black bear friday

Today was my first day off, and I was eager to get out and see what wildlife was about. I dropped Steve off at work at 8:30 a.m. and headed towards Tower.

I pulled into the Hellroaring Trail Head and headed down the dirt road. There have been reports of bears in the area, and I was scanning both sides of the hillside as I approached the TH parking lot. As I pulled around the corner to the parking lot I was surprised to see a large black bear laying right underneath the TH sign.


I stopped the car, and right after I did another car pulled up next to me. We watched the bear snuffling around in the grass for about a minute


until he decided to stand up and graze alongside the parking lot.


And then he meandered a bit around the lot,


and turned and headed our way.




He crossed the parking lot, turned right in front of my car, sniffed my bumper, and disappeared over a ridge. (I took all of these photos from inside the car).

After I caught my breath, I drove on to the Lamar Valley. I spotted two small red dots on the hillside, pulled out the binocs, and saw my first bison calves of the year.


Two coyotes crossed the road in front of me, there were antelope lounging in the sun,


and a herd of bighorn sheep across from the Yellowstone picnic area. I pulled into the Wrecker Pullout to scan the mountainside, and caught a movement near a herd of elk. For the next ten minutes I watched two wolves hunting elk (unsuccessfully), until both the elk and the wolves disappeared over a ridge.