Wednesday, August 26-Of Mice and Matchbox Cars

What a night.  I got almost no sleep.  I had fallen asleep very late, and then woke a short time later to rustling sounds.  I turned on a light and looked around.  We had no food in the cabin but I finally spotted a mouse over by our bins of clothes and bathroom stuff.  I hate mice!  He would appear and disappear, I was never sure if there was one or more than one. I couldn't figure out where he had come in.  I tried to sleep with all the lights on, but of course I could not, because I knew he was in our stuff and making too much noise.  So I began looking around for something to throw.  Matchbox cars!  I gathered up all of Jack's matchbox cars and sat on my bed.  The kids continued to sleep, luckily they were very, very tired. 

Matchbox cars make a very effective aresenal against mice.  However, it helps if you have many of them and don't have to venture into the mouse-infested area to retrieve the already-thrown cars to use again.  At one point I ran out so quickly I also used the cabin's shampoo and of course, the little bear-shaped bar of soap. 

That was especially gratifying, for some strange reason, to almost hit a mouse with teddy bear soap.  I discovered the entrance they were using was a tiny gap under the cabin's front door.  They would go out, wait 60 seconds...literally, and then come back in.  I'd throw a car, they'd go out, and the cycle continued.  I was so incredibly tired.  And at Roosevelt, there is no one on duty overnight...there is no 24 hour desk clerk to call.  I was on my own. I didn't think this warranted a 911 call.  I was on my own...me and the mice.  This went on for a while and then I realized they would never leave unless I plugged up the hole. Yes, I should have thought of that immediately but I was a tired mom traveling with kids all on my own and not sleeping well even before this.  It took me  a while.  The only thing I could think of was a washcloth.  So I waited for them to go out (just one at this point, I thought) and I ran over, banged on the door to scare them away from the other side, opened it a crack and shoved the washcloth around the area with the hole, and closed the door.  I bunched it up on the inside and it looked like it would keep them out unless they chewed it.  I waited...5 min, 10 min.  No more mice.  I left the lights on and tried to sleep but every single sound startled me awake again.  The plan had been to get up at 5 to go out for our only morning of wildlife watching this trip, because we were only in the park for one night.  I didn't even fall asleep until after 4:30.  I set the alarm for 6:20 and we were up and out of there by 7. I stopped to get coffee at the lodge and we were on our way.  It was a very COOOOLLLLDDDD morning.  We didn't pack up the cabin, we would be back to do that.  We drove to Lamar, of course.  We didn't see anyone at the Slough Creek Road so we kept going through the canyon. It was a beautiful Lamar morning!  At the very first pullout, there were a lot of cars and people looking back north, across the road, into the sage.  We pulled in, getting the last spot parallel parked by the road.  We jumped out and Rosie (as usual) went to ask what people were watching.  Wolf!  Sure enough, there was a lone black wolf in the sage over there. 

We went to get the scope and - tragedy...we had taken it into the cabin for safety the night before and in my mouse-caused sleep deprivation that morning, I had forgotten it.  Too late now.  We got Jack and Logan into position and showed them the wolf, which at that point you could see even without binoculars.  Then...we heard it.  The black wolf would howl, and there were several wolves across the river to the south that would answer.  The look on Jack's face was pure JOY.  He was so thrilled to hear it, and to be able to see the black wolf without a scope or binoculars. We spent some time looking across the river and finally did spot the other wolves.  Two grays and  a black.  They were far off and hard to see without a scope but visible with the binoculars.  In the middle of all this activity, a bunch of bison had begun to approach on all sides.  They were at the end of the rut but bison are ALWAYS dangerous.  We all crowded around the parking barrier.  They went to the sides and some stayed out by the road.  The black wolf moved off to the east and we wanted to go to the next pullout to look for her but there were bison to close to the car. 

When a few of the closest ones moved away, we made a run for it...shoved Jack in the car and everyone else jumped in.  We had made some nice friends wolf-watching and they left too.  We headed east and scouted the area but no wolf.  Turned around and headed back west, passing our friends...we stopped in the road and compared notes.  She had been seen heading west, so we all went that way, all the way to the Slough Creek Road.  There were so many routes she could have taken, it was just impossible to know where she might have gone.  So, back to Lamar. 

