Winning Wildlife

Hi all! We had been at Yellowstone just 24 hours and got the mother lode of wildlife! We drove to Lamar Valley; which, if you've seen all of the documentaries of Yellowstone, most of the big mammals are there. In the past, we were glad to see them in Hayden Valley on the other side of the park. But alas, they were not there this time. So instead, we drove to Lamar. To give you perspective, it is over 1.5 hours from our campsite, so we had to get up pretty early, but the reward was well
worth it! 

Our wildlife picture.....LOL

Bison Booty; and since there is a lot of construction in Yellowstone, we call him the Pilot Car

The bridge to Lamar; one was coming, the other was going---the bison, that is

All that dust kick-up means "look at me, I'm tough"

Part of the herd at the river

The big guy stood in the road to hold up the cars so the other two can get across the street; what 

a gentleman!!

Say cheese!!

And while we were entranced with the bison, off to the side of the ridge stood a large, dog-like figure. Could it be? Why yes!! It was a wolf! Not just one, two or three, but four!! 

Here's at least one

A few more.....they were moving in and out of the brush; we had to be quick

A little further on the road we came to another group of parked cars. Guess what they were looking at? Yes, there was a lone bison wandering in the field. But further from him was a black grizzly bear gnawing on a bison carcass!

Now, mind you, all of these sightings of animals happened within 10 miles of each other!! Then, later that day, we saw these wonderful creatures: elk ladies.

She was by the gas station when we were checking the air in the tires (we have a slow leak in the front) and getting ice for the cooler. Surprise! My picture was real blurry so I snagged this one off the 'net. But it's the same thing. 

Anyway, we had a really great day just exploring and looking at wildlife. Can't believe we hit the trifecta! We had never seen wolves here in Yellowstone; we had only heard them. Thank you, God, for allowing us to see all of your glories in the animals today. The only thing we didn't get to see was the moose. Oh well. Maybe next time. 

 😉