To those who know it and love it, Yellowstone is not so much a place as it is a concept—it is a bastion of wilderness and a beautiful,… reminder of all that once was pristine, bold, and untamed.

~Bob Sihler

This is the next to last in the series of reports on our truck camping trip in the month of May. No surprise to those that know us, we ended up heading toward Yellowstone by way of Grand Teton National Park, staying with friends that have recently moved to Jackson. Sam and Bright are wildlife watchers and photographers extraordinaire so it was great hearing about their plans and the many incredible things they have observed after moving west this spring. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating as we headed out the next morning in conditions of gray skies, occasional rain and snow flurries, and lots of visitors on the park roads.

We spent the one full day in the Tetons going down some familiar roads looking for wildlife and then exploring a few dirt roads we had never traveled. A pair of Moose were being watched by 50+ people near Taggart Lake, so we stopped to take a look.

This is the type of image you get when you don’t have time to wait an hour or more for the critters to stand up and move around after a big breakfast, but we needed to move on. One of our highlights was a drive down a bumpy gravel road to Spalding Bay on Jackson Lake. Near the end of that road was a sharp curve with a pullout. A path up a swale seemed to lead to a potential nice view of the mountains so off we went. Elk scat was abundant and we soon found ourselves going to that next hill top to take a look. There, we saw a small pond and heard calling Boreal Chorus Frogs, so, naturally, we had to walk a bit further.

Later that evening, we had dinner with a former college classmate of Melissa’s that has lived in Jackson for many years. Our discussions included some of the realities of living in such an idyllic and desirable setting as Jackson – extremely high real estate prices and very long winters are a couple of the less pleasant things you have to deal with if you want to live in this paradise.

We bid our friends farewell the next morning and headed north to that place we think of as our second home, Yellowstone. While the previous day produced very few wildlife sightings, the drive out of Grand Teton National Park gave us two separate Grizzly Bear sightings and one of a family of Black Bears.

When you see this many cars (the line of parked cars stretched over a quarter of a mile), it is generally for a bear, and this time of year in the Tetons, generally a grizzly. Traffic had come to a stop, so Melissa got out and walked ahead to see if she could see anything. She finally was able to look ahead and saw two sub-adult grizzlies out along the road edge with a crowd of people waaaay too close to them. At that point, a ranger vehicle arrived, turned on its siren while driving toward the bears, and hazed them back into the woods. Rangers then started to attempt to control the crowd (it is often easier to control the bear than the people). I picked up Melissa while our truck crawled through the cars and people. She managed to snap a quick pic of one of the bears (which had walked back out closer to the road) as we drove by under the watchful eyes of two rangers.

So, that was our experience in the Tetons, bad weather, beautiful scenery, and hordes of visitors. We anticipated even larger crowds at Yellowstone, but were pleasantly surprised. After a few stops to take in some scenic views, we pulled over along the Yellowstone River to try to photograph one of my favorite birds in the park, Eared Grebes. A stunning bird, with their dark plumage, golden ear swag, and scarlet red eyes, Eared Grebes are known nesters in the park. This was a group of a dozen or so swimming upstream in the river. Most of them had their heads tucked and their rump feathers raised (which is one way they increase their body temperature, allowing sunlight to reach their dark skin beneath the feathers). Below the waterline, their legs were paddling away to help maintain their position or move them slightly upstream over time. We sat down on a boulder upstream of the birds and waited, taking way too many photos as they gradually swam past us.

We called our friend, Beth, an education ranger in the park, to try to arrange a short visit. We met her at the old schoolhouse in Mammoth Hot Springs where she was wrapping up a meeting. A few cow Elk were grazing in the lawn (Mammoth is one of the best places in the park to see Elk). Beth had seen a calf with one of the cows before we arrived, but when we went around to the back of the building, it was nowhere to be found, no doubt hidden in the sparse sagebrush on the hill. When we rounded the corner, one cow raised her head and stared at us and then glanced up the hill, probably in the direction of her hidden calf. We stood and talked for several minutes and the cow resumed grazing, occasionally looking our way and back up the hill. I kept scanning the slope and finally found the calf, given away only by a flick of its ear.

We ended up going into the gateway community of Gardiner to visit with Beth and her family for a little while and to dream of some day living here. On our return to the park, we spotted a group of young bighorn sheep in Gardiner Canyon (a fairly predictable place to see them). A few of the younger sheep started playing and ran across the steep slope, causing dirt and rocks to tumble down. It always amazes me what these gravity-defying mammals can do on these cliffs.

Being a holiday weekend, we had made lodging arrangements in Silver Gate, outside the northeast entrance, as we figured the few Forest Service dispersed camping areas near the park would be crowded. We spent the late afternoon driving through my favorite part of Yellowstone and seeing many of the park’s iconic wildlife. One of the highlights of this time of year is the abundance of baby animals, especially the baby bison, or “red dogs”.

