Hi all. Just returned from Yellowstone and thought I'd fill you in on the trip - absolutely amazing.
I flew into Bozeman and drove up to the park in the late afternoon in what became a snowstorm as I got into the mountains. Once past Mammoth Hot Springs I rarely saw another car, and all of those were heading the other way. Snow was falling softly, and every now and then I would round a corner only to find a herd of bison in the road, walking along stolidly with backs covered in snow. I took my time and got to the Buffalo Ranch just at dark. Fortunately, driving 20 miles an hour in the park is reasonable even in good weather given all the critters to gawk at. Turns out I was lucky in my rented micro-mini Honda Accent (with no snow tires!) , as two of the other class participants (and numerous tourists) slid off the road and had to be rescued by the wrecker from Cooke City.
The Buffalo Ranch is very cool. A historic outfit where they originally raised bison to reintroduce them to the Park. I had no idea the total bison population there got down to <>
The temp was rising from -27 to a balmy 7 degrees by the time I arrived. Overnight it cleared up, and we awoke to brilliant sunshine on fresh snow - ideal tracking conditions. My class was on cougars, taught by a woman who has been tracking them in the park for the past 10-years. We spent each morning in the classroom, then headed out into the field on snowshoes to look for signs of cat. Great fun to snowshoe around Yellowstone in the fresh snow looking for Cougar tracks. Never found any, but we did find a scrape ( territorial marker) and practiced following the collared cats with the telemetry equipment.
Class ended Sunday about 4:00 pm, and two brothers and I were the only ones left staying at the Ranch. The folks running the class were nice enough to let us each take out one of their spotting scopes, so we headed out to watch wolves. That was the most amazing part of the trip. It happened to be their annual 3-week breeding season, so the wolves were very active, and quite close to the road. We watched 6 wolves from the Slough Creek Pack (7 females and one very young alpha male) from about 300 yards away, plus one opportunistic lone male that was hanging about looking for romance. From the same spot we could see 9 individuals from the Agate Pack down valley, two in the throes of mating. Every so often the two groups would howl at each other. While I find it somewhat off putting just how closely these animals are watched, there is no doubt that Yellowstone and all park visitors are truly blessed that these animals are back where they belong.
As luck would have it, my camera battery died the day I arrived, so I did not take a single photo. However, I was fortunate in that the two guys from class I palled around with were aspiring professional photographers with amazing equipment. They have promised to send some photos, including one or two of the wolves we saw. They had been out before photographing wolves, and ran into a fellow they knew who was taking video for National Geographic. Quite fun to pal around with all the camera geeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment