Day 7: Yellowstone

Today was my day to explore the first ever national park, Yellowstone! This morning it was super cold, which woke me up really early. I used it as an opportunity to see some early morning wildlife, so some time around 5:30am I got out of my tent, made breakfast (oatmeal and tea), got dressed, and headed out! It was nice to be on the roads early since not too many people are out that early. The worst part was the angle of the sun that shined at just the right angle to hit all the big guys and now frozen windshield wiper fluid so that I couldn't see out of it at all. That was remedied by the defroster and the slight turn of the road. The plan was to do the north loop today and the south loop tomorrow on my way out of the park, but since I finished the north loop just a little after lunch I powered through both today.

The day started with a nice scenic point and of course some bison on the road. There was no lack of bison today either. They kind of feel like the elephants on my safari in Africa; really cool the first few times, and not so noteworthy after that. They are still pretty majestic animals. For the rest of the day my strategy was to find groups of people looking at something, pull over, and ask what they were looking at. It serves me very well. The first stop I made with this method was right at a beautiful black bear. I must say, today was the first true time I was so unbelievably thankful to have a 300x zoom lens and a tripod. They too serves me well, like my animal spotting method. I even wish I had binoculars and/or a lens that zoomed even more. If I ever come back here I will have to remember that! Anways, the black bear was super cool.

My first black bear sighting!

After the bear I saw a couple more scenic spots, and then came across another black bear sleeping under a tree not too far from the road! She was really neat to see. Apparently she had two cubs, but no one could find them in the tree, it was just hearsay from people who'd seen her before. Speaking of that, there are people who literally come here for weeks at a time and just sit around photographing wildlife. They will sit in one spot all day watching the same animal of they can, it's nuts! What a life. While see the bear I also saw a falcon (or hawk I don't really know). 

Mama black bear

After seeing supposedly mama bear I made it to the road leading towards the Lamar Valley since I had heard you could see wolves there. I saw some pronghorns, and obviously more bison, and then came across a huge group of people! It seemed exciting, so I parked and went over. Apparently there were some wolf pups and they had chased a baby pronghorn. I didn't see that, and really tried to find them but couldn't for the life of me. I did see more bison though, woo hoo! I did capture their blurry image it looks like when I was looking through my pictures, but it was too far away to get anything good. 

After that bummer miss I kept driving into the valley. I stopped where some people showed me some baby owls in the rock face (once again, thank you 300x zoom). I then saw more bison and then came upon another somewhat gather group. They had spotted a lone wolf. I got out and set up my tripod. This time I could actually see him! He was howling at the pack on the far side of the valley and river, and they were all howling back at him! It was so cool! They other side had a pack of around six, which I again only knew thanks to my zoom, and even then they were kind of blurry and small, but without it I could barely see them as dots unless they were actively moving. I watched the wolves for quite a long time, maybe almost an hour. We were hoping the lone wolf would cross the road, but I got sick of watching. One of the pack wolves came into the middle of the bison herd and they all charged at him, which was cool to see. 

There are owls in the crack, trust me!

So many bison!

The black dot is a wolf, promise.

After the wolves I drove back to the main loop. Not far from where I joined back up to the main loop I spotted a grizzly bear (don't worry, there was a gorge of sorts between us)! It was actually pretty close, so that was pretty cool. Someone there told me a black bear was out with her cubs a bit back, so I backtracked to see that. Turned out to be the same mama black bear from before and her two cubs were playing in a tree. They were so small and so cute! I missed when they were frolicking in the meadow, but could still see them. It was hard to capture on camera though because of the shadows. 

Grizzly bear!

After the little bears I continued on my journey in the right direction. The beginning of the loops took forever since I kept stopping for wildlife, but it was worth it. I hit some weird traffic that turned out to be because a bison hers was in the road, and eventually made it to some hot springs. From there on out I didn't see much more wild life. A few bison, a bear that wasn't actually a bear, but another bison and the people there before me were mistaken, and two sandhill cranes. Most of the rest of my drive was full of some beautiful scenery and stop to see thermal elements around the park. I even stopped to see Old Faithful! I got a pulled pork sandwich there, which I immediately regretted as I felt so gross afterwards, and then went to see when the geyser would go. Turned out it wasn't happening for an hour so I killed some time and eventually got to see it go. Pretty cool, but not as exciting as seeing the animals. 

Thermal springs

Old Faithful!

By the time I got back to the Canyon Village area I had been for almost 12 hours! I bought some pasta sauce at the general store and made myself some very simple pasta for dinner. It was good but nothing too special.

Overall I had a pretty long and tiring day, but it was only about to get harder. First of all my service here sucks. It's so spotty and nothing will load and I can't even make a phone call. Occasionally there is a bright moment when I can send one text or post this blog, but sometimes even that can't happen. I texted my mom to say I was still alive (since we usually talk during my trip and I haven't been able to here), and I amazed how Koa was doing since he's been sick. She asked if I could make phone calls and I knew something was wrong. My heart started racing and I felt bad so I went to the lodge at the village and called using the pay phone (I don't even remember the last time I used one of those!). After some difficulty I was able to place my call and I found out that Koa passed away this morning. Obviously I was devastated and it pretty much dominated the rest of my night. We had a really close bond and I truly don't think there is any other dog like him out there now, or ever. I will miss him forever and always. I didn't know what to do so I sat in my car for a bit and then decided I needed to talk to anyone, so I drove 5 miles to near where the cell tower is (luckily they show where the cell towers are on the maps) and was able to talk to mom for a while. This will never be easy, but there's nothing I could do. He was well loved and I only wish I could have cuddled him one last time. RIP my sweet Koa, I'll miss you muffin!