August 22, 2013

Yellowstone Wildlife

On our travels through Yellowstone National Park last week, conditions were hazy from fires. 
Here you can see smoke rising from the Druid fire in the NE corner of the park.
We saw plenty of wildlife.  Above is a video of a black bear that was hanging out eating berries near the Slough Creek trailhead. 
A deer and her two fawns stopped to have a look at us as we walked along an old wagon road. 
This osprey nest was just off the road to the NE entrance of the park.  The four chicks are about ready to fly. 
A pronghorn antelope waded across the Lamar River. 
A (blue?) grouse crossed our path as we were hiking.
Of course there were the requisite buffalo (bison) jams,
and one buffalo skull hiding amidst the remains of summer grass and wildflowers.
We have lots more photos, but this is enough for one post.  Fortunately, we were not hiking in the Canyon area of the park where a grizzly attack occured last week.  We always hike with bear pepper spray at the ready, which appeared to be the salvation of those hikers. 

19 comments:

  1. Lovely shots but I must say the buffalo head find was really a...find. Too bad you couldn't keep it.

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  2. Our newsman shows a map of all the fires and it looks like they are everywhere.

    We think of all of our friends in the West and pray they are OK. Thanks for the look at the Park!

    Cheers,

    Jo

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  3. Oh My---brings back great memories... We love Yellowstone and I hope we go back there sometime. You saw alot of wildlife...

    One hike we took followed a path which went right beside a bison grazing... That was a first for us!!!!! ha

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  4. Nice pics. I'd sure have some bear spray and make noise while I was hiking.

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  5. Yellowstone is a fascinating place. I have great memories of our Yellowstone visit during September 2012.

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  6. Your wildlife puts ours quite in the shade:-)
    My son armed himself with bear pepper spray when he and his family went into 'bear country' - but they didn't see any bears.

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  7. I LoVE all your photos. I miss visiting Yellowstone! So, do you think that bison died of natural causes??
    I'm glad I didn't hear about a bear attack....I pray everyone was safe though.
    XO

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  8. Thanks for the memories. We enjoyed our visit to Yellowstone last year, but I would love to get back so we could do more hiking (without meeting any angry bears, of course). Your photos are wonderful.

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  9. Hi Janie, you captured the essence of Yellowstone perfectly. I especially enjoyed your Black Bear video.

    Thanks for sharing another great adventure- Happy trails:)

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  10. I love the bear eating berries video and all of your wildlife images. How amazing to find a buffalo skull with the wildflowers!

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  11. Wonderful photos, Janie. My sons and I flyfished up Slough Creek many times...:)

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  12. Great post and great pictures and video Janie. Gregg and I are slowly working our way up to Yellowstone and I was interested in the bear pepper spray. It is something that we take seriously. If I remember from our last visit you can buy the bear pepper spray at the visitor center?

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  13. You brought back all sorts of memories of our time in Yellowstone a few years ago. When I see wildfires like that one, I worry about the wildlife, knowing that they are trying to run for their lives.

    Lovely black bear video!

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  14. What fantastic photo opportunities at the park. It looks like you had a wonderful time!

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  15. If I was a bear I'd have a really hard time resisting the berries as well, even with spectators. Nice array of wildlife.

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  16. I loved this wildlife hike with you in one of my favorite places. You got some spectacular photos. Can't wait to see the rest. It's been raining every afternoon here - I'll send some your way!

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  17. Yellowstone is a wonderful place to visit. I like how you pointed out that the buffalo jam was required. Do you think they feed them extra to get them to do that? Just Kidding :D. It's good to see your photo's but I'm sorry to hear about the fire. We visited Yellowstone once right after the fires and swept through and nearly burned the lodge. It was a hard thing to see. We returned later and were thrilled to see the regrowth and the healing of the forest.

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  18. You saw a lot of wildlife for just this one post! The grouse has great camouflage.

    I hope to visit Yellowstone sometime when there are no fires. Both times we have gone, there have been fires to keep us away from certain areas of the park that we wanted to see.

    ~Lindy

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