By checking out friends posts on Facebook, Renita had found
that a sow and fully-grown cub were digging grubs and roots at the Butte lake
View. Its located on the east side of Yellowstone lake, just before Sylvan
Pass. We decided to spend the day with George and Val and so we headed to the
overlook.
Driving through Hayden Valley we saw lots of buffalo and
elk, but we didn’t see any bears. Driving further we reached the Fishing Bridge
and turned east toward Cody, Wyoming. Just after the Fishing Bridge we neared a
buffalo that was in a having a difficult day.
The park service had
cut down trees to widen the road and the bull buffalo was pissed about its path
being blocked. It proceeded to attack one of the downed treed, butting it and
rolling on the branches! Luckily it only looked at us once to see if we were an
issue, before crossing the road and heading on its way!
Arriving at the overlook we saw a crowd of bear watchers
that told us that the two bears had been digging on the hillside right next to
cars. The bears had feed for a while before climbing the steep hill and
apparently taking a morning siesta. The day before two people had followed them
and had almost surprised the sleeping grizzlies.
The two bears have been given the names of Raspberry, (the
sow), and Snow who is a three-year-old male that should be on its own. Everyone
expected the bears to return to the grubs and so we waited and passed the time
visiting with other bear lovers, taking images of a blue grouse, and even finding
some bear scat that was full of wood chips, (from when the bear had been tearing
apart deadfall looking for grubs.
We waited for three hours but the bears never reappeared and
so after lunch we drove to Sylvan Pass where there was so much snow that there
was no sign of any wildlife. Returning to the Butte Overlook we stopped to take
some images of the wildest place in the lower forty-eight.
It’s a place called the Farrow Pit and a trail leads into it
where a person would be almost fifty miles from the nearest road. We know
people that grouse about places without coffee shops and easy internet access!
The rest of the day was anticlimactic as we never did see
any bears. Still it was a pleasant day in the park, lots of wildlife but no
bears or wolves. It was obvious that we had been spoiled and it was the first day
this year in which we had not spotted any bears.
Day four arrived and we changed our plans deciding to head
back to the Lamar Valley. The black bears, that had been entertaining everyone
had disappeared from near Tower, but when we turned into the Lamar Valley we
ran into a large bear jam. The black bear sow, with her three cubs had moved
down the valley.
Nearby a black bear boar fed and so mamma kept her cubs near
the top of a tree. The park interpreters said that she would probably cross the
Yellowstone Rive bridge and when we returned later she and her cubs had
wandered off. Crossing the bridge another traffic jam was happening but this
time it was Bighorn sheep and their lambs.
Parking to take
images, one of the sheep looked at us and as it approached we retreated to the truck.
It finally walked into the ditch and we watched them for a bit before heading
up the valley.
Deciding to head up the Lamar Valley we spotted two cars that were
watching a grizzly sow and cub clear across the valley. We set up our own scope
to join the viewing,
As we watched the two grizzlies one of the other watchers
got a message that a male grizzly was hunting elk calves. Turning his scope
around he quickly spotted the boar and we all watched as it searched through
the sagebrush looking for young elk.
It disappeared from our view and so we headed further up the
valley, in search of more bears.
Reaching Pebble Creek, a crowd were watching mountain
goats across the creek and up a steep cliffside. There were two goats visible and
easily spotted with a good pair of binoculars. We set up our scope and tried to
take some images with the cell phone.
Heading back to camp we stopped but just missed the badger
mom and her three kits that had been digging for gophers. In Yellowstone you
are either the hunted or the hunters, the same as everywhere else but more
obvious.
It had been a good day with three grizzlies and four black
bears! If you really want to see bears and wolves you need to come to
Yellowstone in late May and spend your time in the Lamar Valley. They are either
hunting elk and bison calves down on the valley floor or feeding on the lush
spring grass!
Our wildlife total was twenty bears, both grizzly and black
and eight wolves. We had also spotted lots of other wildlife bison, elk, deer,
and of course birds. In comparison while driving the Alcan Highway to Alaska, we
had spotted seventeen bears in three weeks of driving, (we took our time).
Clear skies.
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