Day 19, July 28: Yellowstone NP

Today we drove the North loop of the Grand Loop Road. But first, we decided to hike up Mt. Washburn. According to the information we had, Mt. Washburn was one of the best places to see Big Horn Sheep. So, when we came to the trail, we decided to give it a go. The trail is 3 miles long, starts at 8900 feet and climbs about 1400 feet and we are fairly old. Just wanted to let you know what we were up against. We took two bottles of water, our cameras and binoculars and started the climb. The trail started quite steep then became easier after about a half mile. Then it got difficult again and remained so. At some point, we came to the conclusion that "we've come this far, we might as well go all the way". It was a tough climb. The only good thing was that the views out over the park got better as we got higher. We stopped many times to admire the view (yeah, that's the reason). Just before we got to the top, we saw a Big Horn ewe and two lambs. Another extended stop was called for. After about 2 1/2 hours, Sheila and I made it to the top. Mary was having some problems with her asthma and decided to wait where we had seen the sheep. At the top of the mountain is a fire lookout station, and the fire lookout person / ranger was watching over a young female Big Horn that was wandering around amongst the people there. Shortly after we reached the top, my phone rang. What a surprise. I didn't expect to have cell service there. It was Mary. She had seen about a dozen Big Horns just below where she was standing. I told her the rest of the climb to the top was really not too bad (I only lied a little), and she should come on up and join us. Which she did. We spent about a half hour up there admiring the views, going potty, and replenishing our water. We also took pictures to ensure we had photographic evidence that we had climbed to the top.

When we headed down, we could see a bit of a rain storm coming and hear some thunder. We didn't want to be on top of the mountain if we were going to get a thunderstorm, so we really picked up the pace. If you have ever done that kind of a hike, you know that going down has its problems. The trail was wide but fairly rocky, and it got to be difficult to maintain the pace while picking our way through the rocks. We made it to the bottom in about an hour just as the rain started. We scurried to the car and managed to avoid getting too wet. We had spent about 4 hours on that adventure and added another animal to our "we saw those" list.

From there we drove on around the loop and turned off toward the North East Entrance via an area called Lamar Valley. This area is referred to as the Serengeti of North America due to the abundance of wild life there. So what did we see? Lots of wild life. First there was the coyote that just kind of popped out of the brush on one side of the road, crossed right in front of us, continued down the road a way and went into the woods on the other side. Another addition to our list.

We continued on to a meadow where there was a small herd of Prong Horn Antelope grazing. When we looked closer, we saw there was also a member of the canine family amongst them. I was sure it was another coyote, Sheila was sure it was a wolf and Mary noted that it was wearing a tracking collar. The interesting thing was that the dude was just ambling along, but the Prong Horns were staying right with it. There was one male in the herd, and at one point he did charge and chase it off a bit. For the most part, they were just going along with it. Later after much discussion and review of the video evidence, we all agreed that it was a wolf (I did end up with some knots on my head from the beating). I think the key is the fact that it was wearing a tracking collar. I doubt they are tracking coyotes. I also believe the antelope were just keeping an eye on the wolf. As long as they were able to see it, it presented no threat to them. I also believe the wolf was a loner (an outcast?) and was not eating real well. He was pretty sorry looking. So, two more animals were checked off our list.

We drove a bit further and ran into a bear jam. That is what they call what happens when a bear is sighted and the cars start to pile up as folks slow or stop to look. The rangers respond pretty quickly and (as long as there is no danger) will tell people where the bear is located and where they can or cannot stop. In this case, it was a grizzly in amongst the sage brush. We found a parking and broke out all our equipment (cameras, binoculars and spotting scope). Mary set up the spotting scope and started looking in the area where others were indicating. Eventually, she said she saw the bear pop up his head for a moment then disappear in the brush again. A ranger there said the bear was on a buffalo carcass. That would explain why it was hidden in the brush and was not moving about. Sheila and I could not see the bear and had to take Mary's word for the sighting. And we did take here word for it. Of course we had seen grizzlies in Glacier, so they were already checked off our list.

A bit further along in the Lamar Valley is the Buffalo Ranch where the park service took steps to bring the buffalo back from the point of extinction. The number of buffalo in the park got down to about 28 head early in the 20th century. Keep in mind that there were once an estimated 60 million head on the plains before the government tried to eradicate them to keep the First Nations people from having access to them. Anyway in the ranch area of Lamar Valley, we saw more large herds roaming freely.

Eventually, we turned around and returned to the Grand Loop and headed up to the North Entrance. At the park entrance there an arch was constructed to honor President Theodore Roosevelt. We drove out of the park, then turned around and parked and took several pictures. The arch is featured in a lot of early pictures of the park.

From there we went to an area called Mammoth Hot Springs. This is a really, well, mammoth geothermal feature. It is comprised of several springs and geysers that output water with tremendous amounts of minerals in it. As a result, the surrounding deposits are being built up at very high rates (as much as an inch a year compared to Old Faithful's inch a century or so). The deposits have built up in the form of terraces. After seeing so many geothermal features in the park, we might have been a bit jaded. However, this area still had a lot of wow factor.

By the time we finished with Mammoth Hot Springs, it was starting to get pretty dark. We just headed back to West Yellowstone and the end of another day.

So here is a tally of our animal sightings in Yellowstone:

• Elk


• Buffalo


• Big Horn Sheep


• Coyote


• Prong Horn Antelope


• Wolf


• Grizzly Bear (also seen in GNP)

That leaves only a moose on our to see list. Maybe tomorrow.

We were all pretty exhausted (remember the bit about the climb up Mt. Washburn) and ready to get some sleep. Tomorrow we do the Grand Tetons.