Each year we look forward to the Cody, Wyoming Wild West Arts Festival. It’s three days of parades and fun and we set up our booth to sell our Jewelry. We always plan on a few extra days to enjoy the surrounding area by making day trips to Yellowstone National Park. This year was an exceptional year as we spotted a new bird for a life list and encountered three grizzly bears.
Our friends Fred and Becky had already made a trip to Yellowstone and had encountered several Harlequin ducks. These ducks are small sea ducks that nest in areas with rapids. They had told us that the ducks were located at Le Hardy Rapids.
As we drove through Yellowstone, I spotted the sign for the rapids, and we parked in the lot hoping that the Harlequinn ducks were still there. As we walked down the short trail, we could see them perched and resting on a flat rock! We were both elated to see the beautiful ducks and told other visitors, (they did not seem terribly impressed, definitely not birders).
Continuing our drive, we hoped to see some black bears and perhaps a grizzly. The day before we had encountered a bear jam where a sow and her new coy, (new cub of the year), put on a show. The bear has been given the name Raspberry and her new cub is called Snow. The sow was grazing in open spaces between fallen trees and it was comical watching the cub keeping up with mamma bear.
Raspberry didn’t have any problems crossing the log jams, but each fallen tree was an almost insurmountable problem for the little cub. It would pull itself up and then lose its balance as it fell off the fallen timber.
Still, it managed to tag along, and we watched them for forty-five minutes before they disappeared in a cove of fallen timber.
The next day we drove back but just missed the pair and so we headed to the Hayden Valley and Lamar Valleys. We didn’t see any bears at Hayden Valley, but it was filled with Buffalo.
Many of the bull bison were dusting themselves in dried wallows to give them some relief from insects. At one spot the bull was very near the road, and it glared at us as we quickly stopped to take its picture.
Forgetting us it rolled over in the dried ground creating a cloud of dust!
What a sight. We decided it was time to go even though we were at least twenty-five yards away, which is the required distance to safely view the huge animals.
Passing Canyon Village and Tower Junction we decided to drive up the Lamar Valley looking for bears and wolves. The valley was full of buffalo herds, but we didn’t spot much else. However a coyote posed right next to the road.
Further on we used our binoculars to glass the canyon walls and spotted several mountain goats. They were so far away that you really couldn’t see much, just a white goat shaped object. Reaching the Northeast entrance we passed through Cooke City and then Silver Gate.
As we left Siver Gate we saw about twenty people watching something.
The something was the largest Grizzly bear we have seen in quite a while. It was grazing about one hundred yards away and we didn’t get a great image as it was surrounded by bushes.
It finally disappeared into the brush and several people decided that they would try to push the bear back into an open area for more pictures. What could go wrong? We decided to leave as we didn’t like their idea. Continuing we turned right and drove the Chief Joesph Highway. At a rest area you can walk out to enjoy the view of a steep and narrow canyon.
It had been a great two days with new life birds and a huge grizzly bear. Of course, any trip into Yellowstone is always filled with memories of wildlife and scenic views to calm ones soul. Clear skies
Always great seeing wildlife. Stay safe and healthy.
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