Jackson/GTNP/Yellowstone Trip Report (part 3)

Part Three:

Our plan this morning was to get up bright and early and head to the Lamar Valley. Well even the best laid plans can have glitches. We needed gas, and the Fishing Bridge gas station did not open until 8….. ARGH!!!!! Well our own fault for not planning better, we went on past the Fishing Bridge to an area I believe was called Pebble Creek, a valley area where we by accident found a herd of Elk. Then as we were getting back in the car, my husband heard something he thought was howling, I at first (bear in mind my he tells me I need to get my ears checked all the time) thought it was a siren, until I got out of the car and really heard it…….. It was indeed howling, but neither of us knew if it was a coyote or a wolf…. Whichever was the case, we were both very excited to have heard it. We are amateurs in this arena and it does not take much to excite us….. Now we have heard the bugling and “something” howling. We live near Detroit, this is a whole new world for us….. lol.

We got up near Dunraven and Mt. Washburn area and traffic came to a complete stop, the grade here is quite steep and we could not believe it could be Bison in this area, but low and behold it was indeed! Several of them with no place to really go, so this slowed us up for quite some time…… Again as I said earlier, even the best laid plans…….. I also mentioned earlier the construction near Tower Falls…….. Well long story short, we arrived in The Lamar Valley later than we had hoped. We stopped along the way asking folks what they had seen. Everyone said things were rather quiet, but a black wolf had been spotted earlier. We continued on to find a heard of Pronghorns which were particularly close to the road and we got some pretty good pic’s. The area is very pretty with a nice stream further up with some good photo ops. We were rather disappointed as this other than Bison was all we ended up seeing in the Lamar Valley. We headed back, with a stop this time at Tower Falls for the views of the Falls and an Ice Cream Cone.

We were coming into the Hayden Valley on our way back to Lake, mid-day not expecting to see much, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I yelled to Ted to stop. I lost it in the sagebrush, but was convinced it was a wolf. A gray one that at first glance looked white. Antoher car stopped asked what we were looking at or for, I told them, the man caught sight of it. We were in a mini van and I had left both doors of the passenger side open. Next thing we know, we see it again, and it looks like it is heading our way, I scramble to close the doors, and lose him again. When we found him again, he was heading up the hill into a small treelined area. The man with us followed it, I still was not completely sure if it was a wolf or a coyote, but knew for sure it was one or the other. He was gone, the other gentleman was now up on the hill looking for him while his daughter was still with us. All of a sudden she lets out a yell, “LOOK!!!” a coyote had come running across the street, almost got hit by a car and was all of 3 car lengths away from us, NOW I knew what we had seen was a wolf, the size and color were completely different….. and this was one healthy looking coyote! The coyote was much much smaller and had a lot of redness in him. The wolf was much much bigger and was much grayer, almost like I mentioned earlier white. We were all bummed none of us got a picture off, but he was quick! The coyote on the other hand, was not bothered by us at all, and went about his business of hunting. The gentleman on the hill was still looking for the wolf, unaware of the coyote until he finally saw him. We watched him hunt for at least 25 minutes, in awe….. I turned my head for a minute and missed what my husband described as one of the most thrilling things he saw on the trip. He said the coyote leaped 3 feet in the air on all fours and pounced on something… We thankfully could not see what it was due to the sagebrush, but Ted and the woman with us whose Dad was finally heading back from the hill were thrilled with the experience! By now we had a crowd watching the coyote and keeping an eye out for the wolf who we never saw again.

On the way back to the Lake area at dusk now, we had what I will refer to as our “Angry Bison encounter”. You get very used to seeing the Bison, here, there, and quite frankly everywhere! Seeing one on the road is not uncommon. Well, always proceed with caution regarding the Bison.

We were approaching slowly, the Bison was coming in our direction and a car went to pass him coming from the other direction, for whatever reason, the Bison decided to charge the car!!!!!!!!!! The car floored it, and Ted yelled out a four letter word, well you can imagine as the “Angry Bison” was heading straight for us!!!!! Ted threw the car in reverse, thank god nobody was behind us yet! He yells out, “what the ____ do I do?” Right about then the Bison slowed to a walk and stood. Another car was now behind us and another car was in front of us, neither of us knowing what to do next. The Bison was not moving now, still very much in the middle of the road. The car approaching us in the other direction decided to try to pass him, the Bison approached that car pretty close, but let him pass. We decided to do the same, as we passed him, he was on my side, and I swear he looked directly at us and did NOT look happy, but let us pass. Our adrenaline was racing for a good 10 minutes after that. We were finally able to laugh about it, but with a much better respect for the fact that these animals are indeed wild, and nobody should take that for granted or forget it………We decided to stop at the area by the Fishing Bridge where we saw the herd of Elk, they were there, and we watched them through the scope for a bit, on our way out we took a walk on the Fishing Bridge, and once again heard the howling, once again we were unsure what it was, but it excited us again.

We went back to the General Store, bought a bottle of wine and a corkscrew (pack a corkscrew in your checked luggage), we put it in our trusty wastebasket cooler on ice, and went to the Lodge Cafeteria for a bite to eat. It was not horrible as we had heard, the cafeteria food, but it was not wonderful either by any means. We went back to the cabin, picked up our wine put it in the ice bucket on ice, grabbed the glasses from the room and went to the Lake Lodge porch to watch the reflection of the moon on the water. A wonderful end to quite an exciting day.

Jackson/GTNP/Yellowstone Trip Report (part 3)

It sounds like that wine was a wise idea after such acion-packed adventure!!!

YOur writing is mesmerizing.

Thanks!

Jackson/GTNP/Yellowstone Trip Report (part 3)

yeah, we need spell check..i meant ';action';

Thanks Pozj,

My husband thought I might bore most, I said not the real traveller%26#39;s who want details!!!!! LOL

%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;My husband thought I might bore most, I said not the real traveller%26#39;s who want details!!!!! LOL%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;

I%26#39;m a late reader but hoping mzambo will see this. What time of year were you visiting the park? I don%26#39;t recall seeing it in your report.

I love the details - thank you for a great report so far!

Tammy