West Trip Day 7 - Yellowstone National Park

     On our last full day at Yellowstone, we planned to visit and explore the Lamar Valley, and take a couple of shorter hikes in the vicinity. The Lamar Valley is often described as the North American Serengeti. It is a place where bison, pronghorn, elk, wolves, coyotes, grizzly and black bears can be seen right from the road. During our trip research,  in the winter months, we watched documentaries on the valley and its inhabitants. I found the wolves particularly fascinating, especially The Druid Pack, a wolf pack that was a great success story for the park. In 1995 wolves were reintroduced to the Yellowstone ecosystem, setting off a small storm of controversy from local ranchers, but garnering support from naturalists and the general public. The wolves brought a balance back to the Yellowstone ecosystem that was lost for years. I really hoped to spot a wolf today.
     We awoke quite early ( 6ish ) to make sure we were ready for the day. The animals are most active in the cooler morning hours, tend to lie low during the hot afternoon, and become active again at dusk. After a quick  oatmeal breakfast, we made our way North to the valley.  We passed by the Mt. Washburn trail-head of yesterday's adventure, and continued north into new territory for us. The road immediately started to become more complicated, sharp curves and climbing in elevation. We continued on and made it to Tower junction, although we did not stop to look around, we were intent on making it up to the valley as fast as we could. Turning right we were heading east, and noted a considerable change in the landscape. Gone was the mountainous terrain, replaced with rolling hills filled with sage-brush meadows and scattered stands of trees.
      One of the planned hikes we had for the day was to a group of petrified trees, on the top of a Specimen ridge, not far from the valley itself. There was an unmarked trail to the top, and I wanted to take a quick look and survey the scene before continuing on. We pulled into a pull-off where a sign simply said "trail", and there was a faint outline of a trail continuing off to the south. I could make out the ridge in the distance and it didn't seem that far away. Suddenly to our right we heard a snort and looking in that direction, not 30 yards away, was a gigantic bull bison. At this point we were sitting in the car, about to leave, and just stayed put. We watched the bison continue on and cross the trail moving east near the road, walking across the same trail we intended to hike on later in the day! The animal was immense and powerful looking, and not something to be trifled with, as a woman found out last week, when she was gored and thrown. These are not slow, weak animals like a cow. This is an animal that is incredibly lean and muscular and has an ornery disposition. We were both amazed, yet slightly concerned about hiking amongst mega-fauna such as this.

      We continued along the park road and saw a simple sign along the road that said "Lamar Valley". Pulling  down a hill, to another pulloff, that had a few cars and some excited people viewing something in the distance. There was a small tour bus, with Japanese tourists all speaking excitedly and pointing across the road to a hill. I got the binoculars out and scanned but could not see anything. Then one of the men came over and said "Prong...horn" and pointed. I thanked him but could not see what he was talking about. In broken English he tried explaining where it was and I said "OHH I see"... when I had absolutely no clue. He was very excited and I didnt want to insult him. Heather and I walked back over to the car and scanned, and we finally spotted the Pronghorn sitting on the hill. Pronghorn are interesting animals because they are the fastest land animal in North America. They can reach speeds of 60 mph at a sprint. They evolved to evade a particular predator that has long become extinct, the American Cheetah.

      Moving down the road, heading east we noticed that to our right was a river and a wide open valley along it, nestled between the road and the hills. This is what we came for. We pulled over to a large pull-out with around 10 cars and lots of people gathered gazing at the valley below. A few of them were using spotting scopes, mounted on tripods, and others were using binoculars. "There's a grizzly down there right near the river and another across the river in the distance!". I was filled with excitement, got the binoculars out, and started scanning. Sure enough, there was a large grizzly right near the bank of the river foraging for food. We were quite a distance away, and had a chance to use one of the spotting scopes to get a closer look. He was fascinating to watch. Along the river bed we spotted many bison, some solo and others in small groups. Looking further off to the east we then spotted large clouds of dust. There was a very large herd of bison in the fields below. It was amazing to watch them kick up clouds of dust, chase each other and do what bison do, graze.

       After viewing the drama unfold for a while we got in the vehicle and made our way to a small hike I had picked out, called Trout Lake. As we drove near the top of a hill we had to stop as a large herd of bison decided to cross the road. At this point we were stuck. They moved slow and sometimes just stood in the road, motionless, bellowing out calls to the rest of the herd. As the herd moved among us we were able to get a very close-up look at them as they surrounded our vehicle and the subsequent line behind us. In this situation you dont want to agitate them by beeping or trying to move forward. You'll end up with a smashed up vehicle. This time of year the males are getting ready to mate. They are aggressive and want to hit things. We didnt need to give them an excuse.

      After about a 1/2 an hour, the herd moved off the road and traffic began moving again. We pulled into the parking lot for the trail-head to Trout Lake. This was a short 2 mile round trip hike to a small lake. The lake is famous for its large number of cutthroat trout. Its a fly fisherman's dream. This lake was actually a large source of food for a small town outside of the park in the early 1900's. The hike was about 1 mile straight up a large hill and a ridge and was strenuous. We made it to the lake and watched a couple of fly fisherman casting in the cold water. The lake was surrounded by a beautiful meadow and a mountain behind it. Very picturesque setting, as most of the park is anyways.

    We continued west, passing by the Lamar valley, and making our way back to the trailhead for the petrified trees. The hike was described as having a section that was "inhumanly steep" and we had a laugh at this. Setting out on the trail we slowly climbed in elevation and could see the ridge off in the distance and the steep section. Along the way we passed the remains of possibly an elk right near the trail. This put us slightly on edge. We passed by a family on their way down, I asked whether the hike was worth it and the father said "arrhhgggg not the way down".   We soon found out what he meant. The "inhumanly steep" section was quite steep but the biggest problem was the lack of traction. The "trail" was so traversed that it was a smoothed down slope of loose dirt. We had a very tough time getting up it and I knew getting down would be tricky. After making it to the first petrified tree-stump we were spent. We could not truly appreciate the fact that the tree before us was millions of years old and frozen in time. Looking to the west the sky looked dark and was coming in quickly. All of a sudden it started sprinkling and we were in a very bad position. If it down-poured the steep section would have turned into a muddy mess

and we would have to scout another way down.  We made our way gingerly, but as fast as we could back down without any problems.

         It was around 5pm and we were spent. Heading back to the Canyon village we grabbed a good meal and enjoyed a celebratory beer. We then packed our gear and prepared to leave the next day. Later in the night we attended a campfire chat with a ranger. The topic of his presentation was on the park wildlife. We learned a number of things we didn't know, and had many questions answered. Its to bad this presentation wasn't available when we arrived. However, it was Friday, and many were arriving for their first day in the park.After the talk we settled in for the night and were eager to move on to the next phase of our trip. But we weren't completely finished with Yellowstone yet. There was still a bit to see on our way out...