Yellowstone Bonus Finds

We'd had a perfect day, a nice hike, and had already seen plenty of wildlife.  After chowing down on Babyback Ribs (I highly recomment them!) at Roosevelt Lodge, we drove to the Lamar River for a short walk. 

This antelope was hanging out by the river.

Her baby popped up out of the brush.

Mama urged baby to move along.  She didn't want him too close to those nosy tourists.

Yet another tourist pleaser was this grizzly.  Yes, that's the road in the front of the photo.  See how close he was?  Less than 100 yards, I would guess. A ranger was there, making sure no one approached the bear, which was a good thing.  Some people were out of their cars.  We took our photos through the window. 

He looked thin.  Maybe he was an old bear.  It's unusual to see a grizzly near a road, especially so close.
The grizz was fascinating to watch.  But the big find of the night was this:

He was running beside the road.  He looked like a wolf, but wolves usually stay well away from cars, people, and roads, so we were thinking he had to be a coyote.

Then again, he sure looked like a wolf.  Turned out, he was, indeed, a yearling wolf.  The wolf watcher police came along in a truck and said they'd used a pellet gun to chase the wolf away from the road, an aversion technique sometimes used to keep wild animals wild, and to keep them from getting run over by traffic.
Well, that was the find of a lifetime.  We certainly didn't expect anything more.  But yet another wildlife bonus came our way.

This black bear was hogging up on berries maybe 50 feet from the road.  Way close, for a bear. 

Again, a ranger was there, monitoring tourists, trying to keep them out of trouble.  The bear didn't seem to care one way of the other.  He was really enjoying his berries.

Black Twinberry, a bear's choice

We'd had a more than full day.  Back we went to our little cabin at Roosevelt Lodge.  It's not what you'd call a 5 star accommodation.  The bathroom is in a communal building, and you can see light through the cabin walls.  However, the bed was clean and fairly comfortable.  We slept well, with visions of bears, wolves, and antelope dancing in our heads.