I know you saw the video this week about the bison tossing the 9-year old girl after the tourists were all standing too close...this photo was taken by my mom from the car as we drove by this guy laying by the road. We are very cognizant of the rules having completed so many Junior Ranger books - we don't approach the wildlife, but it is all around in Yellowstone.
Another amazing spot is Artist Point on the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. When at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West I saw two outstanding paintings that I took pictures of, only to later realize that they were inspired by this spot. First my best picture...
Then two paintings inspired by this awesome view...
On our final day in Yellowstone we set out to try to see a wolf - we heard the best chance of seeing them was driving to Lamar Valley. Our plan was to drive through Lamar Valley and exit the park through the Northeast entrance and proceed via the Beartooth highway back to Cody. This was a phenomenal drive. We had quite an adventure. Along the way we randomly stopped at a pull off, walked up a set of steps and were treated to this view that was completely obscured by the forest while driving! I wish I could say exactly where this was...all I know is that a man in the parking lot told us when we pulled up that if we would have been there five minutes earlier, there was a wolf across the road! We had just missed it.
Here is another classic Yellowstone scene - traffic was stopped and it was impossible to see what was going on up ahead. As usual, there were a bunch of people getting out of their cars and walking along the road to try and get a glimpse. When our vehicle finally inched forward enough to see what was going on we saw this:
Along the side of the road a woman who was walking along the road was asking the NPS law enforcement personnel, "Is there a bear?" The law enforcement personnel were visibly agitated by this woman and said, "no ma'am, we need you to get back in your car!" "But is there a bear?" she asked again clearly not getting the fact that she was out of line. "Ma'am, everyone needs to be in their vehicle. Please return to your vehicle!" they said with emphasis. Disappointed that she was not getting the answer she wanted to hear, she kept walking towards the officer instead of back to her car. The officers said, "you must return to your vehicle now!" So she slowly started walking back but continued to crane her neck around to try and see a bear that didn't exist. There was a bison in the road and the officers were trying to get people to drive around it, but everyone wanted to take a picture first. Since the bison was only blocking one lane of traffic, he was trying to get the other lane to move forward. It was a bit of a chaotic scene, but thankfully in this instance, while we were witnesses, no one was injured.
This was not the only time we were stopped by bison in the road that day. Later, when approaching Lamar Valley there was a huge herd complete with calves blocking traffic. In this case people stayed in their cars, there was less traffic and we all were able to take our pictures and then drive through the herd. Here are some of the cute calves:
Unfortunately we did not see a wolf BUT we did see a red fox! We were able to observe it for a while from the car. It was amazing that my mom spotted it as I was driving - she also took some amazing pictures.
But that was not all we saw on our amazing drive...we saw another black bear! Our pictures didn't do it justice as it was moving and browsing....here is the best one, albeit out of focus.
We drove the Beartooth highway back to Cody at sunset and it was so beautiful. At the top we pulled off and I took this picture that shows both the switchbacks in the road as well as the amazing sunset.
Yes, Yellowstone is crowded and huge and if I went back I would focus on the areas of the park that are less visited. I also felt that we didn't get to do enough hiking as we were driving too much. In the future I hope to camp in the park or near a different entrance so that I can explore other parts of this great wilderness. I am glad we drove the Beartooth highway, but I would NOT want to drive this road with my trailer in tow! Wyoming is amazing. I think I need to go there every summer.
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