July 9, 2015
Thursday would be long day of touristy adventure. Our plan was to tour the North Loop of Yellowstone. We did the South Loop on our last visit and it took all day. Given we'd be entering from the South we assumed this bigger loop might take even longer. I think it did.
 |
| Uinta Chipmunk -- Grand Teton National Park, WY |
 |
| Rocky Mountain Elk |
I woke up early in the morning. Jim was snoring away in his tent so I took the opportunity to do a bit of exploring on my own. First, I headed to the lodge for some pictures of the lake. Then I hit out on the road to a couple of wildlife viewing points to see if there was any morning action. I ran into some elk and a couple of deer. Well, I didn't literally run into them, I just spotted them in a couple of different areas.
 |
| Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY |
 |
| Mule Deer -- Grand Teton National Park, WY |
 |
| Grand Teton National Park, WY |
 |
| Bald Eagle |
When I got back to the campsite Jim was moving around. I'm not sure I'd describe him as being awake. That would take some caffeine. We ate a little breakfast then hopped in the car and headed up to the big park.
 |
| Lewis Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Lewis River, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Gibbon Falls |
We stopped for some photos along the Firehole River. I wanted to stop for pictures of Grand Prismatic Spring but it was extremely crowded and we had a lot of ground to cover so we kept moving. I got some good pictures there on my last trip, so it was only mildly disappointing.
 |
| Firehole River, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| American Bison |
We saw our first buffalo of the trip not too far from Mammoth Hot Springs. I can't imagine it's possible to take a drive for long in Yellowstone without seeing a buffalo, but it's still exciting. We found this guy rolling around in the grass and had him all to ourselves for quite a while.
 |
| Yellowstone National Park, WY |
A storm was rolling in as we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs. We tried to wait it out by having lunch at the cafe, but the rain was intense. We settled with it slowing to a mild monsoon and headed out for some pictures of the springs.
 |
| Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Osprey |
I'm skipping over large portions of this drive not because they weren't interesting but because this blog entry has to come to an end at some point and I've still got a long ways to go. Anyway, let's leap forward to Lower Yellowstone Falls, shall we? It's an amazing sight, an unparalleled combination of power and beauty.
 |
| Lower Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
We also visited Upper Yellowstone Falls. This was also an impressive sight.
 |
| Upper Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Upper Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
In my limited experience the stretch between Yellowstone Falls and Yellowstone River is usually rich with wildlife. I think I'm done writing here, there's not much to say about these amazing animals that isn't expressed better in these pictures..
 |
| American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Rocky Mountain Elk -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
OK. OK. I have one more thing to say. WE SAW GRIZZLY BEARS!
Not one. Not two. Three grizzly bears. THREE GRIZZLY BEARS!
 |
| Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Grizzly Bear |
Holy Schnikeys! We'd hoped to see a grizzly bear, but figured the odds were pretty low. We saw a small crowd on a ridge in Hayden Valley and turned off to take a look. The rangers had set up a perimeter so visitors could watch the grizzlies as they ate. The ranger said they'd been working on this buffalo carcass for four days. Jim and I snapped a lot of pictures. The light wasn't great being overcast and close to dusk, but the pictures came out OK. I flipped through a lot of different settings on the camera in search of something that worked well. I think I eventually found something decent. The ISO was high on all of the pictures, but some of the slower shutter speeds worked out since the bears weren't moving around too much.
 |
| Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY |
 |
| Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, WY |
Soundtrack:
A storm was rolling in as we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs. We tried to wait it out by having lunch at the cafe, but the rain was intense. We settled with it slowing to a mild monsoon and headed out for some pictures of the springs.
Loving this journey! Too bad about all the rain but may have the crowds at bay. How totally awesome to see the 3 griz eating. That would have made my trip.
ReplyDeleteThe weather was a double-edged sword for us. It kept us close to the car so we couldn't do much hiking or boating, but it made for some moody photos. We definitely lucked out on some impressive animal sightings on this trip.
Delete