Lots, and lots and lots of bison.
Plus some elk on a high school football field. But that was at the end.
So, to begin. Today was another meander-and-see-random-parts-of-Yellowstone Day.
We began where we are – Gardiner – with a pronghorn sighting.
Then drove to the other end of the Lava Creek trailhead (which we hiked a bit of yesterday) and walked a half mile to the top of Undine Falls.
Back in the car and drove east, mostly to see the famed Lamar Valley. That and the Hayden Valley are the prime wildlife watching spots in Yellowstone (they say), but of course the prime time for spotting is dawn and dusk…and we were there in the early afternoon, so it was just bison.
Lots.
We made a stop on the banks of the Lamar River to eat sandwiches we’d purchased in Gardiner before we left, knowing that pickings would be sparse en route.
In another year, we’d be able to visit the Roosevelt Lodge area and drive south from the Tower junction towards Lake Yellowstone, but not this year – that road is closed for repair all year. So it was just an afternoon of driving east on the loop road, then turning around and stopping for a hike on the Hellroaring Creek trail – not the whole thing, but only a mile to the suspension bridge over the Yellowstone River. Of course I should mention that it was a mile downhill on the way to the bridge, which meant…a mile…uphill…on the way back.
It was fine. I need the workout! And the view from the bridge was breathtaking.
Not to speak of the view along the way.
As I said, it was bison all day. Bison herds by the side of the road. An enormous bull (are there any other kind) in a well of dirt he’d obviously made by the side of the road – me him both ways. Two bison strolling in the road, one at the Tower Road junction, and the other near Mammoth Hot Springs.
Why are those cars slowing down?
Oh.
Back here, then to the laundromat since somewhat got pine tar all over his jeans, and to dinner here, which was excellent.
In case you were tempted.
Finally, a quick drive down to the high school, where elk are known to congregate in the evenings, and indeed, there they were. Eerily, just gathered and sitting. Waiting
For what?
By the way, I have a theory about why tourists are so stupid about bison – as in, going right up to them to photograph them and getting gored in the process.
Other animals- elk, pronghorn and bighorn, deer, heck, even chipmunks – are always on alert. Yesterday, we were walking in a field and there were elk probably 500 feet away that stopped what they were doing when we wandered up the hill and just…stared at us. They see us, they’re watching, and it’s clear that they do.
Bison aren’t like that. The guys we saw today just didn’t seem to give a flip that cars were passing a foot from them. The one near Tower junction made his way towards the construction crews working on the road, passed them at close, intimate range, and never swerved from his path, never looked to the side, never paused.
Of course, it’s probably all a trick. They obviously do see us, they get irritated with us, and they fight back. But their affect is obliviousness.
Hmmmm. Maybe not a bad way to go with the flow…..
Charlotte was Both 