Yellowstone , our first impression...

Yellowstone, Wow! Again I say, Wow!!!!! In two days we’ve seen more wildlife than we can count.
Not to mention that there are trees and more trees. As we’ve said before, we are both tree lovers. So we feel alive again to be amidst forests of evergreens.

I must admit that we weren’t sure we bought the ‘let it burn’ plan we heard when wildfires raged Yellowstone. But we have seen mountain sides which burned, and they are thick with new growth. Mother Nature has a way of rejuvenating herself.

A little story to remind us all to keep our eyes open when among wildlife. We encountered two bison yesterday; one dusting, and the other grazing. While Sal did still photos, I was running the video camera. After several minutes, a gentleman quietly stepped up to me and said, “Look behind you.” When I turned around there were two more Bison bulls, moving straight toward me. They didn’t care who I was, or about what I was doing. They just wanted the grass under my feet. Since they had already moved withing about 10 feet of me, I quickly moved behind the truck to put some space between us.

The park rules say that wildlife always have the right of way. Shortly after the event above, the four Bison decided to cross the road. Now when a Bison moves, they do not get in a hurry unless they are chasing something or someone. So as the traffic came to a dead stop, all four Bison painfully slowly selected their own path and crossed the road. Two of them chose to walk down the middle of the road for 40 yards or so, before continuing to the opposite side.
As is true with all humans, some were patience and watched the show, while others became irritated that their 60 mile an hour run through park had been interrupted. Those are the same people of course, who say they saw no animals at the end of their day. And they just can’t figure out why!

Another story from our first day in the park…We were in a traffic jam because of several elk on the side of the road. There was no place to safely pull off the road, so everyone took their turn observing the animals as they slowly passed by. The driver in front of us was didn’t like being held up. So he pulled out into the oncoming lane to pass the hold up (not safely I might add). The driver in front of him also pulled into the oncoming traffic lane, and was heard to say, “Wait your turn like everyone else.” He held in position in line until the car behind him pulled back into the line of traffic. We both laughed and said good for him, but also thought it somewhat dangerous to challenge a road rager.

But back to the animal stories…Late last evening we pulled off the road to photograph an Antelope. Someone pulled up behind us, and told us they had just seen a Grizzly near the Ranger Station in Lamar Valley. So off we went, leaving the Antelope to graze alone. When we arrived at the Grizzly site, we found that it was so far away that we would not have known it was a bear without someone confirming it. We got out the binoculars and watched it for a short while. Then headed back to the Antelope siting. Hopefully another Grizzly will cross our path at a distance which makes it recognizable.

Needless to say, we’ve taken hundreds or photographs, or more accurately Sal has. We’ll continue to post as we observe more wildlife over the next couple of weeks.

After about 45 days with DH 24/7, I decided we both needed a little space. So I stayed in camp today. I have some bookkeeping work to do, and I’m sure Sal is enjoying his solitude also.

Thanks for traveling with us…
Fay

P.S. After attempting to post this for two days, we've discovered that we have serious problems getting photos uploaded to photobucket. So as we are able to upload photos we will include them. Meantime, since simply posting updates on the blog have proven to also be difficult, we'll do our best, but can't guarantee regular updates. Thanks for your patience.