YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

We started the morning with a very nice bighorn ram above the Gardner River. We didn’t get many good photos but he was really handsome.

Thirty years ago we frequently saw moose in Willow Flats but the moose population has declined in Yellowstone as well as in Willow Flats, but today we saw a big male close to the road in Willow Flats. Just as I got setup he moved too close to the road for us to be there. As we moved away it walked south but then decided it was time to cross the road. As he crossed I looked back at him and realized just how tall he really was, with the cutest little nubs of new antlers sticking up. So the sighting didn’t last long but it was sure nice to see a moose in Willow Flats where they belong.

My definition of a good day is being in Yellowstone. A great day is seeing a grizzly bear or a wolf. A fantastic day is seeing more than one grizzly or a wolf. Today we had a fantastic day. We saw Mini-Mom and her cub evening before last near the Grizzly Lake trailhead and found her nearby today. It was late in the morning so the light was terrible but they are so cute together. I’m sure Deby will tell you more about some of the cute things she saw them do before we got there so I will just say they were super cute and it was a thrill to see them. And there was a wonderful ranger there managing things and keeping the traffic flowing.

Eventually they disappeared into the trees so we went south. We ended out making a trip into West Yellowstone. As we headed back north we found the Beryl Springs sow and her yearling cub on the far side of the Gibbon River just north of Beryl Springs. We watched them for about 2 hours. They seemed content digging for roots and voles, ignoring us, and taking a short nap. It was a fantastic ending to a fantastic day.