Yellowstone – Pronghorn and Osprey and Bears – oh my!

No matter how much you read about Yellowstone, you cannot fathom its size or diversity without a visit. The two million acre park sits on one of the largest volcanically active sites in the world. It’s the site of several huge volcanic eruptions, and was forged by glaciers, geologic uplifts, fires and lava flows. The mountains, canyons, rivers, and serene valleys are nearly a continent in themselves. Along with the geysers, bubbling mudpots, flowing thermal features and – of course- the wildlife, it is awe inspiring and grander than you can imagine.

On this day, we had a specialty guided tour, just our naturalist and the two of us. The highlight of the tour was when we stopped to take a hike along the rim of the Yellowstone river – across from the road where most tourists view the river and Tower Falls. We’d heard from a ranger that a black bear was headed over the ridge toward the area where we planned to stop. sure enough, 5 minutes into the walk, we spot the bear ambling along, and a family, blissfullly unawares, just about 50 yards from the bear. After shouting words of warning, and watching some scrambling among family members, we were in a great spot to watch the bear as it walked along not far from our path. We tailed the bear at a fair distance and I got some reasonable video of the handsome black bear. Pausing on the bluff over the river, we could look across to osprey and their nests on the sheer walls. We also saw crowds of people. It kind of felt like being in the zoo, wondering who was watching whom.

As it turns out, we were being watched – and filmed. Another touring family met us as we returned after our hike and showed us their video of us on the bluff – and the black bear walking just below the rim where we sat. They’d been viewing us from across the chasm. That video is in the blog posting just before this one.

We’d seen another black bear, and a far off grizzly. We’d hoped to sight one of the wolf packs, but they were not granting visitors today. Apparently there are a lot of changes going on in the various wolf communities, and their hangouts are not as predictable as they have been in years past. The wolves have had a lot of impacts since their reintroduction in 1995, and mark a real success for naturalists hoping to get Yellowstone closer to its true natural state.

The elk, bison, pronghorn were pretty readily seen. It was a treat to spot a group of bighorned sheep on a cliff wall. The two kids scampered and played. It was almost too much like an animators rendition of their antics. Later, we came across mountain goats with whiter, fluffier coats. Birds of prey, robins, bluebirds, osprey, and a few marmots and other smaller critters. A very rich day.