EN ROUTE TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

The dump at the Lewis & Clark campground is currently being reconstructed and expanded and still no water being turned on as yet.   Following various phone calls to find a dump station that is available and open, we find one in Bozeman on the way to Yellowstone.   

(A lot of stations are closed due to either freezing pipes that burst through the winter& in need of repair, or no water being turned on as yet).

EWW!

Get all hooked up and ready to let 'er fly, but there is a problem.   

This station had overflowed with sewer (pipes must've burst and blocked) - somewhere in the vicinity was a hole which Marc didn't see and stepped in (up to his calves)!

Fortunately, the water was working and he hosed off!

Across the street was a clean, functioning dump station.

"A crappy start to one's day!"

Yellowstone is under three hours from the campground.

Paradise Valley

Nearing Gardiner, the nearest town to the North entrance of Yellowstone where you can do laundry, eat out, drink coffee buy groceries at the one market (as the season opens, raft rentals, bike rentals, and tour bus tours start here).

Population of approx 850; five miles to Mammoth campground.  

My  rendition of a "Welcome to Yellowstone" sign

MAMMOTH CAMPGROUND

(Yellowstone National Park)

6200 ft elevation

A little insight into finding a campsite in Yellowstone (and this is the 'quieter' side of Yellowstone.

Marc spent weeks at all times of day & night going on line to see if there were any cancellations.  Officially a lot of campgrounds do not open until end of May.  This campground is the only campground open year-round in the Park.  

Managed to get us in for three nights here and three nights in another site.  Rates are $25 U.S. no hook ups.

What is frustrating is, sites are booked, the people don't cancel and the park is not allowed to 'give' the spot to anyone else.      People book and pay a year ind advance.     We witnessed a lot of empty sites during our six night stay.   The campground is not allowed to give up your site if you do not show.

Last year, they had first-come first-serve policy and it turned out to be a nightmare with people lining up at 4 am and causing traffic jams with line-ups along the two lane highway.

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS HOTEL

Mammoth Hotsprings is five minutes up the road from us (ten min walk up a winding hill) where there is a small grocery store, gift shop, info centre/museum, medical clinic and the famous Hot Springs Hotel (pictured here).   

Heard that the rates start at $300/night U.S.

The day before this photo, the bison filled this field with their babies.   Today, you wouldn't know they were around.

We arrive mid afternoon and set up, go to Mammoth Hotsprings:

Our first afternoon at Mammoth & we see momma bison and babies everywhere - and people trying to take pictures of the young babies with their cell phones - moms with babies are running along the streets and people are standing behind signs with cell phones, thinking they're safe.

 Park rangers are telling people to get back, yelling "you're too close!"

WELCOME TO YELLOWSTONE 😲

(Feeling fortunate to have a long lens!)

This is her "I'm soft and cute" look. 

.... dare you to come pet my baby!

LAMAR VALLEY

(one hour east)

First day, we head to the Valley where we hope to see some wildlife.

LAMAR VALLEY (east of Tower-Roosevelt).   Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Village has been closed for a couple of years due to construction (working on bridges and road repair).

We see a black bear on the hillside 

It is here that we meet up with a couple from California with a scope.   They noticed the bear as it came over the crest of the hill.

Scoping is something 'new' to us.   People will go out around 4 am and are either watching 'wolf families' or 'grizzly dens.'

These are people that come to the park over the years and know where the animals rear their young.   Some know the animals by their numbers, given to them by Park Wildlife Staff.  Most scopes are capable of viewing the animals and behaviours from three miles away.   These followers have come to know all the animals and how many offspring they have, what happens to them over the years.

Further up to Lamar Valley, we once again meet up with the California 'scoper.'     As soon as someone is pulled over, off the road, people gather.   We ask what he is finding.   It is a resident Mountain Goat (that he knows lives in this region), high up on the ledge.   

With the naked eye, we can see a tiny white dot.   I look through his scope and you get a good view of the goat - this is about a mile away, taken with my camera (1-400 mm lens)

This is what I managed to capture with my 400 mm lens (with 2x extender).

Lamar Valley dotted with bison and pronghorn antelope.   Across the river is a known pair of grizzlies.

Again, we meet up with several scopers watching two grizzlies and the herd of bison grouped up and keeping a watchful eye on the pair.

This photo was again, taken of the herd of bison and pair of grizzlies that are about a mile away.  (Fortunately, it turned out to be a calm passing of the grizzly pair as they went to a nearby stream and lied down).

Meal Time for the "red dog!"   (A name locals call young, baby bison)

Speaking of "red" ..   . .  .   . . . . we see, for the first time . . . a

Cinnamon Bear

The cinnamon bear is a highly variable color morph and a subspecies of the American black bear and they are known to exist alongside the mostly black-coloured bears and breed with them.  The color morphs are often intermixed in the same family; you can see a black-coloured female with brown or red-brown cubs.

Like black bears they are omnivorous.   Their diet includes fruit, vegetation, nuts, honey , insects, rodents, fish and some carion.

He/she looks unhappy here but there was no growl and we were watching from high up on a bridge deck.    Maybe the bear is unhappy just because we are there and too high up to get us!

The bear ate and meandered then swam across the shallow river.

On our way back from Lamar Valley we see a herd of female (ewes) and young bighorn sheep. 

There are about 10 to 13 interbreeding bands of bighorn sheep that occupy steep terrain in the upper Yellowstone River area.  

In fall the bighorns enter mating season - this is when they get into fights and clash their horns together to determine dominance.   Lambs are born in May or June.  

Females give  birth to a single lamb.  The young crew earned at approximately rive months of age - males lave their mother and join a 'bachelor' group at 2-4 years of age while female lambs typically stay with their mother' group their entire lives.  

BACK AT BASE CAMP

Our view from site #22

The end of this post. 

 

Next post will be more and more wildlife and some stories about how crazy people get in order to view and photograph wildlife. 

 For the most part, things are quiet during our stay.   Apparently, after May 30th the park pretty much triples with tourists.   The true wildlife seekers then hike in the back country or return in late fall. 

4.86 million visitors entered Yellowstone National Park in 2021.

Yellowstone is huge - 3,500 square miles.