Near Buffalo Ranch, we saw all the wolf-watchers.  Our friend from the motel in Silver Gate was there...he remembered Rosie from our previous trip.  She told him our story and he brought us over to someone else and had us tell her. Rick McIntyre was giving an informal "talk" at the time.  They were all watching some sleeping Druids.  Finally, more Druids!  Just sleeping out in the middle of the valley, near the river.  They told us that the black wolf was probably a lone/disperser wolf that they've been seeing.  The others were probably Agates!  We headed further down to the next pullout and saw several more Druids. No pups though. 

We drove farther down to see if the otters were around but they weren't.  That was ok though, we'd had a great wolf morning!  We went back to Roosevelt to take showers and load up. I went to check out and to tell my mouse story. I left out the part about matchbox cars.  They gave me a full refund on my already paid for room.  I appreciated that very much.  We only had one night and one wildlife watching morning in the park and I did NOT appreciate the fact that I got almost no sleep due to mice,due to a faulty door frame.  I don't mind rustic at all...I know those cabins are rustic.  But it is NOT ok to have mice in the rooms, esp. when we had no food in there. I would rather camp than have mice in my cabin.

We then drove back south over Dunraven Pass again, making no stops this time...there didn't appear to be much wildlife watching going on.  We stopped very briefly at the pullout to look for the Canyon Pack but no sign of them either.  So we headed out and back through the East Entrance.  It's amazing how different scenery looks when you drive the opposite direction.  We headed for Cody, griping about the town of Wapiti, where a few years back the townspeople were griping so much on national tv about the bears in town...most of them having moved from far away to be in wildlife country.  What is wrong with this picture? I know it's wrong to generalize and certainly not ALL the people who live there were doing this but still...that's all I think of when I hear or see Wapiti, Wyoming.

We arrived in Cody and went straight to our campground, the Ponderosa.  We usually wouldn't want to stay at a campground in the middle of a town like this but we figured we'd be doing some many things in town, that it would make sense.  So we stopped and got our spot and then headed for the Sierra Trading Post store.  We went to the camping floor to see if they had replacement poles for our destroyed ones.  They didn't, but the guy working there told us to head to a building supply store and exactly how to ask them to fix them for us.  He was extremely helpful.  We followed his directions and finally found the store.  The person who waited on us at first said he couldn't help us...they didn't carry the items the guy at the Sierra store told us they should use.  He could sense my frustration (or maybe I looked desperate?) and said to give him 10 minutes and he would figure something out. He proceeded to walk around the store, looking very pensive.  He pulled some things off shelves, went into a back room, and emerged  a bit later with the poles and some kind of bracket things on them.  It looked a bit "iffy" to me but he assured us it would work...AND, we could even still collapse the poles!  I hadn't thought of that.  We thanked him profusely, paid our $2.47, and headed back to the campground.  We struggled through setting up the tent with the strange poles...they didn't work quite right, the tent was lopsided, but it seemed like it would stay up.  Then we went to put the rain fly on.
Uh-oh.
The rain fly had been shredded during the windstorm.   In our rush to pack up in the dark, no one had noticed.  We had just wasted 2 hours traipsing aroud Cody to fix tent poles for a tent that now did not have a rain fly.  You simply cannot camp in a tent that doesn't have one.  Maybe I'd do it alone in the backcountry, but not with 3 kids and all of our "stuff".  I was now FRUSTRATED.  And remember, I'd gotten hardly any sleep before due to the mice.  I didn't cry though  :)

So, back to the Sierra Trading Post store.  Our friendly tent department salesman showed us the options that they had for 6 to 8 person tents.  Yes, we have 5 in our family but tent sizes are misleading...a 4 person tent really can only comfortably hold 2 to 3 people, etc.  Plus, we have large dogs that sometimes camp with us.  So nothing smaller would work.  And I refused to get another Eureka. Our large tent that had all the problems in the windstorm was a Eureka that Marc had gotten pretty cheap and it was only a few years old.  On the other hand, our 4 person REI dome tent is 17 years old and still is in great shape. You get what you pay for with tents.

