Yellowstone Wildlife

If you can believe it, the last four posts, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, Beyond Old Faithful, and The Grand Prismatic Spring, as well as this one, all took place within a single day, Wednesday, June 17th, of our week-long road trip.

At some point in the middle of it all, we figured we’d try to see if there was any chance we could stay in the park that night. So we called the central reservations line, and lo and behold, they had a cabin with communal bathrooms available in Mammoth Hot Springs, at the very north end of the park. So with that destination in mind, we made a big 130 mile reverse-S through the park to see as much as we could.

Map showing our path from Grand Teton National Park through Yellowstone

Bison by the road — Bison munching by the road

Bison crossing the road — Crossing the road

Bison on the other side — Munching on the other side

Yellowstone Falls, overcast — I really wanted to see Yellowstone Falls (in the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”), but by the time we got there, the clouds had come in, and it was starting to sprinkle. So I wasn’t able to get the best shot in the world. I guess I’ll just have to come back someday

A nice view of Yellowstone River near Tower Fall

Two black bears — Along the way we stumbled upon two black bears in the wild

Cinnamon brown bear close up — Crop of another shot of the cinnamon brown one on the right

Elk — And we caught a glimpse of what we think is an elk

Stephanie posing in front of our Mammoth Springs cabin — Stephanie posing in front of our Mammoth Hot Springs cabin

6 Comments

Josh

Jun 28, 2009 9:13pm

That is indeed a bull elk, though it seems late in the season for him to still have velvet on his antlers.

Geli

Jun 29, 2009 7:49am

Hi Justin – do you think a trip to yellowstone in the early october will be to cold ? – I’ve got 2 weeks vacation – but the earliest date will be end of september – perhaps one week stayin in yellowstone – after this flying to west-florida to have some warm weather ?? Good Idea ? –

justin

Jun 29, 2009 10:41am

Josh, thanks for confirmation. Yeah. I learned all about elk/deer/moose velvet thanks to Google Images. Who knew!?

Geli, October might be too late. A lot of signs I saw said that their primary season is May 1 through September 30. But who knows. If it’s not snowing yet, it might be perfect. Do check out the Yellowstone Weather to get an idea of the average temperatures.

Geli

Jun 29, 2009 10:35pm

Thanks you !
I thought about this, because it was also cool in end of september, as we visit yosemite. Perhaps next summer ;-)

Craig

Jul 2, 2009 12:32pm

I stayed in one of those cabins in 1990. I remember the fragrant wild roses growing about. I hope you’re having a great time, and I’m envious about your trip to Glacier… I haven’t been there yet.

justin

Jul 2, 2009 1:20pm

Hey Craig! Actually in real life, we’ve been back for nearly 2 weeks. I took so many photos and had very little access to internet while we were away (let alone the time or inclination to blog), that I’ve been stretching out the posts from our one week road trip (June 14-21) across the last two weeks.

But yeah, those Mammoth cabins were pretty special. It was like a four-star bed and breakfast, without breakfast or showers! Would have been nice to spend more time. Yellowstone is so massive that we were literally racing through the park to see as much as we could while there was still light and good weather. This was one of those trips where the journey was as important to us as the destinations along the way.

There is something very satisfying, if not meditative, about covering so much ground, moving through landscape like that.

6 Comments

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