We started today by catching another eruption of Old Faithful before heading up toward Canyon Village. We spent most of the day viewing wildlife and had some pretty great sightings.
Our first sighting was a smaller group of 3 bison hanging out in a forest clearing. We stopped the car and were able to get within about 30 yards of them before they sauntered off into the woods. It’s worth nothing that, in Yellowstone, the guidelines for wildlife viewing are 100 yards for bears and 25 yards for other animals. This was an exciting encounter, but it was just a taste of what we would see later.
As we continued on our journey to the northern part of the park, we passed great herds of
bison, probably numbering between 30-75 head. It wasn’t long before we reached a long lineup of stopped cars, looking out into a broad valley. We stopped to see what was going on found out that a Grizzly was just down the ridge, probably about 100 yards away. We waited a short while, and sure enough, a 3 year-old female Grizz was foraging down in the meadow. We watched her for a while as she rooted around. From a distance, it was hard to tell how big she was, but I got the feeling she was relatively small, especially compared to the big males which can reach 10 feet in height. If I had to guess, I’d probably say she’s stand about five and a half feet.Once we left the Grizzly behind, we came across two bison walking about 5 yards off the road. We slowed down to take pictures, matching their speed. Suddenly, the two of them locked horns and then bolted toward the road. They pounded across the pavement right in front of us, leaving us to wonder what they might have done to my car if they had decided to take a different course. As far as wildlife encounters go, this was pretty exciting.
Eventually, we reached Canyon Village and took short hikes on Uncle Tom’s Trail – a long staircase with a great view of Yellowstone Canyon and of the falls – and Artist Point, which is where one of the most famous renderings of Yellowstone was created. Yellowstone Canyon is somewhat striking. Most of the landscape in Yellowstone is broad, hilly meadows, surrounded by forest and bordered by mountains in the distance. So, it’s somewhat surprising to see such a large canyon right in the middle of the park. The colors of the walls are most likely what gives the park its name.
As we headed north, hoping to find a campsite, we came across another “bear jam.” This time, it was a black bear, about 25 yards off the road. We stopped the car and joined the crowd of onlookers. It wasn’t long before the bear decided to go on the move and actually started moving closer to the road. At one point, he was probably no more than 15 yards from us. Per the ranger’s
instructions, we tried to keep our distance from him; but, as we headed back to our car, there wasn’t much we could do. The ranger stopped the two of us and a young family and gave us a little bit of a lecture about keeping our distance from bears. I think he should’ve given the lecture to the bear.Next, we headed into the Lamar Valley, where we picked up a few more wildlife sightings. We were within 10 yards of a bighorn sheep, saw a group of goats grazing, and even got a distant view of a wolf through the binoculars of some friendly wildlife watchers.
After taking a sidetrip to Mammoth Springs, which was a little disappointing, we finally made it into the camp. With no threat of rain here, we were able to keep the rainfly off the tent and sleep with a view of the night sky.
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