Anyway, we had several options but one of them he told us it took an engineering degree to put together.  I was not feeling particularly like being challenged by a tent at the moment.  We went home with a large Kelty 8 man tent.  It's about the size of Jen C's Taj Mahal tent but not nearly as "cool" looking but that's what they had. 

Back to the Ponderosa.  Rosie, Logan and I proceeded to attempt setting up the new tent.  At one point, Jack (being the wise, observant 6 year old that he is) commented "I should really be video-taping this".  Yes, it was probably that funny. I know I got the giggles at one point.  However, we did succeed in getting it up.  Bonus:  there is a room divider...we could now have a "boy side" and "girl side" of the tent.

We then ceremoniously deposited the old tent and poles in the campground dumpster.  I was NOT about to bring any piece of it home, we didn't have room, and what was the point?

We then headed to a miniature museum.  It was full of small displays of various western scenes...a buffalo jump, a fort, etc. 

There was an electric train that ran around the room which the boys could control and they LOVED that.  They also had many displays of historical artificacts, which of course I loved.  I loved this framed quote of Sitting Bull's too.

Then it was 7:00 and time to head to the rodeo!  The nice man at our campground had told us when to get there, where to park in order to exit quickly, and about the food.  So we planned to eat dinner there.  The gates opened at 7, the rodeo started at 8.  We got good seats and then went for food.  Unfortunately, they didn't have burgers like he had told us but we made do with BBQ pork sandwiches and hot dogs.  The kids liked looking at all the bulls, calves, and horses.  Then when the rodeo began it started with the unbroken mustangs.  Some of them were trying desperately to escape the chutes...banging their heads, necks, legs...it was awful to watch and I was afraid we were going to need to leave.  That was the worst part though.  I can't say I actually liked  a lot of it but the kids had fun and it was certainly festive and interesting.  I don't know that I'll ever go to another one though.  One fun thing that they did was have all the kids come out into the arena and they had a contest.  A bunch of calves were released, 3 of which had handkerchiefs tied to their tails.  The first 3 kids to get handkerchiefs got a prize.  Now if you know Logan, you know he seems like an extremely laid back kid.  But lurking beneath that facade is a kid that is EXTREMELY competitive.  He really wanted to win one of those prizes! 
They had the kids spin in circles and then suddenly said "go".  They all tore out there and Logan snagged a handkerchief and was the second one to return it.  He was totally out of breath, he'd run so hard!  His prize was a round of mini-golf in town.  He was very happy, Jack was pretty disappointed.  It really wasn't fair to have the older kids competing with the younger kids but oh well.

When we bought our food we went in two groups....first Jack and I, then Rosie and Logan.  I gave Rosie $14 for her and Logan to use.  When she came back she told me she didn't have enough money.  This turned into a conversation that gave me a headache...about how many dollars she had, what food she bought, etc.  I marched her back to the food stand where the girls insisted she only gave them a certain amount and that she was in fact short of money.  That was impossible based on what I'd given her.  We discussed it and they finally said they would call us at the end of the night if they counted their tills and were "over".  

After the rodeo we were waiting in line for Jack to get autographs from some of the riders and the "rodeo queen" when the concession stand called...they were $4.50 over and would we like to come back and get it?  Yes, thank you.

We got back quite late for our first night in the new tent.  I was thoroughly, utterly exhausted by this point.  What a day...

Tuesday, August 25 Christmas in Yellowstone in August

We slept in today – we needed it! We woke up at 8:15, packed up and ate free breakfast at the hotel. Jack rode his scooter over to breakfast and then rode like crazy while the rest of us were packing/loading. He needed to burn off that energy!


We left Powell and drove to Cody, where we made stops for gas and groceries. Jack talked non-stop for 20 minutes telling us about his dream involving dad being “buff”, aliens, and his friends Hayden and Ben being involved.  It was extremely complicated but made perfect sense to him.  He has quite a vivid imagination.

The drive from Cody to the East entrance of YNP is beautiful –

 it was much prettier than I remembered – I haven’t been on it for probably 16 years. I love Wyoming!

