Day 16- Yellowstone from East gate to Northeast gate

Our arrival in the park was a bittersweet experience. We drove through mile after mile of scorched standing wood from the 1988 wild fires. Over 40% of the park was burned but as I’ve said, this is nature’s way of resetting the balance. It burns the dead or dying undergrowth that has been left to accumulate, clears the way for fresh shoots to thrive in newly created holes in the canopy and in some cases, fire is even required to open cones allowing the seeds to be broadcast by squirrels, birds and bears. There were several places we didn’t stop today because we will travel the first part of the trip a couple of times on our way to other parts of the park. We did stop at Mud Volcano, Artist Point, Le Hardys Rapids, Hayden Valley and the Lamar Valley. It took hours but our loop went out the Northeast Gate, through Cooke City, up through the Dead Indian Pass and back to Cody. I’m pretty pleased with the amount of wildlife we saw today. There were dozens of lone bulls enjoying the thick green grass and brilliant sunshine. Some were even taking advantage of the occasional snow drifts liberally sprinkled about the park. We didn’t find the cows and calves until we reached the Lamar Valley. There were hundreds grazing there and I found myself wondering what the scene would have been like 150 years ago when the valley would have been a seething dark mass of bison with little room to observe individuals. Our chance sighting of the black bear was a plus although I would have loved to stop and get a clear photo. The presence of the ranger is, of course, a deterrent. How do they get there so quickly? It’s like the bear calls in and says” Hey, I’m heading over to Chittendon Road. Want to get together?” I always enjoy seeing deer wherever I go. We don’t have Mule Deer in NH so it was interesting to see how really large their ears are. Pronghorns ( not antelope ) are new to us. Even though the females have horns, you can easily tell who’s in charge. And finally, I couldn’t believe our luck when we came around this corner and there in the field were a mating pair of coyotes. How do I know they were a mating pair? Think about that for a minute. Carl let me out of the truck to sit on the side of the road while he parked further down the road. And you can always tell when you’ve been too long at a spot by the number of vehicles parked on side of the road and in some cases in the road like it happened today in front of us. I actually thought mean bad things about two guys, one who pulled up, in the road, between me and the Bison bull, the other grabbed a tripod, a telephoto lens such as you see at a ball game and then walked within 100 feet of the same bull. I mean really. Did he want to count his eyelashes?