30 April 2005 - Saturday

We made at evening run into Parkadise. Carlene and I were the crew. The weather was warm at 40 degrees with mostly clear skies. There were seven bison just outside the North Entrance grazing and enjoying the balmy spring weather. We checked out the hillsides of the cayon on our drive up to Mammoth for bighorns. No success but fun trying none the less. We did have elk scattered all along the hillsides on our drive up. Carlene was lucky on Friday morning on her drive up to the Mammoth Clinic. She was able to watch two gray wolves (probably from the Swan Lake Pack) on the hillside with the elk and a bald eagle on the opposite side of the road watching with her. She got to work and just had to call me at work and rub it in! Ha! Not really to rub it in but to let me know. I then passed the info along to some loons who made their way slowly along the Gardner River with no success of finding wolves.

The Mammoth campground sign indicated that the campground was full. I think that is the first time I had seen that in April. There were quite a few RV's and campers enjoying spring in Yellowstone.

We still have snow in the higher elevations and it is cool to cold in the mornings and evenings.

At 6:23 PM in we had the normal resident elk and bison herds from Wraith Falls to Blacktail Lakes along the hillsides, roadsides and mountainsides. We also had a flyover by some magpies and on the road after Blacktail Lakes we had a nice flyover by Mountain Blue Birds. They are a brilliant blue and very beautiful. That was a nice treat. I remember on one of our spring trips we had driven through the arch and were heading to the North Entrance when Carlene said, "Look at all the pretty blue flowers." When all of a sudden the blue "flowers" took to flight. Wow, was about all we could say as a large flock of Mountain Blue Birds took off.

The hillside just before the Nez Perce Trail and Children's Firewalk was just covered with elk and bison. They were all over the hillside and roadside and very impressive.

In the middle of Floating Island Lake there is a Sandhill Crane on a nest. There were also other water fowl on the lake. The lake is higher than it was last year, but still way low from what it usually is. The temperature was a balmy 36 degrees. We have had some strange weather this year. One week is warm and dry and the next week winter and snow. It just can't seem to make up its mind, but we will continue to take all the moisture we can get!

We hit Roosevelt at 6:42 PM and the road to Tower is still closed so we reigned in the van and head east. Bison and elk were on the distant hillsides at Junction Butte.

We came upon a nice little bison jam just before the Yellowstone River bridge as they were slowly making their way west to Rosy. We were in no hurry and the bison looked good and there were quite a few yearlings in the herd of about 35.

Antelope, bison and elk were along the road in Little America. I took a few pictures of the antelope and a whiley coyote showed up and was just meandering along the hillside east of the antelope.

We drove by the Slough Creek road and there was one vehicle parked there. We had heard that folks had been watching the Slough Creek Pack from the pullout there. We continued on up the road and canyon towards Lamar. Carlene noticed ravens on a kill just about at the top of the canyon. We stopped and looked, but the only wildlife around was ravens and magpies.

We continued on down the valley and stopped at several pullouts. Some folks had watched a large black bear up in the timber below Specimen Ridge and that was about it. Earlier in the day one guy had watched a large griz on Druid Peak for a few hours as it was grubbing.

We were able to see plenty of bison, elk and antelope along the way and out in Lamar, but no bears or wolves.

We turned around and enjoyed a slow drive back. Just before Mammoth, there are elk and bison all over the hillside and a small herd of bison on the road. We stopped and watched as they finished crossing when we notice a cow bison and a brand new bison calf. The mom is licking the calf and giving it its Saturday bath. Our first bison calf of the year. I took a few pictures before the traffic started to catch up with us. That was cool and a nice way to end our Saturday trip.

The campfires from the Mammoth campground looked and smelled great and added to our Saturday in Parkadise with family and friends.