Wildlife encounters at Grand Teton and Yellowstone

We stayed in the town of Jackson, just south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It was a great little town, very much set-up for the tourist and we could easily imagine it covered in snow in the peak of the ski season. We had an awesome drive in, coming up and over the mountains, from Teton Pass, with a great view of the town from the top. We didn't have a great deal of time in the town, as we spent most of it in Grand Teton National Park, but we got some time in the evening to look around and enjoy a meal overlooking the main square.

Grand Teton National Park has a stunning background of the Teton Mountain range, with forests, lakes and meadows covering the valley below, the whole area has breathtaking scenery. We headed off to do a couple of walks, with Elaine always on the lookout for bears! The first walk we did was around the shoreline of Colter Bay, through part of the forest out to a peninsula on Jackson Lake, which had great views overlooking the water to the forests and Teton mountains behind.... we only spotted a deer here, no bears so far! It was great to sit out on the shore of the lake, it almost felt like we were the only ones in the park. In the afternoon, we headed to Jenny Lake, where we had a walk to one of the beaches. There were many walks to do but we ended up just sitting on the beach, enjoying a drink, it was just nice to relax whilst soaking in the stunning views. Afterwards, we just had a drive through the park trying to spot wildlife, but short of a couple of suicidal chipmunks who liked to run out in the road in front of the car, we didn't see much.

We were only in Jackson and Grand Teton for a couple of days before heading north into Yellowstone. On the way, we drove through Grand Teton again to visit a couple of good photo spots in the north of the park that we didn't get to before. We were taking pictures of the Snake River which had a perfect mirror image of the Tetons, when some people from Paris (Texas) told us about a bear that was wandering around just up the road. Hearing this, we wanted to head over straightaway to see if we could see it, but they asked if we would take their picture with the stunning view behind first. They were lovely people and we didn't want to be rude, but surely they must have realised that saying “there is a bear over there... oh, but would you take our photos first”, we'd want to see the bear!?!? Anyway, once they handed over the 4 cameras and everyone was looking good etc etc, we took the photos and headed off as quick as we could to where the bear was supposed to be. We joined the crowd that had formed to watch an adolescent Grizzly Bear climbing around the bank, literally right next to the road. It was very close, and at times we could even hear it breathing! The rangers knew the bear well, so we felt pretty safe walking along with the ranger on the other side of the road, hiding behind the cars for protection whilst watching the bear. The bear then decided to cross the road... so the ranger advised people to create a space for it to pass. We didn't want to stand at the front, so we made sure people were in the way but still with a view, but some parents had pushed their children right up the front to take photos! As the bear crossed it stopped for a brief second and looked around at everybody! You could basically hear everyone collectively take a breath as it looked around... and then a sigh of relief as it carried on and took a dip in the river the other side of the road! It was absolutely amazing to see, but maybe a bit too close seeing a Grizzly from 10ft...

After the excitement of seeing a Grizzly Bear, with the nerves definitely needing to be calmed down, we headed into Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is an absolutely massive park, the scenic loop road itself is about 142 miles long which only covers about half the park, so that tells you how big it is! It is centered over the Yellowstone caldera, which is the largest 'super-volcano' in North America, and contains over half of the worlds geysers. We had 3 days to try and see as much of the park as we could, and luckily we had found some cheap deals in the lodges so were staying in the park itself. The first day, we stayed near Yellowstone Lake, so we concentrated on that side of the park. We visited one of the most popular areas of the park first, to see Old Faithful erupt. This geyser erupts on average every 90 minutes and is the most regular in the park. We sat and waited to see the geyser erupt, it steamed for about 10 minutes before it burst into life with water shooting possibly 180ft up into the air. Unfortunately, as it is one of the most famous geysers it was completed crowded, they even have grandstand seats for people to view it from so this kind of spoilt it a bit.

We had a wander around the geo-thermal features near the lake where we were staying, getting the pungent smell of rotten eggs again, reminding us of our time in Rotorua, New Zealand... The area was full of colourful hot springs and we heard from one of the rangers that this massive lake actually freezes over in the winter, and most of the surrounding countryside is covered in a few feet of snow, all expect the thermal features which are too hot for the snow. It must be a weird sight, especially as the snow is supposed to pile up on the boardwalks above all the hot springs, really strange!

