Within the National Park - Last Day

Within Yellowstone III and Last Day

Started off the day with a treat.  We decided to take one of the off the beaten path roads: Riverside Drive.  It runs along the river and parallel to Yellowstone Road.  Within a couple of minutes, we saw the Buffalo Procession along the water’s edge.  Moms, Dads and babies, all making their way in and along the water.  We stuck with them for a while, just observing.  They truly seem to be. gentle giants, when unprovoked.  They deserve the honor of being recently named the “Nation’s Mammal”. 

 

 It is really interesting to see how prevalent the herds of buffalo are in Yellowstone.  Very often, we were stopped by buffalo walking in the road.  We had so many opportunities to drive right next to several of them.  They were either resting on the side of the road or crossing over the road.

We headed for the Tower Junction/Tower Falls road.  It had been closed until yesterday.  This road offered a very different view of the park.  It was curvy and kept climbing.  Many narrow passes with steep drops were prominent.  It was on this road that we were fortunate enough to see our second bear!  It was a baby black bear, making its way across the road.  A park ranger was trying to keep everyone from getting too close.  The bear eventually ran across to the trees. No sign of mom.

  

Elk are very common to see as well.  Usually, we saw female elk in herds.  Today, we saw two male (bull) elk. 

We made our way to Tower Falls.  The observation tower offered an excellent view of the falls and river below.

Calcite Springs was a worthwhile stopover.  The cliff was clearly affected by the oil and sulfur from its volcanic past.  When we climbed down onto observation decks the wind really picked up between those cliffs. 

 

We passed other geysers and hot springs.  We should mention that throughout the park,  the odor of sulfur from steaming water, geysers, springs and paint pots, is quite remarkable.  

 

On the return ride, we stopped when we saw many cars pulled over.  We got to see a Brown Bear!  A little farther down the road, was a black bear in the distance.  We got a good look at him, but he was far enough that pictures were very blurry.  We can hardly believe that on this trip, we saw four bears!

We leave West Yellowstone for Northern Montana, on Monday.  We will be 30 miles from the Canadian Border.  Stay tuned for our adventures in Calgary!