Sylvan Lake, at Sylvan Pass near the East Entrance to Yellowstone

Yellowstone Lake looking SW

Steam Vents at Yellowstone Lake

We stopped at the visitor center at Fishing Bridge and then made several stops in the Hayden Valley. No Canyon Pack today. No bears either. Just bison....and of course bison jams.  We drove over Dunraven and stopped because we thought people were watching a griz but it was just bighorns, so we went on and scoped at ski slope. Nothing there either! Not a good wildlife day so far.  We stopped for coffee and ice cream at Tower. No bears at Roosevelt. We checked into our cabin and unloaded  our stuff very quickly, and then we were off to the Lamar Valley...one of my favorite places on earth. There were no wolf-watchers anywhere and no sign of anything except pronghorn and bison. We headed way out past Pebble Creek and stopped at the picnic area by the Thunderer to make a yummy pasta and sausage and garlic bread dinner.

The kids gobbled up their salads…we’ve been lacking in veggies! They played soccer and skipped rocks and rode the scooter while I cooked.

Then it was back through Lamar. I finally saw something moving that was a little weird and when we went to get the scope we discovered that the tripod wasn’t there…Logan had carried it into the cabin. Not good! W went back for it and drove west of there to the Blacktail Plateau to the pullout where people scope the Blacktail pack’s rendezvous site. There were no people, and no wolves. No bears either although Rosie and I saw a red fox on the way back, but it was too dark to take a picture.

We decided to take books and go sit by the fire in the lodge (it’s dark early these days).  I have always wanted to spend Christmas in Yellowstone and unbeknownst to me, today was "Christmas in August" all over Yellowstone!  How weird that we would happen to be at the lodge on that night! 

There was eggnog and cookies and hot chocolate, and Santa was there, and kids could make ornaments.

Then a wrangler led us in carols, including the “redneck/wrangler 12 Days of Christmas”.  (My pictures with the wrangler were really dark...these were our song leaders before he got there). 

The bug on my beer

It was actually really fun!  There was a very festive, community atmosphere.  It was a little surreal to be singing carols with  people I've never met, in the middle of a Yellowstone night...but it was wonderful and we loved it!

Monday, August 3 - Wolves, Bears and Bats

What a day! We overslept somehow after a stormy night (of course it didn’t rain the two nights we were in hotels!!) and headed out the Slough Creek Road. Two of our new friends from yesterday morning were there but only watching bison so we thought we’d head out to Blacktail Plateau. On the way we saw one of the “wolf watchers” headed back where we’d come from so we figured something must be happening. We turned around and returned to Slough Creek and there were over 20 cars now. There were 4 wolves from the Cottonwood pack just laying on a bench (and no, I don't mean a literal bench, I mean a geographic feature called a bench  :)    ).

We watched for a while and suddenly they all got up and another wolf appeared. Shortly thereafter Rick McIntyre told everyone to be quiet…they were howling! FINALLY, I got to hear wild wolves howl! I got tears in my eyes…it is such a soul-moving sound. I hear them howl at the Wildlife Science Center frequently but it just isn’t the same.

Then it got better…they all were excited, playful – it was a pre-hunt rally. Then they took off across the bench and up a drainage. Suddenly someone spotted an elk and calf up the drainage. The wolves moved up; the cow and calf saw or smelled them and froze. The wolves split up…two went up and above, one off to the right on a rock and got down on her belly, and a black stayed below her. The elk were still frozen but suddenly they took off and the chase was on. They separated the calf from the cow and chased it down behind a rock where we could not follow. We watched for a long time but they never reappeared. The cow emerged from the woods but very high, looking down behind the knoll. She stood there for a very long time and one of our new friends said he’s seen them stand there for two days. Two days! It was very hard to watch, but on the other hand, the wolves need to eat. It’s the circle of life.

We all moved down into Little America to find a different vantage point. We saw them far off near what must have been the actual kill site. Two more wolves had joined them so we think we saw the entire Cottonwood Pack there. They were pretty visible for a good 45 min. or more. We let a lot of people look through our scope. That is one of my favorite things in life…helping people get their first look at a wild predator. The excitement is so wonderful, whether it’s a child or an adult!  I've seen adults on the verge of tears after seeing their first wolf or grizzly - what a privilege to be a part of that.

