Let Sleeping Bears Lie !

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Geo: 45.0197, -109.934

Up and on the road as soon as we got ourselves together. Heading back over Dunraven Pass so we did not have to stop for the construction. We were in the pass and saw some people pulled over looking and so we stopped to see what they were seeing. The had spotted some marmots and so we got to enjoy them for awhile. They were possibly in some sort of mating dance since it did seem that one was pursuing the other. We also saw a soaring raptor above us, possibly a golden eagle.

We talked to the people who had pulled over and they said they had seen a bear up at the Mount Washburn turnoff and so we decided do go see what we could see. As we made the final curve heading up, it was apparent to bear was still there. Parked and went to look. The bear was one the move and unfortunately for us soon moved out of sight but we did get to see it briefly.

We had been told about a bear that was hanging out near Old Faithful so we decided to go see what we could see. People had reported it hanging out in the river and putting on a show shaking off as it was climbing out of the water near Fairy Lake.

The ride to Old Faithful was very nice and maybe one of these days we will stop and enjoy more of the geysers. We arrived in time to see Old Faithful erupt, run through the bookstore and have a nice conversation with the people running the place.

From there we headed to the Fairy Lake parking lot that was crowded with cars and people and so we decided the bear sighting was probably not going to happen. Evidently word had gotten out about the bear because there were a lot a people checking things out. The trail was closed so we figured people were out looking just like us.

We stopped at one more geyser pool and was very beautiful. We decided to head on back over Dunraven Pass through the road construction to see what was on the other side. As we were approaching where the traffic stop was, we say a construction worker on the left hand side of the road waving people to keep moving. We managed to pull off the road safely and went to look. People had reported there was a bear!

We walked over to where people were looking and sure enough there was a black bear resting across the creek from where we were standing. Unfortunately, there was a person talking very loudly and calling to the bear. Enjoyed watching the bear in spite of it all. The bear would lift its head and look around and then fall back down. We decided to let sleeping bears lie!

We then headed over to the Slough Creek road to see what we could see. We had been told there was an eagle nest up on the bluff. We managed to spot it and got to see into the nest. It looked like there were two young in the nest. We watched them for awhile and then decided to check out Lamar Valley and see if there was any activity there.

We did not see anyone out looking and since we had to go looking for a place to stay for the evening, we headed on out of the park. We had agreed we were going to find some place beyond Cooke City to stay. Robert had done some research and found the names of some campsites very close to Cooke City which could make for ease in getting into the park in the a.m.

What a surprise we were in store for! The campgrounds right outside Cooke City were closed and the drive into them was gated off. There had been some unfortunate incidents with bears last year and this may have been the reason they were closed because there were also bear warning signs all around. We were starting to get worried when we came up on the Fox campground and it was open. They did have a sign saying their water was off and were offering a discount. It was a fairly large campsite with electricity and some of the sites overlooked the river.

Fox NFS Campgroud

Got ourselves set up, walked down to the river and then called it an evening

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Photos

Hoary Marmot Overlook Antelope Canyon
Mating behavior?