Day 15

The next morning Chris woke us all up really early (5:50) so that we could, happily, cheerfully and without argument, get in to the car to drive to the Lamar Valley where we had our best chance of seeing the grizzly bears and wolves that are so famous in Yellowstone. We saw a black bear almost immediately and I took a terrible picture:

He was just snuffling along in the high grass eating berries and whatever, didn't even notice us taking pictures! He was very cute, from a distance. When he started walking towards us Max wanted to hang out and meet him up close, but I dragged him back to the car (in his shark pj's, of course). After all, Yellowstone has rules; stay 50 yards way from a black bear, 100 yards from a Grizzly, don't make elk calls (Chris had trouble following that one), etc.

We also saw a Grizzly bear from about a million miles away. There was a group of people at a pullout with these serious scopes who were all excited so we stopped. They were (retired) people who go into the park every day to watch the bears so they know all of their names, ages and stats. They let us use their scope and told us all about Scarface who is a 24 year old Grizzly with a collar who likes to walk miles around the park every day. It was so, so cool to see him, even if he was so far away. 

We came upon one of the huge herds of bison who were meandering around the fields and the roads, just hanging out. A few of the younger bison wrestled in the middle of the road for quite awhile completely oblivious to the cars and people. They appeared to be shocked when they noticed the cars! Not the smartest animals in park.

There are elk everywhere, one especially large guy who liked to hang out near the Canyon campground where we stayed. He created quite a few traffic jams. 

We didn't get to see the wolves, unfortunately. We came upon a group of wolf watchers (same thing as the bear watchers. I owner if there's competition between the groups?). Anyway, they were packing up their scopes and told us that the wolves and their 9 puppies had been playing in the field for the last hour, but had just gone behind a hill and didn't appear to be coming back. Rats.

Max had an eagle eye and saw a coyote running along the hill next to the road and we followed it for a few miles, that was pretty neat. We also saw loads of crows (yuck), a Bald Eagle, black tipped deer and regular deer everywhere. Emma commented that it's pretty funny when seeing a bison on the side of the road feels like a normal occurrence.

We went back to the campsite feeling like we had already had a full day (it was 11 am) and cooked some brunch on the stove (thanks Rachek family, it's an awesome camp stove!). The kids wanted to hang out and nap, but we pointed out that, while they may someday have the chance to get back to Yellowstone we are getting old and are probably not going to get back there so naps were out of the question. We dragged them back to the car and went to see the Canyon Falls. It was an easy walk down to the bottom and the falls are more than impressive (and kind of scary). These falls are actually higher than Niagara Falls and spill more water over the falls every day. My pictures don't do it justice at all:

The walk back up was interesting. Its amazing what a little altitude will do…

Then we headed to Mammoth Falls specifically because we wanted access to the internet so that we could download the second book in our trilogy! I sat in the bar area of the restaurant for an hour of internet access (that I paid for) and it still wouldn't download more than 1/4 of the book. We had a yummy dinner instead in the dining room and then got a chance to see the elk herd that lives in the town. Apparently they wander around town all the time, unconcerned with the cars and people. The bison do it too. Definitely have to watch where you walk in Mammoth Falls!

We were too tired for S'mores again that night, but had a good nights sleep instead.