We decided to go back to camp and make bacon and pancakes for breakfast, it was such a beautiful morning and the wolves had gone out of sight. Along the road to the campground, Rosie saw a small black bear just going over a rise. As we drove into the campground we saw our neighbors from the campsite across from us headed towards us in their car,but they turned around and backed up and followed us to our site. They got out and we soon saw why they’d returned…a black bear was in OUR site (29 for those of you who camp at Slough Creek)!

Needless to say, I was NOT going to cook bacon! I had parked on the road across from our site and got out, Rosie watched from the sun-roof. The bear was tearing into something in the sagebrush between our site and the next one. I went down to let the campground host know, because this bear has been coming through daily and they are trying to teach him not to come in the campground. The host (who had been watching wolves with us earlier) came down and parked in my site and followed the bear on foot as it meandered past our site and into the meadow that is in the center of the campground.

The campground host was waiting for the ranger to arrive. The wasn’t doing anything wrong other than being there… a bear should not be comfortable being that close to people. But she wasn’t approaching tents or trying to get people food. The ranger arrived when the bear had reached the far end of the campground. We saw her run and knew they’d used the paint ball gun (we remained at our site watching from the top of the picnic table for a better view).

But she didn’t run far and didn’t leave. Then the gun and cracker shells came out. We saw her run off and then heard 4 more shots. Despite the ranger telling people at that end of the campground to leave the area, they had not.

Apparently they had also seen the smaller black bear (the one we passed on the road on the way in) and were attempting to haze her away as well.

I boiled water for coffee and boiled eggs, I figured that was safe. We chatted with the “neighbor guys” who we’d talked to before (the ones who thought we were throwing away our tent) and I decided to go investigate what she’d been eating. I made my way through the thick sage and there was a HUGE ant hill that she had pulled up sage roots to get to.

The thousands of ants were all scurrying around moving things. The guys came over and we were discussing how the bear knew they were there and one of them said they have a citronella-y smell. He caught one and held it up and they do have a faint odor. It had HUGE mandibles! We walked back by our tent and suddenly I felt a bite on my leg and after I swatted at it, an ant fell out! Those huge mandibles hurt! Eventually (seemed like a really long time) a different ranger brought the campground host back and then parked and walked over. “I’m here for bacon!” he said! He thought I’d be ok cooking it now but at that point so much time had passed that we didn’t want to. He took my name, etc. and asked many details of what I’d seen, who was where, what the bear’s behaviour was, etc. Apparently it boded well for the bear that there was no one at that end of the campground when she arrived. But her behavior still is not natural. We had a great discussion with him about all the dumb behaviour we’ve seen (people, not bears) both in YNP and Glacier and how I think they need a test…everyone who enters the park must first pass a test proving that they understand they should NOT approach wildlife (and drag their kids with them), how many feet away to stay from animals, etc. He told us about the rangers' thought: the brain bucket. They think many people leave their brains in a bucket at the entrance station. People who are usually sensible and intelligent elsewhere behave like they have no brain when faced with the prospect of a bison/antelope/elk/bear laying in the sage or crossing the road, etc. I love it…that’s exactly what you see over and over. I mean, the guy who dragged his 4 or 5 y.o. son out to within 15 feet of the huge buck pronghorn…he looked like a sensible person and so did his wife who stayed in the car. I almost stopped to tell her to tell him to GET AWAY but she would probably wouldn’t have listened anyway.

Anyway…we had a great, fun conversation with Ranger John (Murray) and then he was getting in his car to drive away and I was going to mine to move it back to our site parking spot. I saw something brown in between the hood and the bug guard where there’s a small channel. Dragonfly? Bird? BAT!?! The other campers were walking up saying “is that a bat?” I yelled to Rosie and she called (I kid you not, she really said this) “Ranger dude! My mom’s got a bat stuck in her car” and he apparently said “This place is exciting today!” as he went to get gloves. Just as he was doing that it finally worked it’s way out the other side. It flew around the campsite opposite us for several minutes. It was very strange and he was obviously very confused…something was not right, he shouldn’t have been out that time of day to begin with. Rabies maybe?

