LAMAR VALLEY (full stop)

Lamar Valley, "the Serengeti of America"

we ended up making two forays into Lamar Valley, which is a gorgeous, wide valley carved by glaciers & located in the northeast corner of Yellowstone.  there are two very popular campgrounds out that way which are, apparently, good places to see wolves.  we didn't see any wolves, but we saw just about everything else!  mainly bison, but also pronghorns, deer, birds, and....well, you can scroll to the bottom to find out.

i loved to see the bison mamas & calves on the move.  it seemed the large bison groups we saw were mainly female bison, calves, and maybe some adolescent bison.  the more loner bison (in small, loose groups or completely on their own) seemed to be the adult males.

bison & a pronghorn

scores of bison.  i think they are talking of relocating/reintroducing some of them into the North Dakota badlands.

incredible panoramas!

our first taste (remember, we hadn't gotten to Glacier yet) of wilderness.

we were a bit early in the summer season; though there were plenty of people

in the other parts of Yellowstone,

there were relatively few of us exploring Lamar Valley.

we loved getting stopped in the road by bison ambling across.  it wouldn't be Yellowstone without it.  plenty of them just took their time, chewing their cud, giving us an eyeball every now and then, pausing to scratch an itch, standing completely still in the middle of the road enjoying the view.  really, it seemed that they knew they were the obstacle & were enjoying the moment.  a few of the humans got impatient &, unbelievably, kind of barreled through these animal roadblocks.  the bison gave way every time, but i thought it fairly bold of the drivers.  really, weren't they in Yellowstone for a reason?  surely this was not the shortest way home from work.

just gorgeous.  we were in the Valley at dusk one day & at dawn (well, just two of us managed that) the next day.  i vote for the dusk, except there was some good wildlife pay-off in the morning.

kings of the road

 Mike got a fantastic video clip of the noises the bison were making!

love it!!!

so, yes, it was moulting season for all of the mammals we saw.  quite a patchwork effect, which kept making me think about this song we sing every now and then at our Quaker Meeting about "shaggy, shaggy locks."  hope it is no one's favorite song of all time, but i always feel a wee bit silly singing it.  i get it from a historical point-of-view & enjoy the sentiment but would be very okay if it never again showed up in the Sunday bulletin.

 ah, humans!

must be something good nearby...

pronghorns, which also look to be transitioning from their winter coats.

this one is just sprouting little horns

horns aplenty!

 

 there was a little gamboling group of them!

 run, run, as fast as you can!

chewing its cud.

so, we 2 non-teenagers returned early the next morning to see if anything else would appear.  while we really didn't see too many more mammal types (we did see a very exciting one, though), morning is a great time for birding!  i come from a distinguished pair of birders who take it so seriously they each have a personal pair of binoculars, so i was pleased to see a couple of birds i thought remarkably pretty.

a yellow-headed blacktbird

 based on the calls back-and-forth,

there were several of these birds in the marshes.

when my mom or dad tells me what kind of bird this is, i'll let you know.*

(*it is, reportedly, a black-billed magpie.)

so, we were up at dawn to drive at least an hour to the end of Lamar Valley & saw everything we saw the evening before (except for the two birds, which were very nice).  it was starting to rain, and we were just about to make the turn at Roosevelt Lodge back onto the road that would take us to the hotel for breakfast.  when we saw a cluster of cars, lights & windshield wipers on, windows rolled down, zoom lenses or binoculars stuck out in the rain.

it was a BEAR.

a wet and hungry black bear.

 

it mainly had its head in the grasses looking for something to break its fast.  i wasn't sure what it was finding, but every now and then the bear would, kind of, pounce at something with both front paws.  it would pounce at the whatever several times, then lean down and gobble it up.  it seemed.  then it would move on, snuffling around in the grass, looking for more of that whatever.

that was great.  the perfect way to see a bear.  from the car.

our own cubs, climbing up a gravel mountain

during our evening visit to Lamar Valley.

photo by Mike