YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

Last evening, despite my best intentions, I once again ended up in Soda Butte Valley looking for the Lamar Canyons.  I was curious if they were still in their new location or had move.

Several friends were already out in the valley and watching when I arrived but had not spotted anything, which gave us time to chat and catch up.

Visitors, seeing a crowd parked at the pullout went and parked their own cars and walked down to us to either ask questions or eavesdrop on our conversations.  It is oh so difficult to have a private conversation in Yellowstone.  One can mention carcass in a whisper and someone will shout, “Did you say carcass, where is that?”  Some things are best not talked about out loud.

But, we had some friendly folks who were asking lots of questions – so many that my voice began to fade and I begged them to stop.  It is clear that we need some interpretive rangers in Lamar Valley, who can answer questions because people have so many that one person can not answer them all.

Finally, a wolf was spotted but they weren’t going to tell me where because they did not want me to tell Rick. The wolf was Spitfire and I watched as she exited the forest and stood in the clearing and looked down at us.  In my heart I felt like she was disappointed that she had not escaped the prying eyes by moving to her new location.  She looked at us a moment and then went and laid down in the deep grass where we could barely see her.

Then both Rick and Kathy let me know that they were seeing pups in a slightly different location than mom and in a spot where I would not have found them.  I took a few shots, set my video to record and walked back to the pullout to make sure everyone there was able to see the pups before continuing my own quest for images – despite a very long distance.

I was so excited, when looking at my images last night, to discover that I had finally captured a ghost image of the grey pup.  He blends in so well that I did not know he had been out in the open.  You have to look hard to see him – or his pink tongue and the outline of his face to the left of the blurry blacks.

The pups were not out for long and seemed to be moving deeper into the forest so I decided to get away from the craziness of the crowds and the cars constantly stopping in the road to ask questions.  I made a decision last night about the constant barrage of cars stopping in the road and their occupants calling me away from my own activities to answer their questions, and that is to stop engaging with them.  Just ignore.  If someone wants to pull over and come up and politely ask, I will show them everything and tell them everything they want to know.  I am not their tour guide and am in the park for my own benefit, which means that rudeness is not something that I have to respond to.  One woman this morning, when I told her that she could pull over to see, told me, “Just answer the question!”  Afraid not lady!  LOL

So, I left to find a bear. Out to Little America I went and it was so quiet that I had few hopes of actually finding any wildlife.  Luckily, I decided to go as far as Boulder where I found Scarface ambling across the landscape, going to a carcass that is probably about finished. It was not long before the crowd gathered around but Scarface had gone down into a little hole where the carcass was and where we could only see bits and pieces of him.  A friend who had never seen the old guy stopped and I got so excited that she would finally see him – if even just a butt!

Welcome back to our side of town Scarface – he had been up at Washburn for quite awhile but back in our neck of the wood since I found him in Lamar a few days ago.

The problem was that we could only see Scarface from on top of a rock and so some children joined me and I lifted them up so they could see.  That is until one nearly broke my back.

I have so much fun with crowds and Scarface sightings.  This one was great because the area was closed for the carcass and so no one could go too close and the crowd was super anxious to see a grizzly.  While everyone was standing around, hoping he would come up out of the hole I told the crowd the story of Scarface.

“You are seeing the most famous bear in all of Yellowstone,” I told them and that got everyone’s attention.

People started firing questions and once again my voice was having problems and so I told them only a couple more before I had to shut up.  Some folks took advantage and came over to ask several questions.  I love how interested everyone was and do believe that it made a difference to these people that someone was taking the time to tell them what they were seeing.

I drove home a little high on life and finally feeling some energy.  So much so that I grilled a steak and potato for a wonderful evening meal.  And then I even managed to edit a few photos!  Kind of overdid things though because my cold is not doing so well again today.

This morning I bypassed the Lamar Canyon crowd, even though Kathy let me know that some parking was available, and went looking for Scarface again.  Or any other bear.

Got to Boulder in Little America and was told that a grizzly had just gone out of sight down by the river. As I was scanning, looking for the bear, I found a wolf standing next to a boulder, in the sage, looking our way!  Given that it was a grey wolf – Nike Swoosh, a yearling female from the Junction Buttes, it was quite a find. But, once I said wolf the crowd grew and people were hounding me for the location.

I was just using binoculars and kept losing her so it was difficult to point them in the right direction.  Finally, I got wise and went and set someone’s scope up on the wolf and after that everyone was able to find her.  And, even see her with naked eyes as she passed way below us. I found her again, running across a hill, making for a road crossing and was able to get stopped and grab the camera in time to get a few shots of her running, right before she crossed the road in front of me.

Soon there was a big crowd and a couple of tour groups that were able to watch the wolf for quite a while as she traveled across the landscape.

Nine A.M. and my day is already made.