We awoke to rain and wind, not a good day to photograph. So we turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. As we were heading out for the afternoon, our neighbors came home. They had an incredible story about the wolf pack in the Lamar Valley. Before the rain made us lazy, our plan had been to spend the early morning in the Lamar Valley. So needless to say, we were kicking ourselves for being sleepy heads.

So we headed out to the Madison River. I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that we like that area a lot. It’s been very rich with wildlife up to now. But today was very different. We saw maybe a half dozen Bison, and one small elk harem with a young bull in attendance. It was very strange to see so few animals, and we wondered if they had headed for the hills to escape the bad weather.

From the Madison we moved to Lamar Valley for the evening watch; hoping to catch site of the wolf pack. As luck would have it, there were no wolves about. But we encountered an incredible herd of Bison. We quickly did a head count, which in itself is difficult because they are in constant motion. But we counted about 200 Bison in the herd. They were all on one side of the road. Then suddenly one bull decided he wanted to be on the other side. So the traffic (yes, there was a Bison jam) stopped as he sauntered between vehicles.

Well, that seemed to be the signal for the remainder of the herd, as one by one, they all crossed the road. It was incredible to see so many Bison in one group, and even more incredible to watch their interaction. While I was loading a new cartridge in my camera, Sal captured a photo of two young bulls sparring. Darn, missed another good shot!!

While we were photographing them, the wind started to blow really hard, and then the rain came. So we dawned rain jackets and stuck it out, as we did not want to miss this experience, nor the opportunity to photograph it.

Gradually the herd all moved off behind a knoll, and most of the people moved on. But not before one driver had the life scared out of him. Note the shot of the one vehicle surrounded by Bison. This guy decided he’d seen enough, and started rolling forward. The Bison just sort of filled in the space around him, letting him know that they were in control. After a couple of minutes, they continued their move to the other side of the road, leaving him to recover from the experience.

When the bison settled down, we assumed they were there for the night, so we headed to Slough Creek where the wolf pack had been in the early morning. The word had spread about the sightings in the morning, so there were lots of people; but no wolves. We watched for a while, then headed back to camp.

Unfortunately, we watched long enough for darkness to set in, so our trip back was in the dark. Ugh! Just the thing I had wanted to avoid. Not only did we have curves to maneuver and steep cliffs to avoid, but also the threat of an animal crossing the road in front of us. Fortunately, we did see a deer crossing in front of us, but we avoided a collision with it.

Tomorrow is another day, who knows what it will bring...
Fay