Weather Delay, Oh Darn, Stuck in Yellowstone! :)

I have been watching the weather for the past few days, and I knew this spring storm was going to be upon us.  This morning we awoke to slight rain, but snow and rain up in the areas we want to travel to.  We thought about heading over to the north entrance and camp for $10 in the park (senior rate), and we even looked at the Fishing Bridge RV Park on our trip yesterday, but it is the same price as what we are paying now, would add extra miles, and we would not have any TV or WiFi Internet which would require us to use our aircard.  So we are staying put for two more nights.  Oh Darn!    And since the weather is not over Yellowstone today, we still get to go out and enjoy the park some more!  Double Darn!     

The map above shows the open and closed roads currently in Yellowstone.  By the 13th nearly all the red will be green (which means open), with only the area from Tower Fall to Canyon Junction being closed until the 27th.  So far we have found the roads to be in good condition which just a few spots here and there that have pot holes or frost heaves.  We are at West Yellowstone, which is the middle far left of the map.  We traveled to Old Faithful (marked as Day One) on Saturday.  Yesterday we traveled to Yellowstone Lake (marked as Day Two).  Today we are traveling to the Lamar Valley (marked as Day Three).  We have seen Grizzly Bears each day, and hope to see more today.

Yesterday’s bear was near Canyon Junction, and there was a line of cars lined up along side the road, with many people outside of their cars with those cameras that a lens that is a mile long.  We pulled over and got a few pictures, but this bear was camera shy…always had its back to us.

This picture here gives you a better idea of how far away we were from it, and even his picture was zoomed in to at least 2-3 times normal…so the bear was “way out there”.  A park ranger arrived, and did not seem concerned at all with people being out of their cars, but I am sure she would stopped anyone trying to go out into the field toward the bear.  And don’t think people wouldn’t try it…we have seen some pretty stupid things around here, back in April there were viral Internet clips of a lady who petted a bison  (See Clip One and Clip Two).

Here are some pictures we got yesterday.

   

   

Grizzly Bear, Wolf, Elk, Bison – A Good Morning Yellowstone

Knowing that the best time to see wildlife in Yellowstone is in the early morning, I told Marcia that we should be on the road by 7 am.  I think we were entering the park‘s West Entrance at 6:40.   It did not take us long before we saw our first bit of Yellowstone Wildlife…

…yep, a Bison, aka: Buffalo.  Back in 2012 I promised Marcia that we would see a lot of Buffalo.  Took a quick trip into the park the first evening we got to the area…no buffalo.  Took a full day trip the next day, saw Old Faithful, some Elk, some Deer, but no Buffalo.  The next day I promised her that we would see some Buffalo before we left the park, and sure enough, we had a close up and personal encounter with them.  By the time the week was over, she was Buffaloed out!  Well today, we saw this lone Buffalo first thing headed toward the valley as we were barely into the park. 

A little further down the road we see a few Elk.  Seems like we always see some Elk between the West Entrance and Madison Junction.  These three looked a bit thin, but they did survive the winter, and I am sure they will be looking better in a month or so.  Later we see a couple larger Elk while we are on our way back to the motorhome, those pictures will come later.

At Madison Junction we see our first herd of Buffalo.  There seemed to be three distinct herds today between Madison Junction and Old Faithful, with a few stragglers here and there.

    

On the left this multilegged Buffalo turns out to be a mother and baby on the right.  (Note, the sun came out from the cloud cover and really highlighted them.)

When you see a car pulled over, especially this early in the morning, you slow, pull over, and watch…and if you are lucky, you see a wolf cross the road in front of you.

   

And “if” you are really lucky, the wolf will stop, look back at you, before it heads back along to its real interest, ducks swimming in a small, shallow stream along some tall grasses.  If you are a bit unlucky, the wolf will be standing with the morning sun behind him making it hard to get a good picture.

So as you continue on toward Old Faithful, your wife praises the Lord for allowing us to see a wolf out in the open as we did, and adds, “Ok now Lord, how about a bear?”   A few more miles down the road and we take the Old Faithful exit, which takes us up and over the main roadway we were on…and just as I start to follow the turn to the left over the roadway, a very large grassy field appears over the elevated roadway, and there it is.  “Well Marcia, there is your bear!”, I say. She thinks to herself, “Ya, right…” and she looks out into the field, as I slow to a crawl, and then a stop, and yes, there it is.  A very large Grizzly Bear.

Well, that is the biggest bear I have ever seen in nature.  Thank goodness we had a good enough camera to capture it from a safe, very safe, distance.  And as for Marcia?  She took every single bear picture, and many of the other pictures today too.  She said that taking the pictures of the bear gave her the chills…and as she talked about our day at breakfast later, she said it still gave her the chills.

