Four Wonderful Days in Yellowstone

 

So I thought I'd start off this post with where I left off last time . . . with Raspberry & Jam in Yellowstone National Park.  This is a video taken early one morning, when I was one of the very first to spot them high up on a hillside foraging in the dirt.  I was fortunate to have a front row seat (several hundred yards away) to take a number of photographs and videos of the pair.  It was especially rewarding knowing that in all likelihood, Momma Raspberry would soon be kicking her cub away as this was the start of their fourth spring together. 

You see, most grizzly moms keep their cubs with them for two years, emancipating them at the start of the third.  But this particular bear has been known to keep hers a bit longer.  She also kept her last singleton cub Snow until the start of her fourth year.  It is always a delight to see bears in the wild, but the bears of Yellowstone (and Grand Teton) are seemingly special.  I think for me it is because they remain wild and yet are accessible to the public through the park roads.  The bear known as #399 down in the Tetons has made raising her cubs along the road a true attraction in that park.  There are pluses and minuses, but all in all it appears the bears remain wild and yet also tolerate humans in their habitat.

And while I generally enjoy photographing the grizzly bears, black bears are more often seen along the roads in Yellowstone, so I was able to spend a lot of time with them on this trip.  These are a couple of the solo bears I saw during my time in the park.  Again, they were pretty far away from the road, but clearly visible and in areas where you could safely pull off into a turnout or on the shoulder.

Sometimes however, they are right alongside the road, and you have to snap a photo quickly while stuck in the bear jam with all of the other people wanting to catch a glimpse.  This trio were often seen around Tower Fall between the store and Calcite Springs Overlook, where I did get to watch them for nearly an hour as the cubs played and then napped.  There were way too many people to try to take photos, so I simply enjoyed their presence living their lives as bears.

Enjoying the sight of wildlife just doing their thing is one of the greatest joys of being in Yellowstone, and most other US National Parks!  I used to get really hung up on the "photo I didn't get" for whatever reason . . . bad positioning, poor lighting, user error with my equipment.  I have since realized the real treasure is just sharing space and having the opportunity to watch them going about their lives.  Two such occurrences . . . missing getting a photo of the mountain lion that crossed several cars in front of me up on the Blacktail Plateau and the badger scampering across the road and stopping right in front of me near the Gardner River Bridge heading towards Mammoth.  By the time I got my camera ready to snap a photo, a big RV drove by and spooked the badger into the sagebrush.   Both of these animals are illusive and seemingly like ghosts in the park.  While I have yet to see another big cat in the park, I had some local intel that would have me viewing a badger den for over an hour one morning!

While not the greatest photo, I'm pretty happy that I was able to zoom in enough to capture this pair roughly 50 yards out from the parking lot at Slough Creek.  At times the cubs (yes badger young are also called cubs) looking like little rolly polly fur balls as they played with their mom.  The oooohs and aaaaaws could be heard from the group of 20-25 people watching them.  This was one of the most unexpected sightings on this entire trip!

Imagine my delight when a couple of hours later I got to see this badger along with its coyote pal known in the park as "Limpy" running across a ridge in Lamar Valley!  There are ongoing studies of the symbiotic relationship between badgers and coyotes, and I had heard stories and seen videos of this pair, but I never expected to have a chance to see them going about their daily business.

Limpy is well known in the Lamar Valley area due to the distinct limp suspected to be from being hit by a vehicle. In this photo you can see the noticeable atrophy of its right rear leg.

Truly I was in the right place at the right time, and able to safely snap a couple of photos while sitting in the back-up of traffic as people enjoyed the chance encounter with the pair.

I suppose this wouldn't be a good blog post about Yellowstone if I didn't include at least a photo or video (or two) of the iconic bison known to be here dating back to the Native Americans who depended on them for their very survival.  Bison have flourished in Yellowstone, so much so that they have had to cull the herds in recent years.

Here are a couple of videos I took of bison in the park.

One of the best reasons to visit Yellowstone (or any area known for wildlife) in the early summer, is for the opportunity to see the young.  This year's young bison and bears did not disappoint!

Last summer I set a goal to walk the Midway Geyser Basin boardwalk and see the world famous Grand Prismatic Spring.  I was happy to finally feel healthy enough to make the one-mile walk into an area known for the strong smells from the thermal features.  And here's the photographic proof!  On this particular morning, it was breezy and a bit foggy at the entrance to the walkway.  A tour bus has just pulled in before me so it was good that I arrived early.  By the time I had walked the boardwalk and taken my photos, there were long lines in either direction to enter the parking lot for this area.  This was the first time I realized that the summer crowds in the park were significantly higher than what I experienced last year after the floods of June 13th all but destroyed the summer tourism season.