We have been exploring Yellowstone National Park for four days now, and there is so much to see we are out late every night.
Lee is still in search of the elusive moose, which we have yet to find. He was not satisfied with this one:
Nor was he satisfied with three below. Note his discouraged demeanor:
I have read that there are about 200 moose in the park, spread out over 3400 acres. They are also shy, so tend to stay away from the roads. A challenge!
The first animals we saw, on the day of our first sortie into the park were.......creatures from Star Wars???
No, buffalo, with an escort service (note the white pick up truck following the buffalo, to make sure people don't get too close).
The animals with the greatest numbers are buffalo, elk, and ravens, so we have seen several of each over the four days we have been here. Nothing in herds, though. Just isolated individuals here and there, sometimes in pairs.
I have rarely seen ravens before, but they are plentiful in Yellowstone. We watched one that seemed to be quite the ham. He seemed to enjoy the attention of the crowds that were waiting for Old Faithful to blow.
We also found one trying to open a pack on the back of a motorcycle. Clever, these fellows!
I mentioned the elk are not hard to find. A group of six slowly crossed the road in front of us. They were in no hurry.
Here they are in greener pastures once on the other side of the road:
The males are especially regal at this time of year. Their antlers have had the spring and summer to grow. Lee took this photo:
Speaking of animals, Lee and I saw this funny encounter in a parking lot (Lee's photos):
Visitors are instructed not to leave their pets by themselves, and they must always be on a leash. The ranger is writing a ticket for this dog who was left by himself in a pickup truck. The dog looks slightly ashamed, perhaps of his owners? The ranger stayed with the dog until the owners returned. The dog seemed to enjoy the ranger's company:
We have seen three coyotes so far. Lee took the following photographs, of one especially photogenic coyote:
Coyotes are relatively easy to spot, I have read, because the wolf packs have pushed them closer to the roads. Wolves are shyer than coyotes, and stay as far away from the roads as they can. Since wolves were introduced to the park, the number of coyotes has plummeted. Doesn't he look like he is posing for the photo for Best of Show in a dog show?
We saw two sandhill cranes from a distance. Someone told me this pair had arrived a little early for their southward migration. He said in a couple of weeks there would be a much larger group of the cranes in the area. We had better views of these birds in Florida, but here they are in a more natural environment:
One of the highlights so far was the sighting of a pack of wolves! We stood next to a fellow who seemed to know quite a bit about them, as Lee took the following photos. He said that the pack was heading north for a rendez-vous with the rest of the pack, and that the pack leader, an alpha female, was the white wolf out in front. The pack was at least a quarter mile away, if not farther, so the wolves looked like colored specks on the landscape. Through my binoculars, they looked like fleas. If you look carefully, you should be able to count six wolves - the white one in the lead, two black ones, and three beige. They were moving quickly:
You might ask how one knows where to find animals. Easy! Look for the cars pulled off the road!
Here's one critter that didn't require a pack of cars to find. These beautiful blue dragonflies were thick above one of the hot springs. I don't know what the attraction might have been, since many of these springs are toxic or at the very least scaldingly hot:
Here are a couple of more photos of female elk, taken by Lee. The white rump and dark head make them easy to identify:
And finally a parting shot, taken by Lee, of Canada geese swimming in the Madison River, with a number of geothermal features spewing steam in the background. It looks deceivingly serene. I have found Yellowstone to be a land of contrasts, between the violent and sublimely beautiful:
