Yellowtone part 2: Wildlife

This will be my last post about Yellowstone. I’m sure Kris will post some Yellowstone pictures later on, but this is it for my pictures.

There are quite a few really good wildlife spotting opportunities in Yellowstone and we focused on two of them. Spots that are very easily accessible with a vehicle, so you don’t have to do any back country hiking (considering that we had Grizzly with us, we wouldn’t have been able to do any hiking anyway).

There’s Lamar Valley, which is located in the remote northeast section of the park between Tower Junction and the Cooke City entrance. Lamar is perfect for viewing grey wolves, elk, bison, bald eagles, antelope, moose, black bears and grizzlies. The Valley has the largest concentration of grizzlies and wolves in the park. You definitely want to make sure you bring a spotting scope because the animals aren’t always close to the road.

Last year we were lucky to see some wolves in the valley, but this year things were pretty quiet around there.

The other perfect wildlife viewing spot is Hayden Valley. This valley is centrally located in Yellowstone, and occupies about 130 square kilometers of the park. As you drive along this valley you are likely to see herds of bison, elk, and occasionally some grizzlies (this is were we spotted our very first Grizzly a few years ago).

The wonderful thing about Hayden Valley is that there are numerous roadside turnouts, offering views on both sides of the road. Not only are those amazing spots for wildlife viewing, but the turnouts are also very scenic and allow panoramic views of the Valley floor below.

Enough talking for today, here are some pictures:

Big Horn Sheep (with small horns) spotted nearby Gardiner

Pronghorn in Lamar Valley

A lonely pronghorn

Grazing elk at the cabins

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Bison walking on the road

Fighting bison video

Some of the other animals we’ve seen this year in Yellowstone: a Grizzly (see previous post), Bald Eagles, Osprey, Deer, Elk, Mountain Goats, Coyotes and we heard some wolves howl. Pretty successful trip I would say:)