The next day we moved to the area near the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and near the Lamar Valley which was supposed to be one of the best places for wildlife spotting, and we weren't disappointed! As we headed over, we soon came across a crowd of people, watching a herd of Bison crossing the river. We headed down to where a ranger was standing near to the river bank watching them slowly cross over, the ranger was explaining that even though the Bison weigh up to 1000kg, they somehow manage to float across the river when they need to.

It was from the park ranger that we heard about a dead bison in the Lamar Valley that had been killed a few days before during the rutting season, and apparently bears and wolves had been seen feeding on it in the evenings. Naturally, we headed into the valley that evening, and ended up going here both evenings we stayed near the valley. We sat on a hill overlooking the river with tens of other people, all staring at the dead bison on the other side of the bank. Both nights, we were not disappointed... the first night we got there, a wolf was already in the valley hiding in the long grass near the river, so we spent ages waiting for it to come out, and we also spotted a lone Bald Eagle by the waters edge, a bit too far for a photo unfortunately. It wasn't long before an adult Grizzly Bear came bounding out of the forest for a quick feed, and then the wolf started to walk towards the Bison shortly after. We were expecting a big fight, but with just a quick growl between the pair, the bear walked off. Eventually, another bear came out of the forest, and we spotted a couple of cubs with her... she waited until the other bear and wolf had left and came down for a fed too! Amazing! It was too dark for photos by then unfortunately, but great to see! The same sort of thing happened the next day too, but without the wolf. Again, the big Grizzly Bear come bounding out of the forest, almost exactly as it had done the previous night, then fed for ages, pulling and tugging at the rotten meat. Eventually the female bear was spotted at the tree line again with her 2 cubs, but by that time it was getting dark and also a bit cold, as the sun had set by then, so we left the bears to their feast and headed off for something to eat ourselves.

Wildlife spotting was definitely our main activity in the park, but we also made the long drive around the road to see some of the other thermal features that Yellowstone is famous for. We headed over to Mammoth Springs in the northwest of the park. The terraces were particularly amazing, towering over the small town below where all the tourist facilities are. After wandering around the Mammoth Springs area for a while, we were driving back towards our lodge, when the car in front suddenly pulled over... they had spotted a Moose in the field below. The Moose is the one of the most elusive animals in the park, so we were very lucky! It was a full adult with the massive antlers that characterise the Moose, so we were both very happy that the car in front spotted it, as we're sure we wouldn't have done otherwise! When we made it back to the lodge, there was a massive Elk roaming around behind our cabin, munching on the grass. We never quite got to see a big herd of Elk, so we were pleased to get one so close.

As we were staying near the Grand Canyon, we spent a bit of time there, and took a walk down to see the Lower Falls up close. It was a long walk down, hundreds of steps but well worth it when we got down there, as we got some great pictures from the bottom. We then had to walk back up the stairs, but thankfully our altitude training had come in use again as we climbed up the stairs with not too much trouble. There was so much stunning scenery to see in Yellowstone, and we got to see so much over the 3 days we were there, it is far too hard to try and describe it all! We think the pictures speak for themselves, so hopefully the ones we have picked and added to this blog show the beauty of this park.

The best times to see wildlife is early morning around sunrise, or in the early evening and around sunset. We never quite made it out that early in the morning, but we had a long drive when we left Yellowstone so finally made it, although it was still a bit past sunrise! We headed through the Lamar Valley one more time, when all of a sudden we noticed a bit of a traffic jam ahead, and then saw a few bison in the road. We stopped to watch, and soon realised there was a massive herd crossing the road and heading down towards the river. We were so close we could smell them, not too pleasant!!!! When we eventually made it past this herd and round the bend in the road, we came across another massive herd on the road, this time coming right towards us! Now, bison are huge, so they could easily do some real damage to the car, so we just had to stop and wait while they passed so close to us that a few rubbed against the car! Just to round it all off, they started to run towards us for a bit, it was like we were in the middle of a stampede! We held our breath, hoping that nothing would happen to the car or us. The nerves started to appear when the obvious leader of the herd, by its size and grunting noises, stopped directly in front of the car before moving to the side and looking in the window at us. They eventually all passed, causing no trouble to the car, and we moved on. We had intended to leave early for our long drive east, but didn't consider how long it would take to drive through a couple of herds of bison...

We had a fantastic time in Yellowstone, and in Grand Teton. We had now seen the American 'big 5', the Buffalo, Bear, Elk, Moose and Wolf, some a bit closer than others! It was a sad goodbye to Yellowstone, as we probably barely scratched the surface of the massive park but we had a fantastic 3 days there.

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