear activity on the hillsides of Little America and Lamar. We stopped looking for bear dots, but this one grizzly was large enough in my lens to be captured digitially near Slough Creek.

Next to the road in Lamar Valley we came upon a beautiful lone wolf. This is the closest we have ever been to one of these awesome creatures. Just a few minutes later down the road we saw two coyotes chasing another wolf that wanted to make lunch out of their pups.

We made a turn-around past Pebble Creek, took a rest break, and I captured this funny little Uinta Ground Squirrel.

Heading toward Tower we found the beginnings of a bear jam at Calcite Springs Overlook.

Just down the road at Rainy Lake the black bear below was also causing quite a mess with traffic.

Along one of the canyon overlooks was this marmot posing for pictures.

We went over Mount Washburn and just missed our griz by 5-minutes. We ate a picnic lunch at Canyon and turned back around toward Little America for badgers. We were slowed down by a bison jam at one point. Notice the one standing in the road? This is the matriach cow that will stand in the road until all have crossed safely -- sort of like safety patrol when I was a kid in school.

We actually ate dinner at a normal time tonight instead of 9 or 10 PM because the rain was really coming down. We saw Katie, Bridger, Leo and Kay in the diner too.

Afterwards, we went back out into the rain to see if there were any animals that would come out as the sun was setting. But first we drove through the Upper Terrace Loop at Mammoth Hot Springs.

We headed south of Swan Lake Falt where we heard that a cinnamon-colored black bear had killed and elk calf this morning. We ran into a jam at the south end of the falts where this sow had come back to finish off the carcass. It was pouring down rain. Sharon was able to capture this one shot of her munching on what was left of the little fellow. Hey, such is life and death in Yellowstone. A bear has to eat!

At Phantom Lake we saw a bear run up the hillside. We were not certain if it was a small grizzly or the brown-colored black bear that we've seen in the area -- but was probably the black bear.

We met Katie there too. She had to make one last run into the park before it got too dark. We followed Katie out to Floating Island where I saw a couple of Sandhill Cranes. They are usually nesting on the small island in the middle of the lake but some ducks beat them to it this year. Please forgive the poor photo -- it was dark and the bird was not standing completely stir for the longer exposure.

Tomorrow we will spent the night in Cooke City, as well as Tuesday night. That means we can stay out later in the Lamar Valley. Oooh, that makes me so sad. NOT!

Good night everyone.