We arrived home from Alpine and the next day loaded up and left for Buffalo Bill State Park and the Cody Wild West Show. It was an easy five-hour drive, and we arrived at the State Park about three pm. Setting up at our campsite we talked about spending the next day on an auto tour of the eastern half of Yellowstone National Park. Our favorite drive is up the Chief Joesph Highway. It’s a drive on good roads that is not for the acrophobic.
The highway goes up and up until you reach Dead Indian Point. It was named for a wounded member of the Nez Pierce tribe that had been wounded in a battle with the US Calavry.
From that point you can see the place where the detachment, landslide, took place that moved sixty miles forming Heart Mountain and Sheep Mountain. It was the greatest landslide of all time and was caused by the explosion of a massive stratovolcano, (if you have you-tube look up Myron Cooke and the greatest landslide of all time).
From there we headed down the switchbacks, narrowly missing a golden eagle, and then drove to the intersection of the Beartooth Highway.
Crossing the deep Clark's Fork Canyon. we stopped for pictures.
Turning west, we reached Cooke City and then Silver Gate. It’s near the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park, (we later learned we had just missed a grizzly bear roaming around Silver Gate).
Entering Yellowstone Park, we stopped at a wildlife jamb where people were watching Mountain Goats. The mountainside had numerous patches of snow, and the goats were hard to see, being white. Several photographers with lenses larger than mine said the goats were too far away to see any details. I looked anyway but did not take any images.
Entering the Lamar Valley, we passed small buffalo herds with lots of red dogs. They were energetic and while I wanted to take some pictures we couldn’t find a decent parking place.
Continuing on, Renita spotted several antelopes, a family of Sandhill Cranes and more Buffalo. We drove down Slough Creek Road, but the wolves had left the den site. Returning to the Lamar Road, we passed an Eagle nest with young but there were no available parking spaces.
Turning west toward the new bridge we encountered our first bear jamb. It was a large Cinnamon Black bear busy catching a lunch of gophers. I got a few decent pictures. If you look closely, you can see the lack of a hump and the triangular shaped ears characteristic of black bears.
Crossing the new bridge, we looked far down on the Yellowstone River. At Rosevelt Lodge we turned left to Canyon Tower. Lots of orange cones spoke of a bear(s), in the area but they must have been napping.
Before we crossed Dunraven pass we encountered another bear jamb. This was on narrow road and there we saw one of the stupidest tourists we have ever seen. He stopped in the middle of the road, got out of his car and walked within ten feet of the black bear. Taking a picture with his cell phone he returned to his car and drove off. I was so surprised at his stupidity I forgot to take a picture of him for our blog. Before we reached Hayden Valley, we next got caught in a Bison jamb.
The huge bull stopped traffic, blocked the narrow road and at one point stopped in front of our car and glared at us. If you blow up the picture you can see the reflection of our Suburu in hs eye! Luckily it kept its tail down and let us pass, (if you ever see a bison raise its tail and it starts to twirl it is getting ready to charge)!
Crossing Dunraven pass it was another thirty minutes of stop and go traffic. We arrived at the Mud Volcanoes where we got caught up in another slow-moving traffic jamb. It took over thirty minutes of stop and go until we arrived at the Hayden Valley.
The reason for the jamb, was a large grizzly bear sleeping under a tree. After we parked it woke up, left the shade, and started to forage for tubers in a large open field of arrowhead balsam.
The bear was about three hundred yards away, but we still got some good pictures, (note the rounded ears, noticeable hump, (for digging), and the concave face.
Our next stop was at Le Hardy Rapids where we watched the Harlequin ducks chase each other in the swift turbulent water.
It wasn’t much further to the Fishing Bridge and Sylvan Pass. We did not see the Bighorn Sheep, often present at the Pass, or any more bears of other wildlife.
It had been a great day with three bears, lots of beautiful scenery, and many bison.
Clear skies
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