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Published: August 15th 2009
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Grizzly Bear
Bear wandering around. We were able to sleep in today, as our tour, the Lamar Valley Wildlife Tour, did not start until 4:45PM. We mostly just relaxed, went to the store, biked around, and were basically lazy until we had to be down for our tour. Unfortunately, we left about 5 minutes too late for our tour and got rained on as we biked to the pick-up point. We spent half the day on a bus with Larry, our tour guide, as he drove us about 120 miles around the park. The route started at FBRP, went up the whole east of the “figure eight”, before heading towards the northeast entrance. Larry was a great guide. He was very knowledgeable and told a lot of funny stories during the trip back when it was dark and there was nothing to see.
The first thing we saw on the trip was a herd of elk down in a valley. It was later in the day and Larry told us to watch for either a bear or wolf stalking the herd. Unfortunately, we didn’t see either at this time. When then made a stop at Tower Falls. There were some very interesting rock formations in
Grizzly Bear
Looking for Hucleberries. this area. We were also able to see an osprey nest with an osprey in it. Larry was very helpful in helping us to learn how to use our new camera better. He used to lead the photo tours at Yellowstone. While driving along, we were able to see the petrified logs on the top of a mountain. Unlike other places, Yellowstone’s petrified logs are vertical and standing up!
We next saw a bison walking right along the road! This is a pretty common sight at Yellowstone, but it was cool to us. Further along, we were able to see a small herd of pronghorns. There were three adults and three kids and it was unusual to see the kids as they usually lie down and hide in the grass. We also saw some herds of bison, but we’ll see more of them later on, close-up, during our stay at YNP.
Our final stop, before turning around to head back, was at a picnic stop near the northeast entrance to YNP. Here, we got to see our coolest sight so far: a grizzly bear! He was off in the grass, looking for something to eat. After watching him
Sunset
Sunset. for a few minutes, our guide called for some of us to back off. While watching the bear and taking pictures, we hadn’t noticed that he’d gotten closer to us than 100 yards. So we wisely backed off and watched him for a little while longer. Jason got so close; he nearly shook hands with the bear! Our guide put a scope on the bear and we could see that the bear was eating huckleberries. After this, we turned around and headed back to FBRP to bike back “home” and relax before going to bed.
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