Wildlife

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WILDLIFE

We got an email asking if we'd seen any wildlife while here in Yellowstone, so we'll talk about that first. On Sunday, driving in the park on our way to West Yellowstone, we saw some cars pulled off the side of the road. We slowed down and saw what they were looking at: a female elk grazing right next to the road. On our tour Monday we saw pronghorn antelope in several places, and a deer. We've also seen several types of birds, including Canadian geese, and yesterday we saw an osprey dive down into the Firehole river and come up with a fish right in front of us. Today we decided to drive up into the northeastern part of the park in order to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and were very excited when we saw a single bison right along the road three different times. That was only the appetizer, with the entree to come. We were driving along the Yellowstone River and saw a large herd of them. Down the road a few miles, we got a VERY close-up look at these animals because there was a very large herd moving from the river area up into some rolling hills, crossing the road in the process. There were both males and females as well as some young ones. Pretty amazing! During the day we saw more of these animals off in the distance as well as a few chillin' right next to the road. So that's the most of any type of animal we've seen. Call it the fault of watching Yogi Bear cartoons, but I had the idea that if you went to Yellowstone, at some point you'd see a bear, but apparently that's not the case. And according to our guide on Monday, since the re-introduction of the grey wolf into the park, the elk herds aren't as large as they were.

The falls of the Yellowstone River were simply incredible! Wished we had a tape recorder today, because then you could hear the sound of the falls, the bubbling of some more mud pots and cauldrons that we saw, as well as the sound made by the pressure of the water in chambers of the appropriately-named "dragon-breath spring." Was just another fantastic day spent in this most unique place.

We are heading our early tomorrow, driving west through Cody to Rapid City, South Dakota. Again, thanks for all your comments and good wishes. Tom & Nancy

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