Yellowstone 3

Saturday 4 June

What a fantastic day - weather really sunny and warm (up to 72F in pm) - and fantastic wildlife!

A quick breakfast in the room - fruit and coffee. Set off to do as much of the north of the park as we could after filling up. Thought it would be fairly boring going back over the previous roads to Mammoth. However we started by seeing the bald eagle again not far inside the park on the Madison River and stopped for a shot of Mt Holmes.

Were looking forward to a coffee in Mammoth when near Swan Lake we came across a whole load of parked cars and people with cameras and telescopes. Managed to park off road and found that right by us, less than 100yds away, was a grizzly bear with two cubs. She moved across right in front of us and we were able to get a few good shots before she moved into slightly lower lying ground with more cover. Stayed about 15 minutes before extricating ourselves from the traffic jam and carrying on to Mammoth.

Post holiday note - three weeks after we got back a hiker was killed by a grizzly in the Park - the first time this has happened for 25 years. The bear had cubs, and was thought to be protecting them. This happened about 15 miles from where we saw our bears

After coffee we set off for Tower/Roosevelt. Stopped at Undine Falls. Carried on across the Blacktail Plateau stopping at Phantom Lake. Just after this we saw a few people parked, using long lenses so we pulled in. It turned out that they were trying to photograph an ermine (a tan coloured weasel). Oddly Les was the first person to spot it. Apparently, according to the ranger that Les spoke to, these are quite rare and he didn’t actually believe that we’d seen it until Les showed him the photo

Had hoped to get lunch at Tower/Roosevelt but when we got there the resort was closed.

Turned south towards Canyon Village and went to Tower Falls. Fortunately the shop there did sandwiches so we grabbed a snack before viewing the falls - 308ft. Path to the base of the falls was closed as was the road immediately south of the falls.

Returned back to the junction at Tower/Roosevelt and started off down the Lamar Valley. Stopped for a few photos of the river. About half way along we came across a group with huge lenses and scopes, etc. We asked what was going on and they pointed out that across the river on the south of the road some wolves had just killed a baby elk. You could just make out the mother elk and the wolves but it was too far for photos. One of the watchers (who turned out to have an English wife) let us look through his telescope. Stayed here about 15 minutes before carrying on. Got as far as the Thunderer and turned round. The road is still open beyond the northern entrance but closed at some point after that and we decided not to go any further because of the time we’d need to get back.

Coming back towards Mammoth we got past the Tower/Roosevelt junction when we saw quite a few people stopped. Once again we were really lucky and managed to park off the carriageway immediately and found there was a black bear coming down through the woods towards us. This time it was on its own. We got some terrific shots especially when it went into the small lake right next to the road and spent a few minutes swimming and playing? It eventually came out, shook itself dry and wandered off into the woods. At this point we were amazed to see quite a few people wandering off after it. We decided we’d seen enough and decided to carry on. At this point we saw the ranger arrive to sort out the spectators.

Carried onto Mammoth but at one point saw what we thought were elk and snatched a few photos as we went past. When we looked at the photos later it was fairly clear that they were mule deer with antlers.

Stopped a Mammoth for a quick cup of tea and then a fairly uneventful and quick drive back to W Yellowstone. Put our stuff in laundry, then walked to the supermarket and bought cheese and chicken for dinner in room.