Passing through Little America and into Lamar Valley feels like being home. We had been in the park for only a few hours and already seen Coyotes, Wolves, Elk, Bison, Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Rocky Mountain Goats, and lots of birds from Ravens to Bald Eagles. And, to our surprise, there were no crowds! As we drove through the upper end of Lamar Valley, a car going in our direction in front of us was driving slowly on the opposite side of the road. It was following what I at first thought was a Coyote off the side of road, down a slight incline. As we got closer, I realized it was a pale-colored Red Fox (giving us a “3 Dog Day” – seeing all three of Yellowstone’s canid species in one day). I attempted a pic as we drove by, but didn’t want to stop in the middle of the road with other cars nearby. We continued down the road about a half mile and pulled out at a parking area. We got out and walked over to a low ridge overlooking a small stream. We were still within sight of the road, should the fox continue along that route. The fox was trotting along at a good pace and then crossed to our side of the road and took a path along the stream. It stopped and caught a small mammal of some sort and ate it, and I figured it would continue along the waterway, looking for more furry snacks. But, it crossed over and disappeared beneath the crest of the ridge we were on. Suddenly, it popped up just below us. It paused, glanced our way, and then continued along the ridge line, passing within about 20 feet of us, seemingly unconcerned.

That was a magical moment, just us and the fox out in our favorite place on Earth, with no one else around. A short distance up the road, we watched as a small herd of Bison waded across the creek. I always stop and watch whenever I see these magnificent beasts crossing waterways. This was an easy place to wade across, but there have been times when we have seen them struggle against the swift current of a snow-melt swollen river.

The next morning, as we drove through Lamar, we could not believe how few cars we saw. This was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in one of the most popular parks in the nation, and the pullouts in Lamar Valley were virtually empty! We stopped and enjoyed watching a sow Grizzly and two cubs of the year playing and rolling on a snow bank on a high ridge across the valley (spotting scopes are a must in Lamar). Someone else with a scope mentioned seeing a Gray Wolf on the shoreline of the river across the valley. We scanned, and sure enough, a collared wolf was tugging at a carcass (probably a bison). For the next 15 minutes or so the wolf pulled off chunks of meat with a squadron of Ravens overseeing the operation. When she was done, she began to trot across the valley in our direction, and toward where we knew the wolf den at Slough Creek was located, about 3 miles behind us. Based on online images of collared wolves of the Junction Butte Pack, we think this was the female wolf called 907F. Once the alpha female, she has been replaced in that pack position by another wolf.

Somehow, the wolf managed to cross the road without anyone near us seeing it (a local guide drove down and said he saw it from another pullout as it crossed the road just beyond us). We turned, and there she was, headed up the steep slope and over the ridge. We drove over to the Slough Creek den site and pulled into a location away from the groups of wolf watchers, hoping to see her come across the road and swim the creek to head up to the den. The den is easily visible through spotting scopes, about a mile away from where you park along the Slough Creek dirt road. While we waited, we observed several pups playing with a few of the adult wolves around the den. I noticed some people just down the road looking back behind us toward a low area hidden from our view by a small hill. I thought the wolf might appear, but she did not. We later learned that those people had indeed seen the wolf come down that gap. She must have seen the people on the road and turned around. The next thing we know she is magically across Slough Creek and regurgitating a meal for the excited pups! I spoke to several of the wolf watchers and they did not see her cross the road or the creek. These wolves are very good at avoiding people. We stayed a while longer enjoying the view of the wolves, and then headed back toward Lamar Valley.

On our trip through the valley that morning we saw a small group of people sitting along the road with cameras pointing down-slope toward a large burrow. We paused and asked and they said it was a badger den. On our way back, a larger crowd had gathered and we could see the badger was out. Since there was no place to stop, we just drove by slowly and Melissa took several photos out her window. The one below is my favorite as it shows one of the cubs looking up at the adult.

Though it was very windy, we did a couple of short walks to get away from the road and were, as is almost always the case, totally alone in our favorite place.

After dinner in Silver Gate, we came back into the park and saw a couple of cars pulled over at a bridge across Soda Butte Creek. A young bull Moose was the attraction. We go out and spent a few minutes admiring it from the bridge until one person decided to walk towards it and spooked it.

Our one full day in Yellowstone had been full of wildlife sightings. We even had an elusive “octo-ungulate” day, seeing all eight of the ungulate (hoofed mammal) species in the park – Bison, Elk, Moose, Mule Deer, White-tailed Deer, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Rocky Mountain Goat, and Pronghorn (Moose, and especially White-tailed Deer, are the toughest to see). In less than 24-hours, we watched wolves at their den, enjoyed seeing baby bison frolic in the sagebrush, had an amazing encounter with a fox, and saw almost every other type of wildlife the park offers. We wanted to make this day stretch on as long as possible as we knew we were headed East the next morning. As has happened so many times in the past, Lamar Valley put on a stunning show for us as the daylight waned. I always like to think the park is somehow thanking us for the visit and reminding us to return. And we can’t wait until we do…