I leave Bozeman around 3PM. It’s cloudy, raining lightly. It’s been raining all day. I can’t find a temp gauge on this car, but I’m guessing it’s in the low 50’s.
It’s still drizzling in Paradise Valley, now with the Yellowstone River on my left. The tops of the mountains are shrouded, but when it wafts a bit I get glimpses of a tiny bit of snow up there.
Just north of Yankee Jim I see a big harem of elk – about 50 cows. There are also mulies grazing on the fringe of this herd. At Gardiner the sun comes out and I see elk all over the place.
I notice a brand new motel going up between Outlaws and the Super 8. It looks very big. There are skateboarders in Super 8 lot.
The new North Entrance is still being constructed. The main entrance will bypass arch, giving visitors access (and parking) for photos but the arch itself will no longer clog summertime traffic.
At Chinese Gardens I notice many cars stopped, so I stop too. I learn it’s for a grizzly! Judging from where all the cameras and scopes are pointed, it’s in the river corridor. Hmm, perhaps eating on a carcass – not sure if it’s old or new. I finally get a good look at him. Healthy, none-to-small specimen of “horribilis”, a nice way to enter the Park.
As I continue on there are several elk grazing on both sides of the road, some quite close! I stop at the heated bathroom to change my clothes, then have my chat with Allison. The rain has stopped temporarily – leaving a gorgeous rainbow over the canyon!
Just beyond the High Bridge a mulie crosses the road ahead of me. A light rain has begun again. In terms of people in the Park, the difference between summer and mid-October is amazing. It feels like there is no one here.
I’m happy for the cool weather – it helps animal sightings. I see bison at Blacktail ponds. Ahhh, it’s so good to be here. And especially nice to have it all to myself.
I see a familiar gray truck at the Children’s Fire trail, next to another one I recognize. I don’t see Richard or Steve in the lot so I figure they are in the field to the west. I radio and they say come on out. So I pack up my scope and hike out and find them. They had two grays about a half hour ago but are now having second thoughts, wondering if they might have been coyotes. We laugh and chat but don’t see any more canids. I tell them about the griz at Chinese Gardens, something to check out on their way back west. Richard says he’s heard it’s an elk carcass, but I forget if he told me how it died.
He knows I’m headed east to he tells me Junction Buttes were seen on Jasper Bench this morning and that they might still be there. I ask how Rick is doing (since his bypass surgery). Very well, apparently. He climbed South Butte today!
We stay out till 6:00 then head our separate ways.
I have more mule deer at Phantom Lake, a bison jam on the Yellowstone Bridge. The sky to the east looks like rain. No water in little pond by Junction Butte, but Boulder Pond still has some.
When I get to Lamar Canyon the rain arrives. Those clouds have made it prematurely dark, but it’s light enough for me to see how beautiful and empty the Lamar looks. Ahh, just the way I like it!
I pull in to Coyote and as I set up I believe I hear familiar voices. Yep, it’s Mark and Carol from Colorado – and look! Charles too! How lovely to see them all. And they DO have wolves, the Junctions. It’s really dark but with Carol’s help I see four out of nineteen. I see the blacks - on the eastern end of Jasper.
The rain falls harder so between that and the dark, I call it a night. I head east to Silver Gate and thank goodness, my key works! I unload my stuff and get cozy. It’s so nice to be back!
Today I saw: 1 grizzly bear, bison, coyotes, mule deer, elk, pronghorn, 4 black wolves (belonging to the Junction Butte Pack) and the spirit of Allison.