I nervously watched the weather reports all week, but nothing developed to keep us from going (not even the cold that I caught). Friday was windy, but sunny. Our first photo op of the day was a golden eagle. He even stayed put while we turned around, went back, and got a few pics. That's pretty rare for a golden. We were almost to Gardiner when we spotted a bald eagle ~ the first of the season.
Considering winter's short days, we decided to head right into the park. Since we only had a few hours of daylight, we saved any hiking for Saturday and drove out to Lamar Valley. It was a good day for coyotes. We saw four!
As darkness fell, we returned to Gardiner, checked into our room, and gave thought to dinner. Since the only restaurant open was just two blocks away, we walked. I was not, however, expecting to run a gauntlet of wild animals! The little doe drinking from a curbside puddle wasn't much of a threat, but the three elk made me a bit more nervous. But we avoided any conflict, and I very much enjoyed my prime rib dinner.
Saturday morning came earlier than I wanted when I was awakened at 5:15 by voices from the room next door. **SIGH** Oh well, I actually wanted to be in the park for sunrise anyway. Unfortunately, the low, dark clouds hid all but a few whispers of pink ~ not the picturesque sunrise I was hoping for.
We headed straight for Trout Lake, hoping for otters. There was just enough snow to mute the entire world around us. The lake was frozen over, and the only fresh tracks in the snow were ours and the animals'. Sadly, none of the tracks were left by otters. We hiked all the way around Trout Lake and over to Buck Lake without seeing anything.
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| No otters, but some pretty reflections |
Our next jaunt came when Dan spotted what he thought was an elk skylined on a hill above the valley floor near the Yellowstone Picnic Area. Upon surveillance with his binoculars, he saw that it was actually a big horn ram. He asked if I wanted to climb up and see if we could find it, and I think that he was a bit surprised when I said yes. (My cold was sapping my energy, but he was very patient with me.) I had always wondered what was over that hill anyway. So we ascended the most gradual side, circumnavigated the entire plateau, and cautiously picked our way down the other side without encountering anything other than a solitary buffalo.
We decided to call it a day and start meandering in the general direction of home. We took the Old Yellowstone Trail on the other side of the river and drove through herds of elk and antelope. Our whole demeanor changed, though, when a small group of big horn sheep snapped us to attention. Were we finally going to get some "sheep action"? We watched two different groups, each with their own dominant ram. Each group also had a smaller ram who was interested in the ewes, but neither was big enough to challenge the dominant one. So, we got "action," just not the kind that we were anticipating.
Oh well, all in all, it was a great birthday outing and a wonderful way to close out our 2017 Yellowstone season.
BONUS PICS
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| This was one of a pair of small coyotes. Maybe this year's pups? |
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| The photo does not do justice to this beautiful fox! |
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| I'm not quite sure what the expression means... |
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| Back off, Youngster! |
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| The other side of the road |
