Through the end of September

9/24/2020

July 22^nd was clear of most of the smoke from the California, Oregon and Idaho fires that we could actually see the smoke plume from the fire just over the hill from us.

The smoke from that fire is blowing away from us, as is the fire, but the smoke has closed the road between us and the southeast a couple of times making for horrific traffic messes.

On the 23^rd we drove around to the canyon area. Along the way we saw a great blue heron in a tree over the Firehole river.

A little farther down the Firehole river we saw an Osprey looking for breakfast from the top of a tree along the river.

We drove out to the Lamar valley the 26^th, with a side trip through Firehole Lake Drive. We were lucky enough again to be there as Pink Cone Geyser started erupting. We decided to watch it for the entire eruption this time. It turns out, Pink Cone Geyser erupts for up to one and one half hours.

On September 2^nd we left early for a shopping trip to Bozeman. It was a cold morning and there was a lot of steam coming off the Firehole River.

As we drove toward the west gate, the sun came up and burned off much of the fog. Mt. Haynes was bathed in the increasing sunlight.

A little farther on more fog hung low along the hills.

September 3^rd found us in the Canyon area again. It was the beginning of the bison rut, so we sat in the truck watching the bison do their thing.

We stopped at the Mud Volcano and walked around the lower boardwalk. Things have dried out considerably, but it leaves interesting mud formations.

There are a few areas that still have water.

After we left the Canyon area we went into West Yellowstone to pick up a few supplies and saw an eagle, having a bad hair day, in a tree along the Madison River.

September 4^th we went back out to the Lamar Valley and watched hundreds of bison.

Surprisingly this late in the year there are still a couple of very young bison who must have been born late in the season.

When we got back to the Old Faithful area, the soke plume from the fire nearby was easy to see.

A day later, with higher temperatures and stronger winds, the fire increased in size, causing the park service to close the pass between Old Faithful and West Thumb which caused a miles long backup. It took us three and aa half hours to drive what usually takes less than an hour.

It did give us a chance to discover another Osprey nest that we hadn’t seen before, even though we drove past it many times.

The night of September 7^th brought four inches of snow to the Old Faithful area. We drove around the lower loop, to Canyon on the 8^th to see the area covered in snow since we didn’t get to see it earlier in the season. The snow also did a great job of knocking down the fire.

 

The recycle bins had the look of cartoon faces with the snow on them.

There were quite a few bison in the Hayden Valley finding grass under the snow.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is always spectacular with a blanket of snow on it.

The 9^th of September we took a drive to the Lamar Valley. As we were driving through the Midway Geyser basin we saw, what we think was, a red tail hawk sleeping in a tree.

Just south of Mammoth is Swan Lake Flat, where we saw a couple of sleeping swan in the lake.

Besides the many bison we saw in the Lamar Valley, there was a small herd of pronghorn.

We were working in the Old Faithful store on the 10^th when we noticed that Giantess Geyser was erupting. It hadn’t erupted since 2003, but erupted again on the 12^th while we were there.

On the 15^th we drove out to West Yellowstone, with the intent of returning after checking our PO box. As we were driving out, there was a miles long backup due to people stopping in the road to watch a herd of elk. Since it was going to take us hours to get back in through that traffic jam, we decided to drive down to Jackson Wyoming, via Mesa Falls and up through the Tetons.

As we drove out along the Firehole River we saw this Osprey trying to gets its head screwed on right.

Due to our late start, we didn’t drive down to the Upper Mesa Falls, but we did stop to take a couple photos of lower Mesa Falls.

Driving up from Jackson to Teton National Park, along Moose-Wilson road we saw a moose in the meadow. Had to take the shot through some trees because they had blocked off most of the parking in the area.

Smoke from all the fires in the west made it difficult to see the Tetons through the haze.

Driving around the lower loop on the 16^th, we saw people getting too close to some elk near Lake Yellowstone.

But, at least there was a calf in the herd.

Just outside of Canyon Village, towards Norris, was a grizzly bear on some sort of dead animal that we couldn’t see. The bear never did raise its head while we were there.

Down at the Madison river we saw a couple of elk in the river.

In the Firehole River Canyon we saw the Mountain Goat on the side of the hill above the river.

The 17^th we returned to the Lamar Valley, where a herd of bison were crossing the Lamar River.

But the smoke made it difficult to get good photos at times.

The colors are really changing fast up here.

On the 19^th we heard from coworkers that a grizzly bear was seen along the Yellowstone river canyon feeding on an elk and that it had been there for a couple of days. After work that day we decided to drive up to the area where the bear was reported and see if it was still there. It was. As it turns out, the nine year old boar grizzly bear had taken down a bull elk that had been injured during a fight with another elk in rut and wanted to make sure no other animals could get a meal off of it. I’m told there’s a video online of the take down. If you aren’t into mother natures way of feeding predators, you might not want to watch it.

He is one of the fattest bears we’ve ever seen. After having eaten, his belly actually touched the ground as he sat up. Mostly he just laid on the bank of the river, above the elk, and kept an eye on it so he could chase away any interlopers. It's our guess that he will have no problem making it through the winter, though he may have indigestion for a while.

We worked at West Thumb, near Grant Campground, on the 20^th. While we were working a doe elk and her calf came to eat in the grass meadow behind the store.

We went back to see the bear on the 22^nd to see if it was still there or if other animals had gotten to the elk. The bear had partially buried the elk and was sleeping right next to it.

On the way out of the area, the bear had gotten up to turn around.

After stopping by to see the grizzly in Canyon, we drove up to the Lamar Valley. We took the Blacktail Plateau dirt road just for a change and to see the fall colors up there.

Near the end of the dirt road there was a bit of a traffic jam. A very young cinnamon black bear was looking for food along the road.

A second one was across the gully on the side of a hill. They seemed too young to have been kicked out of the den by their mother, but no one could see the mother, so we were all kept an eye out for her. We were able to get these shots from our truck.

On the way back, near Phantom Lake, we saw a large herd of bison coming over the hill just to the north (right) of us. Fortunately there was a turnout on the south side of the road, so we pulled across the street to sit and watch them come down the hill directly toward us.

They crossed the road right in front of us, stopping traffic for quite a while.

They went down into the gully on our side of the road, around the back of a copse of trees and brush, then came up through the brush towards our truck.

From there they went back across the road and up the hill they had just come down.

Hoping to get there before everyone else did (and see the wolves that had been reported hanging around), we left the trailer at 6:30 in the morning on the 23^rd and got to the bear about an hour and a half later. We should have left a lot earlier because there was no parking available within about a half mile of where we could get a decent photo of the bear. We did get some great photos of a beautiful sunrise as we were driving through the Norris and Canyon areas.

We drove around the rest of the lower loop and saw these elk along the Yellowstone Lake shore near West Thumb.

We also saw more fall colors on our drive.

This will be our last post for a while, since we will be leaving Yellowstone next week after our last four days of work this weekend.