Bat and bear drama over, Ranger John finally got into his car to leave and we finished our brunch and coffee/hot chocolate and got ready to head over the mountains. I psyched myself up for the scary (for me) drive over Dunraven Pass to get to the Canyon area and the Hayden Valley. That is a road that goes very high and you have times you drive along the edge for a while…I don’t like it! But I went slowly and did it. We stopped for gas at the gas station at Canyon and Rosie got ice cream (huckleberry!) and we were helped by the friendliest gas station attendant ever. She obviously is happy to be working in Yellowstone!

Then we headed into Hayden Valley trying to find “grizzly overlook”.

 (We also realized today was Hayden's birthday, August 3rd...how appropriate that we were in "her" valley, that she was named for, on what would have been her 3rd birthday).

Many of the pullouts have been given names but they are unofficial and not marked. I know most of the Lamar area ones but nothing down in Hayden. We did find it though. Our reason for going there was to see the Canyon wolf pack’s rendezvous site and hopefully, of course, the wolves. There was one guy there who’d been waiting since around 8 a.m. and hadn’t seen them at all. We set up our scope and decided we’d stay until 8 pm (this was around 12:30) and not leave until then unless we saw them. We spent some nice time talking to this older man, whose wife and grandchildren were hanging out in their RV. Occasionally they’d come out but mainly it was him. Other people would come and go too. Around 2 a storm rolled in and we decided to drive down to Lake.

That took about 45 min. and when we got back just after 3 we had just missed the alpha female come up along the woods from the rendezvous site and enter the woods in a sandy spot. Darn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not happy.

Canyon Pack rendezvous site - center of picture in the distance, below the mountains.

We stayed looking again for a while and made a quick bathroom run around 4:30. More and more people were showing up now, some who had seen the wolves early that a.m. or in previous days and some who had just heard (like us) that this was “the place to go”. I absolutely love talking to people while wildlife watching. Sometime it’s the avid wolf-watchers who are there many days of the year and sometimes it is people who are on their first trip to YNP or Glacier and have never seen a bear or wolf. I had a great time talking with so many of them. You really start to get to know people sometimes and then it’s weird…you want to stay in touch with some of them but feel weird saying “can I have your email?”, etc. I’m going to make cards with just my name and email address to use. One woman I talked to a lot lives in Flagstaff and loves Canyon de Chelly like I do and spends a lot of time there and at Navajo Nat’l Monument. I really loved talking to someone who “gets” my passion for that area! We ended up taking her tent and money to get her our site at Slough Creek the next day when we left as she was staying way outside West Yellowstone and had no hope of arriving early enough. Her daughter is a year younger than Rosie. I hope to stay in touch with her. Then there were the two sisters from Germany that I wanted to go have cocktails with…they were hilarious…they turned up repeatedly over the course of 4 hours. There were two really nice guys who had seen the wolves early that morning and who had just come from Many Glacier and didn’t see a single Grizzly! Another guy from CA Rosie and I decided is either an athlete or actor…he had that aura and look. He had seen them the day before and had come back. It was around 7:20 and I was talking to people after we had been watching baby chipmunks. Ok, there are cute baby animals, but have you ever seen baby chipmunks? Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are absolutely adorable. And I forgot to take a picture!  

Anyway, the actor/athlete guys was near me and suddenly said, with his binocs up, “I think…” and I said “do you have her?????!?!?!?!” and got mine over there and YESSSSS – finally! It was the alpha female and her black pup! They were over to the left of the rendezvous site and there was a small ridge there, they’d probably been behind it . How the female got back there without anyone seeing I have no idea, there must be a back way. We only had about a half hour to watch so I made sure Rosie got good scope time. She watched some great interaction with the pup licking his mom’s mouth repeatedly (hoping for regurgitation) and the mom didn’t regurgitate and was sort of biting back. The german sisters had come back from their RV and got to see them as well as some kids who had never seen a wolf. It was great, so much fun! We don’t know where the other 3 adults from the Canyon Pack were. Eventually the female (she doesn’t have a radio collar so no number) seemed to tell the pup to stay put and she started heading off to the left (west). She’d turn back, look back, head west, and turn back again. Eventually we lost her and some of us headed to a hill behind us to take a look. I was on the phone with my friend Bill and made Rosie carry the scope, not knowing how steep it was. We couldn’t see a thing up there so went down and she was NOT happy with me and thought I did it on purpose . The next pullout wasn’t any more successful. One guy and I walked out a ways to peek down at the river channel to get a better view but she was just nowhere to be found. More lightning and thunder were moving in. We finally gave up and headed back over the mountain at dusk. It was very pretty, the sunset and haze turning the sky pinkish and the mountains light blue.

