Yellowstone Update

ppine wrote:
Pack dinner to eat on the tailgate. Go out to Lamar Valley and stay out past dark. It is the American Serengeti. Drive under the speed limit in the dark going back to your rig. It is the best thing you can do in Yellowstone without going into the backcountry.

Did Lamar Valley the other morning. You have to get a pass (not hard and only $2 for a vehicle).

The passes come for either the morning or afternoon. Staying after dark isn't an option. Though there were tour companies that were coming out before the gates were open to regular people (around 7:30am)...not sure if they get special access.

It was nice but only saw buffalo in the valley. Some of the tour folks said they saw wolves but on the far ridge like a mile away but they had left before we got a chance to see them.

On the way back, though had a great bear sighting. Adult Black Bear wandered up the hillside crossed about 15ft behind the truck and kept going up hill. We circled around to see if we could catch another view and then he came back down the hill in front of the truck. Wandered on the road for a couple minutes, looked back at us and then wandered back down the hill.

We've had better luck in Haden Valley this week. Buffalo are almost a nuisance. See Elk including big bulls with full racks every day (often within 30-50ft), had a coyote trot along about 40ft from the truck. Even saw a martin cross the road.

And the really nice thing is at most, there have been maybe 10 cars lined up a couple of times. Most of the time it's a car or two, so if you are trying to get elsewhere, it doesn't delay you more than a minute or so.