Northern Yellowstone....home of the grizzly! Although we did see a mama and her two cubs, she was at a good distance and hiding in the sage, so a picture I could not get. However, this 2 year old male pictured at left was about 20 feet away! However, he showed no interest in us as he scoured for food. We spent the majority of the day at Mammoth Springs and Towers and ended up seeing a total of 6 bears. Very exciting!! We also drove over to Norris to examine more of the hot springs and thermal areas.
Some of these springs are so hot and so acidic their spray is similar to battery acid. There have been several deaths here over the years from people falling in or even jumping in. Yes, back in 1986, one man jumped in to save his friends dog.....he quickly pulled himself out but left his skin in the water. With 100% of his body covered in third degree burns, his fate was sealed and he became another statistic in the parks' fatalities. After a long day of taking in all the sights we stumbled upon a remote camping area in the northeast area...very close to where a grizzly had killed one man and mauled two other people while sleeping in their tents. But the beauty of this site right along the river, outweighed the fear of another attack. Besides, the camp rangers had trapped and killed the bear responsible. Slough campground which is located in Lamar Valley is where the wolf has been re-introduced to the park. Several onlookers with high powered cameras and binoculars camp out in the evening/dusk hours in hope of catching a glimpse of these haunting animals. We watched with the others for awhile, but were not lucky enough to see any wolf activity. We returned to our campsite and had a wonderful campfire and enjoyed the clear night and abundance of stars to gaze at.
We awoke early the next morning for some wildlife searching and did see some elk, antelope and of course more bison which roam the park freely. we departed from the park through the north entrance which adorns the beautiful Roosevelt arch and enters in the town of Gardnier, Montana where we enjoyed a quick lunch and stumbled upon a whitewhater rafting outfit. Of course, we slammed on the breaks and another adventure was at hand.
We traveled 8 miles down the yellowstone river through some grade 2 and 3 rapids. It was great fun and came to an end much to quickly. We worked up an appetite and dined on Elk burgers before heading out to South Dakota. I am going to miss this place....Wyoming felt like home to me.
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