June 30: Wildlife - 2 legged or 4 legged?

June 30, 2013 

Last evening after I posted my blog, I decided to go game hunting.  I had Crew with me.  It was about 8:00 and normally it is still very light then, but with the cloud cover, it was kind of like dusk so I was hoping the wildlife would be out.

 'Crew, get your head out of your Nook and look for wildlife.'

'I don't see any.'

'Of course you don't because you are buried in your Nook!  If your eyes are looking out into the meadows, maybe you will see something!'

I hate him... We cruised down dirt roads, we cruised down areas posted with wildlife alerts.  We went to the Oxbow turnout where there is always something.  Only a few geese.  I decided to head back to Hannah when we saw the telltale sign of wildlife... cars pulled over and people with cameras.  I pulled over and there before us less than 50 yards was a juvenile grizzly.  According to the ranger, this is one of two male siblings recently kicked out by their mother (who is known as 610).  And we had no camera...  Yogi seemed unbothered by our voyeurism, and kept digging and eating and occasionally looking at us.  Happy with our sighting, we returned to Hannah.

This morning, I took a power walk down to Coulter Bay Village.  Found a great foot trail going along Jackson Lake, by the marina and into the woods.  I made lots of noise to repel any bears.  Got back, packed some food and we headed to Yellowstone.  It is less than 20 miles up the road, and Old Faithful would be our target.

We entered Yellowstone at the south entrance, which follows the Lewis River.  It looks like some cataclysmic event occurred as there are gazillions of fallen trees, with all sorts of new trees creeping in.  It is as if the area to create the road was stolen (which I guess it was) and the trees are trying to take it back over.  I know there was a major fire there a few years ago.  The new trees are so densely spaced that a squirrel would barely be able to navigate around the trees!  The new growth is from about 5-15 feet tall.  And the fallen trees are everywhere.  When we hit West Thumb, we headed west to Old Faithful. 

As we approach, she is erupting and we feel the spray, but barely see it.  So, that means we get to hang around for roughly 90 minutes till she is ready again.  We went to the Visitor Center, and the guys went and got ice cream.  Then we settled in for the event.  Fifty percent of the world's geysers are in Yellowstone.  Old Faithful is the only one where they can somewhat predict the eruptions.  The geyser teased us with a few bubbles... the crowd ooohhhed and aaahhhed!  'It's going' one person would say.  The geyser would relax.  The people would be mildly disappointed.  Then another few bubbles and another round of listening to responses.  Finally, the real deal occurred and everybody was happy.

We hiked around the gazillion other geysers in the area.  There is a nice walking trail.  The whole time we were there, another geyser (Castle Geyser) was erupting.  Steam then water, then more steam.  She seemed angry and was really spewing for who knows how long!  We were in the area a couple of hours and she was spewing the entire time.

After we were geysered out, we decided to finish the circle loop of the center of the park.  Although the Grand Tetons are more striking, Yellowstone has its own beauty.  Geysers and thermal activity are all over the place.  There are streams, creeks, waterfalls and lakes.  The meadows are where you see most of the wildlife.  We saw several herds of buffalo, some elk, we think we saw a grizzly but it was too far away to be sure.  We even saw a coyote, but it had a lighter and furrier coat than they coyotes of home.  It never ceases to amaze me how people react to wildlife.  No matter how many warnings are posted, they still get way too close to the critters and one of these days, they will be in one of the films that are shown at the visitor center on what NOT to do...

We realized that we need to do at least one more day here as there is just too much to see.  We could probably do a year here and still not see everything!

I am the navigator.  Even though I tell Spouse to go right, he goes left and then says he didn't know what I meant.  Over and over again.  Crew is on to this now too so he makes sure he knows where we are parked!  The other day when I was driving, I asked Spouse a navigational question...  I learned that I need to look at the map before I get behind the wheel!  I may have to slap him around...  He has taken dyslexia to a new level!

 Time for the campfire.