Elk and an Eagle...

Well, it was our last day in Yellowstone, and what a great day we had! We decided to just take it easy today, and soak in all the favorite places we’ve fallen in love with in our time here.

We headed, yes you probably guessed, to the Madison River. The wind was blowing in camp when we left, but it always blows on top of this hill. As we moved close to the west side of the park, it started to get dark. Before long it started to sprinkle. No wash outs, just sprinkles.

We found our favorite meadow, and our favorite bull elk and his harem. They were all napping, or chewing their cuds when we arrived. So we just sat in the truck and watched them. But after only a few minutes the bull sniffed the air and stood up. He headed across the river. At first we weren’t sure why; but in short order he began to chase another bull. The challenger circled around, eventually crossing the road in front of us. Wow, what a site!

Then we turned our attention back to the prime bull. He found three new cows while on the other side of the river. So he herded them up, and headed back to the meadow where the rest of his harem was resting. What he hadn’t seen, was that the challenger snuck back into the meadow and attempted to steal part of his harem. When the prime bull realized that the challenger had returned, he chased him far away very quickly.

To keep this blog G rated, I’ll just say that the prime bull and one of his cows got very frisky. In short order, our view of the meadow became X rated. I had been filming the challenger incident, and just kept filming when the bull and his three additions returned to the meadow. But very quickly I began to feel like a porn producer. I’ll leave the rest to you and your imagination.

The temp began to drop, and the rains came in earnest. So we headed back to Mammoth Hot Springs. Sal was driving, so I was on animal watch. I looked into a reforested area along the river, and suddenly realized that I was looking at an eagle.

Now, you need to understand that as we left the elk, I expressed a desire to just be able to see an eagle before we left Yellowstone. So when I spotted one in the burned scrags across the river, I was thrilled. We both jumped out and grabbed our cameras. I filmed about 20 minutes of the eagle. Mostly he just sat there, but he did preen his wings for a short period. I just kept the video camera rolling. But the cold, and the previous filming drained my battery. So I finally had to abandon the eagle, and head for the truck and the inverter to recharge. Meantime, Sal got some really close up shots of the eagle. His lens picked up the details much better than the video camera.

But what a thrill it was to see our National Bird in our country’s first National Park. I will never forget this experience.

As we headed back to camp, the rains got heavier, and in some parts of the trip turned to snow. It's still raining in Gardiner, but we hope it will let up before we have to pack up in the morning. Sal hates having to dry the slide before we pull it in. And I don't like that he has to get on a ladder in wet weather. So we'll hope for an improvement overnight.

Yellowstone has been wonderful. But on to our next adventure tomorrow. We’re told that there are more moose in the Tetons. And since we’re both nuts about moose, we’re looking forward to the Tetons, and hopefully a moose experience.

Thanks for traveling with us…
Fay