Scenery, scenery, BEARS, BISON, scenery….

What a day in Yellowstone! We had been a little disappointed in the lack of wildlife this visit. We had seen a few elk, and some bison off in the distance, but not much else. Then came today! We decided to travel along the eastern side of the park and saw some beautiful alpine scenery as we went to Tower Falls and the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.”

Alpine beauty

On the road between those two areas, we saw a lot of cars stopped, a sure sign that someone has spotted something. It was a young grizzly bear playing on the hillside. Of course, we stopped and Jared and I took a couple dozen pictures. We watched the bear for fifteen minutes or so until he crossed the road and went up over the hill to our right.

Grizzly!

We started off again, very excited about our encounter. Not even five minutes down the road we saw a young black bear fattening himself up. We were the second people to stop, so we got some good shots of him too. This little guy was young enough that we kept an eye out for mama, but evidently no one was close enough to cause her to get upset.

Black bear cub

Eventually we moved on and soon came across a large herd of bison, including some little ones, grazing right by the road. I guess they didn’t take all the animals out of the park after all!

Mom and calf

We continued to Lake Yellowstone, enjoying the scenery all the way. We had sandwiches and ice cream at a diner inside the Lake Yellowstone General Store. We have discovered a new flavor of ice cream out here in the West made by a Montana company called Wilcoxson’s. It is called Graham Slam and it is very good. It sounds a little weird, but trust me here! Graham cracker flavored ice cream, with graham cracker stuff swirled through it and chocolate covered brickle bits! If you find yourself in the Yellowstone area, look for it!

We move on to Cody, WY tonight for a rodeo! (7/25 – We elected to play mini-golf instead!)

-David

Tags: bears, bison, vacation, Yellowstone