Bison Day in Yellowstone

This past fall, we discovered a new entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It starts about 8 miles north of Gardiner, where the Roosevelt Archway resides. You cross the Yellowstone River and head south on a dirt road that travels through acreage that is now part of the park. 

Soon after we crossed the river on this trip, we saw a lot of bison, in areas that we were not accustomed to seeing. These bison had drifted out of the regular park and were looking for better place to eat in the winter. There were 2 reasons for this activity. The vegetation in the park, this time of the year, is not only snow covered but not very rich in nutrients. In addition, there is currently an excess number of bison in the park based on the vegetation and the total population of all species of animals.

We were aware that the hunting season for the bison had been extended in hopes of reducing the population to a number that is inline with the proper sharing of vegetation. We had not traveled far when we started observing swarms of ravens or crows as you might call them. These 2 trees had about 75% fewer birds in them when I took this photograph, as we had frightened them as we stopped to take the picture.

Anyone living in this part of the country knows that when you see swarms of ravens, there is a carcass nearby. What had attracted the birds to this area was the remains of bisons that the hunters were not interested in taking with them, after they killed their target. As we left this area and before we went through the archway, we passed the Gardiner School and football field. Guess what we saw, more bison and pile after pile of bison manure, the remains of them grazing on the grass from the football field.

Then we learned something else. At this time of the year, there is no detention for the students who get in trouble with the school and/or teachers. The problem students are offered a bag, a scoop, and are pointed to the football field to start cleaning up the manure. I guessed this was enough of a deterrent, that the student body was on it's best behavior, and the manure was piling up.

We were soon in the park and we saw a lot more bison. Soon after we headed east from Mammoth Hot Springs we started to see them on the road, and they were not interested in letting us pass. We lost at least an hour of travel time as we headed east and then returned. 

The scenery changed as we spotted a coyote who had just crossed the road and was heading into the trees. There were other coyotes during the day but we needed binoculars to see them.

And it just wasn't just herds of bison heading down the road, it was also bison who preferred the road to the deep snow, and when they got good footing, they decided to do other things as these two were fighting and held us up until they were tired. We didn't dare try to pass them as we might had been rammed by one or both of them.

We had our fill of bison by this time. So we came along a herd of pronghorn, you may call them antelope and this one seemed to be posing for us. Thank you Mr. Pronghorn, we needed a break in the scenery.

But it wasn't over yet, as we were traveling through Lamar Valley, look what was napping in the middle of the road. Not only was there no snow on the road, but by now the sun had warmed it up to the point that it was a comfortable rest.

More of the same until we were heading north of Gardiner towards the bridge we had crossed about 8 hours earlier. As we peered down to the Yellowstone River, we saw this marvelous bird. What a way to end another wonderful trip to the park.

You are probably asking, were there any elk during your visit. There were quite a few but none of them  triggered my photograph sense. We did not see any wolves at all.

Tune in next month and we'll share our next trip through the park with you.

What's different a month later

I researched the wildlife on my favorite Yellowstone web site, forums.yellowstone.net, and came to the conclusion that we needed an early breakfast at Chico and to start our visit early. This was a great idea as we saw a lot more wild life on this trip than on our last one. The elk were much more prevalent and this youngster, standing in the snow was a favorite image. The big boys must have been hiding, but there were a lot like this one.

Although there were a lot of bison before, we got more interesting glimpses of them as they were closer to the road. We thought this one was trying to hide from us but how can a big guy like this find shelter behind a tree.

Soon after we left Mammoth, we rounded a curve in the road and saw a coyote enjoying breakfast. There appeared to be a lot more food that this coyote could consume and we did not see any of it's relatives.

 However, not far away we saw this magpie. If you look closely, magpies do not have any red color around their head, so we guessed that this one had either been feasting before the coyote arrived or perhaps it was able to sneak in and grab a bite. Needless to say, it was not in a hurry to leave.

But the magpie is going to have to wait because look what's in a nearby tree waiting for it's turn.

We had seen and enjoyed all of this and we still had only been in the park for less than 2 hours. Marty had already agreed, that we would have an early breakfast on our next trip to Chico and Yellowstone. Shortly after you pass the Roosevelt junction and head toward Lamar Valley, you travel across a bridge that crosses the Lamar River. We have seen wildlife choose to cross the bridge rather than ford the river. On this day, we watched this herd of bison gather at one end of the bridge and started their journey to the other side. Needless to say, we had to wait until they had all crossed. While we were waiting we observed bighorn sheep in the river valley trying to find something to eat.

On to the Lamar Valley. There were a lot of Bison there as well. The folks with spotting scopes were watching wolves in the distance. As you know, I want to be up close, therefore we kept traveling. Soon after we passed a group of the spotters, I spotted something I could capture with my camera.

As you can see, they were quite a distance away. They were either full or awaiting something to get nearby for them to eat. They were not moving and we watched them for several minutes, they did not move.

On to Cooke City, a bowl of chili and we returned. There was not the wild life on our return with the exception of pronghorn. Before we left the park, we had seen more pronghorn than we had ever seen before. I must have snapped at least 100 photos of them and when we got home, this was our favorite.

We will return again in another month. Clint will have a new lens for his camera at that time and we'll have to see what is lined up for him to photograph. 

We saw it all except a moose

We spent 2 days in Yellowstone National Park between Christmas and New Years. We saw it all except for a moose. No, we didn't see any bears because they are hibernating. We drove to Cooke City the first day and made it across Lamar Valley before returning to Gardiner on the second day. As we drove across Lamar we saw lots of bison and then we spotted this coyote in the valley. We thought he was looking for dinner and the next photograph proves the point.
The coyote had that alert look. We had seen this for several minutes when we captured this view. The very next photograph captured the action.The coyote is in the air, diving into the snow for dinner. We were too far away to see if the dive was sucessful, but based on the actions after the jump, we guessed it got something. With our spotting scope and a close examination of the body of this coyote, we believe it was a female and it was pregnant. You are probably saying, you had to take coyotes because you didn't see any wolves. Wrong.

This was one of 3 wolves we saw. We learned that the pack that we have published in our blog before were on the other side of the mountain with a large carcass. The first day they were eating and the second day they were resting. If you have viewed our blog recently, you will have seen a bighorn ram courting his girl friend as we ventured to Woodbine on Christmas day. Well, this is not the same couple, but you can tell from the look on their faces that they are mates. It was snowing as we took this picture, near the northeast entrance to Yellowstone.The bighorns come to the lower elevations in the winter. You will normally see some of the bighorn rams as you enter the park. This time we were leaving the park on the second day when this gentleman posed for us. We were impressed, hope you are also.

And speaking of big horns, the next 2 guys would not be pleased that we referred to the growth on their heads as horns, they are antlers. We had seen alot of female elk but the boys were not to be found until we rounded a corner and what should appear. They were resting.

We also saw pronghorns. Two great days in Yellowstone, as it always is.