We drove back to the trailer from Mammoth Hot Springs, the countryside on this road is very pretty, with views back to the Hot Springs and some more waterfalls to gawp at. All the time of course one is looking out for BEARS!, although Sally has been saying all week (we have been here for a week) that she wants to see MOOSE! (I have kept explaining that moose are becoming rarer as the YNP stock of ancient forest is depleted due to fires and they are now moving further north out of the park.)
One option on the road to Roosevelt Lodge is to take the Blacktail Plateau Trail, a six mile one way unpaved track. So we did. It is a very quiet but rough road that takes you high up above the main road through alpine meadows with wonderful views,. We hardly saw another car and were able to travel dawdle along, looking at everything. I said that it’s like taking a walking hike in the wilds, but accessible for Sally. Sally said that this must be ideal bear country (more in hope that fact), to which I enthusiastically agreed (crossing fingers). Anyway we had a lovely drive across this countryside seeing some beautiful flowers, willing the bears to appear. Knowing that every corner we turned they were all coming out onto the trail behind us singing and dancing just like a Disney cartoon.
Then there was one! A BEAR, this was a black, Black BEAR. It was on the road in front of us. I got out of the Chevy to get closer, but when it moved in my direction I decided that the Chevy was a nicer place to be. We watched it for some time, I managed to get some pictures of it before it wandered off up the hillside. This was our closest encounter with BEAR, they are lovely creatures (from inside the Chevy), to think that they are there at all seems amazing.
We continued on, Sally said that was lovely, amazing, wonderful, being that it was a black, Black BEAR, and not just a cinnamon black bear, but she really wanted to see a MOOSE!. Lo and behold as we continued, we turned a bend and there ……….. on a big boulder….. sat in the sun……….. was a ….. big……. Marmot! So I took a very nice picture of it before it ran away.
We continued on. Only about half a mile left of the trail. Up ahead a couple of cars had stopped, people were watching. Bison? Elk? A BEAR? We stopped got out and there, only about 300 yards away at the edge of the trees was a MOOSE. For an ungulate they are quite amazing creatures and big! This one was very dark brown with, long legs, a big head, but only a small (early in the season?) rack. We stood and watched for some time, one kind person had a spotting scope so we could see it close up, before it slipped quietly away into the trees.
We were most impressed and as we journeyed on back to our trailer we recounted all our encounters with the wild life in Yellowstone National Park. Both agreeing that the ride along the Blacktail Plateau Trail was a crowning triumph of nature viewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment