4/10/18

We didn't have much to post while we were at Thompson's Mills the last few months, but now we are in Yellowstone again and nature is revealing itself nicely.

We arrived Saturday, after taking a week to travel from Puyallup. We hit a little bit of snow on the road between Pendleton and Baker City Oregon, but didn't have any trouble driving through it. We stayed in Pocatello, Idaho for two nights waiting for the snow storm between there and West Yellowstone to blow over. No snow during that drive, but it rained the entire way. We had to go up to Bozeman and around through Livingston, Montana, instead of through the park. Apparently a large sink hole has developed in the road between Norris and Mammoth, so they aren't allowing any travel through that area until they get it fixed.

Now that we're here we've spent a few hours each day driving the north end of the park, viewing wildlife. 

Lots of bison.

 

More elk than last year.

Big horn sheep.

Pronghorn

A coyote.

The osprey is back in the Lamar Canyon and already catching fish to eat.

Two days before that photo, the nest was covered with snow.

Today we saw our first grizzly bear of the season. It is the darkest grizzly we've seen. We would have mistaken it for a black bear if it weren't for the shoulder hump and deep stop on the nose.

The snow is melting pretty fast up at this end of the park. Nothing's left on the road now, whereas we were driving on snow in some places Sunday.

Work starts on Thursday.