On Monday July 14th (day 10 of our trip), we drove east through Lamar Valley, spotting so many bison and pronghorn -- and nursery rocks (boulders that help shield saplings from wind and sun). Whoever first called Lamar Valley "America's Serengeti" was certainly right! We drove across it several times during our stay at Roosevelt Lodge, always seeing plenty of wildlife.
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| See the nursery rocks? |
We did a beautiful hike up to Trout Lake. It was steep at the onset, but so many wildflowers, birds, and butterflies along the way. When we started circling the lake (which had a beautiful reflection), there was a bison blocking our path, so we went the other way. We never did get to completely circle Trout Lake because the bison stayed put and we didn't want to chance bothering him. We never saw any of the otters I'd read about, the wildflowers were absolutely amazing, so this was still one of my favorite hikes.
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| So many wildflowers on this lovely hike! |
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| This was the bison that made us decide NOT to completely circle the lake -- obviously some people weren't concerned. |
We drove into Cooke City and picked up some sandwiches, which we ate at the picnic area near Soda Butte Creek. We saw a few black bear, with our first real bison traffic jam on the way back to Roosevelt.
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| Moose near Cooke City |
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| Soda Butte on a beautiful day |
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| Part of dozens in the bison herd that crossed the road in front of us. |
We had reservations for the horseback riding trek to the cowboy cookout. No cameras allowed while riding, but the trail went past Lost Lake, Lost Falls, and a petrified redwood tree. The cookout was nice, with a singing cowboy, corny jokes, and a bunch of kids (including ours) making a teepee out of fallen tree limbs. My boys really enjoyed the horseback riding and cookout, but it's not something I'd need to do again. A bit crowded, nose-to-tail riding, and hard to hear the entertainers.
Tuesday we drove toward Mammoth, seeing a black bear along the way, and enjoying the distant view of the Mammoth Hot Springs area. We had an OK breakfast in Gardiner and picked up sandwich suppplies. Driving back into the park, there were bighorn sheep on the cliffs -- and a beautiful bald eagle, who apparently likes to watch for the young sheep, deer, or goats that might fall from the cliffs.
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| We saw many black bears. Alas, we didn't get great pictures. |
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| Seeing Mammoth Hot Springs from a distance helped us appreciate how big it is! |
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| An up-close look at the bighorn sheep. |
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| A pair of elk. See the female? |
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| A bald eagle watching for animals falling from the cliffs |
We hiked a bit at Undine Falls in a light rain, then hail, thunder, and lightning briefly had us waiting in the car before we hiked out to the lovely Wraith Falls.
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| A close-up view of Undine Falls |
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| A prickly little flower on the trail to Wraith Falls |
We drove back through Lamar Valley, out to the Beartooth Highway enjoying the view of the mountains, even though it was a bit cloudy. After stopping at the Top of the World Store, we continued east, intending to go at least as far as the Rock Creek Vista. Well, the rain came. At first, just a drizzle. Then we could hear thunder and see lightning in the distance. Maybe we were foolish, but we kept driving. Then all of a sudden, more thunder & lighting -- but now closer -- plus hail or freezing rain. The temperature dropped down to 35F. By now we certainly wanted to turn back, but by then we were at the scary series of switchbacks with no room at all to turn around. Eventually there was room to stop the car and we turned back. It was surreal to drive on a narrow, icy road in a thunderstorm in July. I tried hard not to think about the drop-off on the other side of those barriers!
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| Beartooth Butte |
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| Pilot and Index Peaks |
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| Mountain on the right, clouds on the left, and a sharp curve up ahead. |
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| Another hairpin curve right ahead with ice coming down! |
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| See the car tracks in the snow/ice/hail? |
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| And the sun comes back -- boy, were we glad to be out of the storm! |
After our trek not-quite-all-the-way on the Beartooth Highway, we drove back through Lamar Valley and saw some mountain goats on Barronette Peak, thanks to some nice photographers who let us peak through their spotting scope. More deer, pronghorn, bear, bison, wildflowers -- and a rainbow!
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View of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,
then beyond to Lake Yellowstone, and in the distance
the Absarokas (on the left) and a hint of the Tetons (on the right) |
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Yup -- snow in July!
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We checked into the Western Cabins at Canyon (not really cabins at all, to my way of thinking, but still nice and the largest rooms we had in Yellowstone), then had a well-earned lazy night. We saw weasels from our room, which was a nice treat.
Thursday brought us the morning ranger program on wildlife safety, where we got to get up close to a bison skull, elk antlers (heavy!) and a bear pelt. This was our only official ranger program of the trip -- the timing never quite worked out to do more.
We started viewing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone along the south rim, first at the overlook of Upper Falls.
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| "Hidden" Falls -- well named |
We did the rough Uncle Tom's trail -- 328 steps down, but felt longer than that! What a view of Lower Falls!
Then we stopped at the amazing Artist Point and took the same pictures everyone else does!
Along the North Rim of the Canyon, we stopped at Lookout Point and Inspiration Point.
We drove through the colorful Hayden Valley, seeing pelicans, eagles, geese, and egret along the Yellowstone River and cutthroat trout from Fishing Bridge. An ice-cream treat allowed us a cloudy view of the Absaroka Mountains across from Lake Yellowstone, the largest alpine lake in the U.S.
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| Canada geese: nuisance in NJ but beautiful in Yellowstone! |
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| Bison taking a steam near Mud Volcano |
Thunder, lightning, and hail (again!) cut into our plans to further explore Hayden Valley, so we spent some time at the Visitor's Center. Our younger son finished up his Junior Scientist and Junior Ranger assignments and picked up his prizes (patch and keychain).
The weather improved so we went back to the Brink of the Lower Falls -- eleven switchbacks and 600 feet down the side of the canyon (and then back up!), which was a little extra-difficult because it was a bit slippery, but the view at the bottom was fantastic.
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| Brink of the Lower Falls -- with the stairs from Uncle Tom's Trail visible on the left. |
Back into Hayden Valley as sunset neared, which allowed us the amazing opportunity to watch a small grizzly chasing a coyote, which was chasing cranes. Back and forth they ran. Later we saw a second grizzly on the prowl, with the help of spotting scopes that were being shared. We drove back to Canyon as it was getting dark and difficult to see the bison and elk on the side of the road.
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| Time to squint and use your imagination: Just in front of the larger tree is a grizzly bear and a bit ahead and more centered in the photo is the coyote he's chasing. They were far away from us, but this was as close as my zoom could get! |
Friday, we checked out of Canyon and drove (slowly) out of Yellowstone. We stopped back at Norris Geyser Basin to check out the Porcelain Basin (we'd done the Back Basin trail on day 1), then West Yellowstone for lunch and a bit of shopping.
We headed north through Gallatin Canyon to Bozeman. The Museum of the Rockies was a nice change of pace and their dinosaur exhibit was awesome (not as big as the one in New York's Museum of Natural History) but it felt more up-to-date and was very user-friendly.
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| The boys enjoyed the blacksmith demonstration and pumping water in the homestead portion of the museum. |
Saturday was our flight home -- and we were glad to be on our way, no matter how much fun we had in Wyoming and Montana. Maybe one of the boys will go to college out west! ;-)
Did you catch the first two installments of our vacation?
http://readyforthenextvacation.blogspot.com/2014/07/part-i-yellowstone-national-park-just.html
Maybe now I'll go back and write about our past trips. Costa Rica, Shenandoah, Acadia, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Aruba -- or maybe, I'll just start planning our next adventure!
