Yellowstone National Park – Hayden and Lamar Valleys

Yellowstone National Park – Hayden and Lamar Valleys

September, 14, 3013

Day 1 was cloudy with showers. We stopped at the Visitors Center at Fishing Bridge and the volunteer laid out 3 days for touring YNP. Since it was not a very nice day we opted for the northern section of the park, north through the Hayden Valley to Canyon Village then over Washburn Pass to Tower-Roosevelt and east to through the Lamar Valley to the Northeast Entrance. This route is best for seeing wildlife. We were rewarded for our perspicacity. Buffalo are widespread throughout the park, especially the Hayden Valley, so we got some really good pictures of them driving north. We saw a black bear just north of Canyon Village. He wasn’t too far to take pictures, but was obscured by brush. The grizzly bear was in the Lamar Valley across the Lamar River and had killed a buffalo the day before and was guarding it jealously. The picture isn’t great but….

The Old Boy - We saw him 4 separate times, all along a mile stretch the road north of Fishing Bridge

Another bull in the Hayden Valley

Grizzly Bear guarding his Moose Kill

 

 

We stopped again on the return and just missed seeing a mom grizzly and 2 cubs chase a herd of buffalo and some prong horn antelope…hunting lesson? The later were still running when we arrived. The grizzlies had decided it was nap time and were invisible in the tall grass.

 

Also on the road to the Northeast Entrance we came across and number of Prong Horn Antelope and got some good pictures of those. We stopped further out the road along some cliffs in the Absaroka Range and were able to spot Mountain Goats way up on the hillside. On the way home we saw a number of cow Elk, but no bulls.

Prong Horn Antelope in the Lamar Valley