You can see so many layers of mountains from up there. The few times I pulled my eyes away from the road to look, that is.

We stopped at Roosevelt to brush our teeth and wash our faces with warm water and first heard, then saw – two owls calling to each other. We’re pretty sure they were long-eared owls (like I often use for education at the Wildlife Science Center).  That was a great way to end the evening.  We listened for a while, watching them silohuetted against the sky.  They finally flew away and we headed back to our campsite in the dark.  No wolf or bear sightings on the way, unfortunately.

Sunday, August 2 - Otter-Watching and Horseback Ride in Yellowstone

Yellowstone mornings always begin early, and this was no exception.  Even in July, it is always quite cool or  downright cold at 5 a.m. - even in a cabin.  We dressed in our warm clothes, winter jackets and hats and headed for the Lamar Valley. I had been here earlier in July but for Rosie it had been almost a year.  We all love this valley.  On our way, we saw Rick McIntyre stopped at a pullout near the Slough Creek road, but he didn't seem to be actually watching anything so we went on to the valley anyway.  The morning light hitting this valley is so beautiful...the water in the Lamar River glistens and the yellow grasses seem to positively glow at times.  I love to spend my mornings here.

We didn't see any wildlife so we went back through Lamar Canyon and noticed cars parked near the end of the Slough Creek Road.  We were lucky to get a parking spot (they later made people parked along the road move).  We got there just in time for me to see a few wolves that we were told were the Cottonwood Park, a new pack this year whose Alpha Female is a former Slough Creek wolf who was born a Druid - her parents are the infamous 21M and 42F.  They went in and out of sight at one point I was the first to see them reappear again uphill and pointed them out to Rick McIntyre.  Hearing "Good spotting!" from him is high praise, I was quite happy!  Poor Rosie never saw them despite some new friends, Jeff from Alberta and a guy that we thought was named Joe (but we later heard him called Doug we think so we're confused) who manages an inn in Silver Gate, letting her use their scopes which are better than ours.

The wolves were gone so we went to the campground to see if any sites were available and we were very lucky to get one.  Then we immediately went out to Lamar again.  We were driving just before the confluence, where the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek join, when I saw something in the river...it was a family of river otters! 

They are in the park but we have never been lucky enough to see them.  They were so cute...there is just no other word.  They would swim, then float back downriver, then swim again. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsPwvP0-3AI
We were the first to see them but soon there was an otter jam...our first. 

Then at one point the otters came out of the water on the road side of the river and looked as if they might want to come up and cross. 

I tried to get people to stay back and give them some space (you've heard this before) and of course only a few people listened.  I now suspect they had been fed by people and that's why they came out and were looking at us..they were looking for food.  The people talking are not us, except at the end where Rosie (who is taping) makes a comment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vagabondmom1#p/a/u/1/igfHWjaHOtA

These aren't the greatest videos...we're new to video camera use.  But they are better than nothing!

After that we went back to camp to cook brunch but somehow it took way longer than we thought and we had to rush to get to Rosie's horseback ride.  I had promised her a ride in Yellowstone and the longest ride available at Roosevelt Corrals (or Canyon) is 2 hours.  By the time I looked into it they only had one spot open that day so I said she could go alone...not a problem for her, she's a very independent girl (she just might take after me, do you think?). 

Rosie was given a horse named "Spud"...at least it wasn't the one named "Ug".   They left and I spent time reading my book in the shade and watching the other horses play.  I give Roosevelt Corral a lot of credit...I have never seen riding stable horses have such great accommodations and be so happy.  These horses were not tied in the hot sun, they were loose in a large paddock that was surrounded by many trees.  Some of them were chasing each other around and being very playful...that was great to see.

Ouch!

Bison Crossing the Lamar River

The rest of the day was spent wildlife-watcing.