Wildlife Bingo

Today we went to Yellowstone! After a couple hour detour back through Idaho, we entered Yellowstone from the western entrance, which is actually located in the tip of Montana - before we even saw any animals in Yellowstone, we had gone from Wyoming to Idaho to Montana to Wyoming! All in about 3 or 4 hours. It was all snow covered with some green patches and lots of hot springs and geysers to heat things up!

Once in Yellowstone we couldn't go 20 minutes without seeing some sort of wildlife! So we decided to play wildlife bingo! First person to see five of the following: deer, elk, bison, wolves, grizzly bear, black bear, or a moose got to yell bingo


Mom or dad was first to see elk and buffalo eating together right at a pullout. We took pictures and the animals were so oblivious to us (or just didn't care) that they seemed tame. Although I have no desire to touch wild animals, I can definitely see why some people are stupid enough to try - they are right there! without fences!

We went up the road and I saw two coyotes. at first we thought they were wolves but upon binocular inspection they were in fact not. We went up the road and lo and behold more buffalo. more elk. buffalo in the road. more buffalo in the road. some elk. It became clear to us that the buffalo and the elk had been told it was their time to be on parade and they took every opportunity to be seen.

We then headed to Old Faithful and waited about an hour to see her blow! the sign in the visitor center said "we don't schedule we only predict. next eruption 10 minutes of 3pm" So we figured that was a 20 minute window. We headed out to the geyser - which is just outside the visitor center (how convenient of them to put the geyser right by the buildings, haha) and there is a boardwalk and benches in a half moon shape around Old Faithful. It was obvious that in the summer time this place was a tourist madhouse. all day long we were thankful we came to the park at this time of year - not everything was open, but there weren't any crowds and we saw everything we wanted to.

Sure enough at 2:55pm Old Faithful erupted! it was pretty cool and amazing to think that we were mere feet from a hole in the Earth's crust. Just like any tourist attraction, within seconds of the eruption's end, everyone got up to leave. We stayed behind to make sure there wouldn't be a second show, the same way you might sit through the credits of a movie to see if they put bloopers or a last scene after the credits.

As we headed out the north side of Yellowstone (since only the west and north sides were open) we came across one of the main attractions - a Grizzly Bear! We knew something was around because there were about 15 cars pulled over with people sitting with telephoto lenses. There was the bear, not 70 yards away! the funny thing was that while we were at Old Faithful, one of the park rangers said another ranger saw a grizzly at Roaring Mountain that morning. Sure enough, 3 hours later we see the sign for Roaring Mountain and immediately see the train of cars pulled over and there is the bear.

We definitely started thinking maybe the animals were in a union or something and had specific times they were to be out near the road (and always by a pullout - they are so polite) so that the tourists could see them. in the morning it was bison and elk, in the afternoon bears and wolves. who knew, but we saw so many animals, so often it defintely seemed like it was all orchestrated to be the perfect visit.

After the bear we saw a lone wolf out in a snowy meadow hunting mice. again, upon closer inspection it seemed eerily like a coyote, but dad was insistant that it was a wolf. perhaps more out of desire than truth? as we left the park we figured a moose would round out our Yellowstone bingo quite well! here moosey moosey. After all we had seen elk, bison, bears, and wolves, a moose would really be the only other thing we couldn't really find back home. but alas, I guess the moose were on a union strike or something because we still haven't seen one.

As we drove out of Yellowstone it was almost dusk (about 6:30 but with DST it was going to be light for another 2 hours) so we kept seeing elk and deer everywhere! the elk were literally in people's front yards and the deer where in huge herds in fields like cattle. in fact most of the time they were in the fields with the cattle! hahaha.

We were amazed that by the end of the day we had seen at least 1,000 deer - and none of them had been inside the park! they were all north of the park in the farmers' fields. in huge herds too.

Today we are camped in southern Montana, and may even cross into Canada tomorrow. Dad says it depends on the time of day. if we get to the border in the early afternoon we will cross, but if it is after 5pm he just wont have the patience for their lack of a sense of humor. (I am paraphrasing his reasoning, but I am sure that is why).

We will have to see. only a couple more days before I am back home. but I have enjoyed being cut off from the internet. I am much less likely to answer work email, so it is much more of a vacation from everything!