On our way back to the motorhome, we did see the larger Elk that I talked about earlier, and some more buffalo.  Way off in the far distance I saw another wolf or Coyote, but even in full zoom mode I can only tell that it was the size as a large, thin dog.  Saw a guy with one of those cameras with a lens that’s a mile long…good for him, not interested in lugging one of them around...but I'll bet he can see the hair on its head with that thing.

Rest of the day was spent doing laundry and resting and trying to figure out where to go from here on Monday.

Note: Yesterday I said that the camping in the park was not open yet, but there are three or four places one can camp now, and there are empty spots.  Full hookups at Fish Creek RV Park, about $49 per night and senior pass will NOT give you a discount (but will give you free entrance into the park of course).  Madison Campground is open, $11.50 with senior pass and reservations are taken, and Mammoth Campground, $10 with senior pass and is first come, first serve, and all three are not currently full.  Here is a good link for those interested. (We might stay in Mammoth Monday night after we leave here.)

Bear, Moose, Son, Bison – A BIG Teton Day

Of all the animals we saw today on our visit to the Tetons, we only got pictures of two types.  Pulled into String Lake, just north of Jenny Lake…got out of the car to try and get a picture of the water with the mountains in the background, and as I started to walk by this lady she says in a whisper, “There is a bear down through those trees.”  Well, my timing could not have been better, because I was standing right at the spot the bear would eventually come out of the water and up the bank…shooting right through me if I stayed there.  In case he decided to turn and head through the parking lot, I tried to give Marcia a call (after I got the first series of pictures while he was still down in the water.)

   

He KNEW we were up there, he could smell us and he also saw us.  I say us, but after I turned around, it was just me there.  He looked right at me, kinda said with his eyes, “You are standing right where I am a headed…”, and I kindly moved on to a safer spot, trying to call Marcia, and missed his exit from the water.

   

After he hit the bank he ran a bit, got a shot of that, but it was too blurry.  He then just walked along up and over and through the woods, like it was nobody’s business except his (or her) own.

   

Well, the shot on the left is the one I was going for before the lady told me about the bear.  The shot on the right would have been a wonderful spot to get the bear crossing the river…but it all worked out ok.  Except, I never did get a hold of Marcia, and when I got back to the car she said, “What Bear?”  Makes up for her seeing the moose as we traveled over Teton Summit earlier.  As we entered the valley coming down from the summit, five dear ran across the road in front of us…kinda got the feeling the guy behind us was glad that he didn’t pass us earlier because there would have been a dead deer, and a dead Japanese car had he done that.  At first he looked a bit upset that I slowed as much as I did for the dear...until he saw more come out from the woods.  Later, we also saw Bison, but they were not very close, and after our close and personal visit with Bison back in 2012 in Yellowstone, well, nothing tops that as it goes with Bison.

After we left the Jenny Lake area headed south on the main park road, I get this text from my son Ryan.

“Where are you??”

“Tetons”, I reply.

“I'm like 99% sure I just passed you on the other side of the road.”

So I call him, and sure enough, he is at the Tetons too!  In between semesters at school each spring, he goes on an annual visit of America.  Last I heard he was in Seattle, but earlier today they went to Yellowstone, and at the very moment that we are leaving Jenny Lake, about a mile away from it, he is headed for Jenny Lake and sees us.  So we make a U-Turn and catch up with him and his two friends.  He had no idea where I was in our travels, and I had no idea where he was...ain't that something???

Derek, on the left, is also in the Cleveland Chiropractic College with Ryan at Overland Park, Kansas.  Matt, on the right, is a friend.  They were in Derek’s mother’s Chevy Suburban, which is bigger than the car that Ryan and two other guys took last year on a trip.  We said our hellos, and let them go do their hike while we continued our trip around the Tetons.  All I can say, that tops the bear any day!


FLASHBACK IN TIME – 2012

Our first visit and view of the Tetons is shrouded in smoke from the western fires of early August 2012.


TODAY – MAY 5, 2016

Yes, we could have asked for a clear blue sky…but wow, what a difference!  From this point on, I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story…and remember, clicking on a picture will let you see a larger version.

      

The Grand Tetons are sure a sight to see.  Like Yosemite and some of the other parks, I am sure one would have to visit during all four seasons to get the full grip on the beauty of the place.

       

And yes, we did get some bird pictures too.  All in all it was a great day, full of the majestic wonders the almighty has provided for our pleasure.