Tuesday, July 7th - Yellowstone to Deer Lodge

First of all I want to say that I am writing these quickly to try and get them "out there" so the writing is by no means my best...I could do a better job if I took more time but for now this will have to do!  I also am not a photographer...I have no idea how to really use my camera or photo software so things like the light and brightness often don't look right.  I also only have a 35 mm lens which isn't good enough for a lot of wildlife photos.  I'd like to be better at it but right now just having the photos for the memories and to show my kids what I've been doing and that will have to do.  It's also taking far more time than I thought to upload photos, etc. so I'm not taking much time on layout, etc.

I slept in today...but was still the first one up and about in the campground at 7:15.  I was wiped out from not getting much sleep the night before due to whatever animal was under my cabin, and then being up since 4 a.m.  I had a leisurely camp breakfast while taking down my tent.  Is there any better breakfast than one cooked at a beautiful campsite on the banks of a river on a beautiful blue sky morning in the wilderness somewhere? 
I don't think so!  The view from my site at Slough Creek.

This family of ground squirrels was very entertaining...the babies were constantly playing, wrestling, doing somersaults down the hill and digging practice holes.  I  had no idea they could be so funny!




I had decided not to go back to the Druid den site because I knew I'd be too tempted to stay and wait for something to happen, but I did drive back out to Lamar to see if anything was on the carcass from last night.  Nothing was there so I turned around and stopped at the Buffalo Ranch to take a picture of Druid Peak.  I glanced down to the river as I got out of the car and it looked like a bear down there.  Sure enough, big griz!  I got my scope out and watched him as people began to stop and look too.  He was tearing up a carcass, you could see the skin stretching when he pulled it up.  I love seeing how powerful they are!  A small, radio-collared coyote came into view nad made a half-hearted attempt to grab some meat but the bear swatted him away.   I watched him for a good half hour or 40 minutes and finally decided I needed to hit the road.  There was a black bear with two cubs of the year across from the Yellowstone

 River Picnic Area (I know that these locale names mean nothing to people who don't go to Yellowstone regularly but I'm putting them in for those of you who do).  Of course people were getting way too close. I was ready to say something to some of them but a ranger showed up so I left.  I took this from the road.  I will never understand why people think it is ok to stalk/pursue wild animals, especially bears/wolves/bison.  There's the danger factor but there's also the fact that it's often a hungry mom trying to get enough food for herself and to feed her babies...any additional stress on them is harmful, such as making them change their course because you're approaching too close.  Ok...off my soapbox for now :)   )  There was also one lone bull elk.  Again, people 20 feet away.  You can see in the picture how close someone was.  It was like in Mammoth when people try to pose their kids next to the elk.  I also met someone who watched a man trying to feed grass to a bull bison!

I headed back toward Mammoth, stopping by the pullout where you can sometimes see the Blacktail Wolf Pack's den area...but none of them were there today.  I took the route through Mammoth and then back down through Madison and West Yellowstone.   For those of you who haven't seen it, this gives you an idea of the fire damage and regrowth 21 years after the huge fires in 1998.

There was one bull elk out at Gibbon and then a few more along the banks of the Madison. I only saw one bison after leaving Little America.  The number of bison in the park is very low right now.

I drove Hwy. 191 north from West Yellowstone.  It's sometimes good for wildlife sightings, but not today. The Gallatin River is very pretty...it eventually feeds into the Missouri.



It's a pretty drive alongside the river some of the way and a road I hadn't been on before.  I saw lots of fishermen along the way and saw both an osprey and an eagle trying to catch fish.

 I'm now camped in Deer Lodge, headed up to Choteau tomorrow, not sure of my route yet.  I'll probably explore some other new roads and drive Lincoln Pass and maybe will backtrack to Helena for a short stop at the Historical Society.
© 2009 Tara Morrison