We took down our camp as we weren't sure if we would camp in the same campground again this night. There was one other campground at the southern end of the park, so we figured we would check it out and make our decision after seeing it. After coffee we drove just down the road to Mammoth Hot Springs and checked out the small trail circuit that toured around the springs. They were really impressive, lots of cool colors and crazy formations.
Elk apparently do not mind the odor of sulphur, either that or they prefer the warm ground more than the odor bothers them, because there were tons of elk just hanging out around the hot springs. We jumped back in the car and continued south through the park. The landscape of the northern end consisted of rolling hills with mountains in the background and big valleys.
The landscape is unmistakable because of the massive fire from 1988; you can see the scraggly remains of the trees that survived, which are few and spread out, and the much shorter but also much more dense lower level of new trees which sprung up after the fire. Really interesting to see the contrast in size between the old level and the new.
Not too far down the road we saw a large gathering of people pulled off to the side of the road with binoculars.
Apparently we need a tripod and a much more powerful set of binoculars as we felt vastly underpowered when we pulled out our pint sized sets of binoculars. The people gathered were all very friendly and allowed us to view the action through their much bigger and much, much more expensive viewing spectacles. There were 2 grizzly bears up on the hillside above us and a pack of wolves gathered around a rock in the valley floor. I was able to see the Grizzly bears moving around and pawing at the ground way, way up on the hillside; Lauren unfortunately did not see them. The wolves apparently had been moving around just before we arrived and did not show themselves again while we watched. Still, really cool to know they were right there. This was the black tail pack and they were apparently in a different part of the park than what they are known to frequent; about 10 miles away from their normal hangout. People were all hoping that the wolves had a fresh kill that would attract the bears attention to come down the hill so we would all get a great show, but that never happened. People there were intense with their knowledge of the wolves. Not just able to identify the different packs, but able to distinguish between each member in the pack and even have names for each wolf. After watching for a while and making a new friend, who was originally from San Luis Obispo, we continued south the check out more of the park. The entire time we rode through we were discussing our thoughts of Yellowstone. Yellowstone is all about wildlife, if you want to see all different types of animals around every bend, then Yellowstone is the place to go. You will see so many different animals, so closely, its amazing. Also the hot springs and geysers are abundant and really interesting. As we continued we stopped at several spots with sulphur springs and activity.
The farther south we went into the park the more bison we saw. Huge male bison literally 2 feet off of the road. Their features are so exaggerated, it is really cool to see so close up.
We stopped to have lunch at a spot called Tuff Peak.
We then cruised past Old Faithful as we planned to see it tomorrow and continued south to the lower section of the park. Lauren caught a glimpse of a coyote in the corner of her eye, so we pulled the car over and watched a few of them hunt field mice in a field. This was really funny to see, as they hopped off the ground on all 4 legs to try to pounce on the mice. As we continued on we realized that the lower section of the park may be further south, but it is actually the upper section as the elevation increased almost as quickly as the snow level did. After passing the continental divide we found the only other campsite that was still open and all of the sites were covered in several feet of snow. Despite the fact that this was technically still open we decided that camping in the snow at 2,000 feet higher than we had the night before wasn't the best option. We made our way back up to the northern end of the park and watched sunset in the open valley where we had viewed the grizzly bears in the morning. A large group was still assembled in the same spot; even some of the same people were still around. Apparently the wolf pack had snuck off and moved and were not seen again on this day. A huge group of elk gathered on the hillside and we watched that for a while before heading back to the campground. On the way to the campsite we decided that we would at least check on hotel prices as it was just an extra 5 miles away and after finding out that they had very reasonable rates, as this is technically the off season, we decided to stay in a hotel for a night. We were exhausted. We had seen a huge chunk of the park and a ton of wildlife, but were both ready to do something with more physical exertion the next day. The drive was great though, we got to see all of the terrain changes from the north to the south end of the park, and because it was the off season there was no traffic. At times it felt like we were the only people in the park. We were able to stop whenever and wherever we pleased anytime something caught our interest or our eye.
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