It rained most of the night. The locals were glad, as this was the first moisture they have had in months. We were up to 6:00 a.m., and on the road by 6:30. We were just outside the entrance of Baybridge campground in the middle of Yellowstone National Park when the sun was rising and we had our first wildlife sighting of the day.
A herd of elk were grazing in the grass around our campground. It was fun to see an elk cow checking out our early-morning departure.
But it was even more fun to see a very young elk calf amble across the road in front of us. We watched as the calf knelt down to suckle right beside the road in front of Yellowstone Lake. Yes, this was a magical place!
It was cloudy, but the rain cleared the smoke from the air. We saw the hazy view across this big lake right after sun rise.
While it was fun seeing wildlife right outside our campground, our real destination for the morning was Hayden Valley. Staying inside the national park meant we could be there in two miles. On other visits to this big park, we have driven eighty miles to get to this special place known for its early morning wildlife sightings. We stopped to see a bison ambling along the Yellowstone River.
But the real find of the day was a little further down the road. When we spotted a big group holding cameras and binoculars all pointed in the same direction, we knew we would find something special. They had been watching a grizzly as he swam across the river. Now he was walking through the sage brush.
With that signature bump over the front shoulders, it was definitely a grizzly. He would disappear in the brush, then reappear in the next opening. We could see him with our naked eyes, then it took our binoculars, then he was just a spot. We stayed with the hushed group of spotters until he was just a speck.
We had more bison spottings, then we made a short drive on a spur road to Artist Point. The canyon walls were wet from the rain, and were especially colorful this morning.
Artists come here to try to paint this canyon, but they can't match God's artistry. We could see Yellowstone's Upper Waterfall at the end of the canyon.
We drove as far as Canyon Village before we turned around to meander back towards our campground. It was fun to find bison along the road this early morning.
We spotted a large herd on the ridge line, silhouetted in the morning light. We pulled over and stopped, as it looked like the herd was moving our way.
Sure enough, they started moving down the hill, coming to a rest right beside our parking place.
Some of them were in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the herd. They were running full blast down the hill, with tails high in the air.
Our parking place in a dirt pull-off beside the road was a perfect place to get close pictures of the different generations within the herd.
The big bison were rolling in the wallows right in front of us.
When the herd decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the road, they started blocking traffic to get there. We now were in the middle of a classic Yellowstone traffic jam.
We have heard many stories about stupid tourists getting too close to the wild animals in the national parks. Here is pictorial proof that those tourists were visiting that morning as well. That big bull bison was just a couple feet away from the man that stepped outside of his car to get a better picture.
Our pictures were all taken from inside our pickup because we had a great spot.
Further down the road, we stopped in at Sulphur Caldron. We didn't take the time to cook eggs this morning, but it certainly smelled like rotten eggs from this overlook. It's normally crowded with no room to park. But this early in the morning, we had the overlook to ourselves.
We stopped to see the boiling mud pots, thinking that we had wandered into another of God's more stinky wonders.
Just across the road was the Mud Volcano stop, with its wooden boardwalk loop. While usually crowded, at 8:30 we got a picture of Mark by himself in front of the Dragon's Mouth Spring, belching sulphur steam. That wasn't Mark belching, it was the Dragon's Mouth gurgling and rumbling gray water through its hidden caverns.
The tiniest wildlife sighting of the day was posed on a bush not far from the Dragon's Mouth.
We were back at the campground at 9:00. Mark fixed the sway bar bracket that had slipped during our drive yesterday, and we left by 10:00 in the sprinkling rain. It was a 45-minute drive to get to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park, where burned trees from previous years' wildfires make up much of the mountainous landscape. The rain had cleared the smoke from the air, and was hopefully helping to put out this year's wild fires. Lightning often starts the fires, so a gentle rain with no lightning was especially helpful. We drove between the tall chocolate brown rock bluffs on our way to Cody, Wyoming.
We drove 185 miles, and almost four hours this day. While we were wearing jackets because of the cold weather this morning, we were sweating in the desert landscape by the time we got to Greybull, Wyoming. It was 83 degrees in the foothills of the Big Horn mountains.
We started our climb into the Big Horn mountains at 3,700 feet in elevation in Greybull at 83 degrees. The pickup did a heroic job of pulling our trailer up the steep mountain roads. Forty-five miles later we were at 8,400 feet in elevation and needed our jackets again.
We first stopped at the Forest Service dump station to empty our tanks and fill up with water for free. Then we stopped at the Forest Service visitor center to get the latest information on the area. While boon docking was very popular in this area, we had reservations at Prune Creek Forest Service campground for the next three nights. We were in site #18 on the end of the campground with two great camping neighbors on either side.
One of those neighbors pointed out that a cow moose was lying in the shadows just ten yards from where we backed the trailer into its site. The wildlife--especially the moose--was why we had returned to this section of the Big Horn Mountains.
Last time we visited here was in 2023, and we were in the motor home. Because of our electric refrigerator, we were forced to stay in a terrible campground with an electrical site near Bear Lodge. This time we were so glad to have our solar power and a little trailer that fits well into this forest service campground!
We did stop at Bear Lodge, to use their free wifi and buy our first piece of pie. Last trip we tried a different kind of pie at the lodge restaurant every day. That was such a good idea that we planned to repeat it. After our first night, we could recommend the French silk chocolate pie!
We went on our first hunt to find moose at 6:00 p.m. We weren't sure if we would find many this year, so we started taking pictures of all that we saw.
Sometimes we spotted cow moose hanging out together . . .
and sometimes a lonely bull moose.
One difference this year was the presence of cattle in these grassy areas. When we were here in June 2023, if we saw a black dot in the distance, we knew it was a moose. This time those black dots could be cattle. The forest ranger at the visitor center explained that ranchers lease the land from mid-July through September.
We remembered some of our favorite moose-sighting places from our last trip. When we saw a group of people with big cameras and binoculars at one of those favorite pull-outs, we stopped. The three bull moose near the creek were easier to see if we stood on the back of the pickup.
One advantage to visiting in late August is that we got to see the big antlers on the bulls. They regrow these big racks every year, so when visiting in the spring they would only have antler nubs.
When they were feasting on the tender willow stems, sometimes all we could see were those antlers.
We moved to another favorite spot, and found this big boy by himself. It was at this stop that we met a couple from Florida that drove from Yellowstone today--just like us. But unlike us, they had spotted five different bears in their early morning drive in that national park.
He showed us his bear pictures on his cell phone. Without a zoom camera, he had to get close to get good pictures. We want to note that this crazy guy with graying hair in the photo below is NOT Mark.
We respect the wild animals' space and would rather take pictures from a distance--especially when they turn and look at the intruder like this.
We watched the bull saunter through the creek bottom, and then stop to get a drink in an open spot.
Again, our Florida friend got too close for our comfort. This was a big wild animal that could charge very quickly.
He was mirrored in the water below. What a great wildlife sighting!
He did keep an eye on us, but we guess he was saving his energy to fight off competing bull moose during the upcoming rut season--rather than pesky tourists.
He finally got his fill of water and sauntered off, but we certainly enjoyed the time we got to spend with this bull moose this evening. Because the wildlife were so numerous in this area, we had learned to keep a tally sheet from each sighting. We stayed out until it got too dark to see any more animals.
This evening's count:
21 moose
23 deer
4 sandhill cranes
We had a great time at both our early morning Yellowstone National Park wildlife sightings, and our sunset in the Big Horn mountains. We've been doubly blessed today!
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