5/7/17
We have been at the campground since the 21st of April.
Until this week we've had quite a bit of snow, up to 4 inches one night. It has
all melted off at the elevation we are at 6800 ft, but there's still
significant snow above 7500 ft.
Just to give you an idea of how much snow we had here is a
picture looking back toward the campground, from Gibbon Falls.
The last couple of days has gotten into the 60's and low
70's.
There has been a sow grizzly with her one plus year old cub
feeding around the Norris area every day, since we got down to the campground.
We were able to get a great shot of them on one of our days off.
Then the cub sat down to check out one of its paws. It was so cute!
The bison have begun having their calves and we have seen
Osprey nesting, bald eagles and this year we saw a Golden Eagle near the Gibbon
River.
On our drives between Mammoth and the Lamar Valley we've
seen a cinnamon black bear.
On one of our trips through the Lamar Valley, a bison gave
birth to a calf that didn't survive. Two wolves that live in the area noticed
it and tried to get the dead calf away from the mother. We watched for an hour
or more while the wolves tried and the mother bison chased them off over and
over, apparently not able to accept the death of her calf.
On the 30th, we were up in the Norris area and saw the sow
and cub grizzlies again. Penny got a great shot of the cub standing up in the
middle of the road looking at all the people taking photos of it.
We also went up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Only
one overlook was open, so we got a photo of ourselves with the lower falls in
the background, while it was snowing.
This last weekend, we drove to Cooke City, outside the
northeast entrance, with our hiking buddies. On the drive, we saw a black bear
at Tower Junction and a bunch of Red Dogs (baby bison) in the Lamar Valley.
On our way back to the campground, we saw a red tail fox in
the sage brush, trying to find a meal.
Swans, sandhill cranes, blue herons, osprey, eagles, bighorn
sheep, pronghorn and marmots filled out the remainder of the day.
