Yellowstone trip: Animals

My family and I spent that last week around Yellowstone National Park. This was my first time in that region since I've been old enough to appreciate it. It was definitely a worthwhile and interesting trip. I even saw several grizzly bears!

To make this easier for me, I'm going to share pictures through several posts instead of one. The first will be animals, then birds, and last some of the plants that I saw and hung around during my trip.

BEARS

This was the first bear we came across and the only one that created a true 'bear jam'. A very beautiful black bear. I will remember the way he/she walked over young pine trees, bending them and then letting them pop back up. We also saw another young black bear which couldn't have been more than 2 years old.

Grizzlies! Off of Dunraven pass, one afternoon a mother and her two cubs walked and played far below in the meadow for a long while. Another, larger grizzly relaxed in the shade. The next day a nearly black grizzly foraged near a herd of bison in the Lamar valley eventually climbing down by the creek where we couldn't see. This bear was much closer. As we watched the bear, trucks drove by with what I realized later were bear traps. Down the road, the night before, a mother grizzly and her three cubs attacked 3 people sleeping in tents in a National Forest campground. One man died. As a result so did the mother grizzly, and her cubs will live the rest of their lives in a zoo.

A wolf! This was a first for me too. This black wolf was seen during the afternoon in the Hayden valley. I believe it is the leading male of the Canyon pack. I could be wrong. I heard someone saying there is a den in the valley. But since this was a family trip early morning wolf watching didn't happen. :)

Bison are really great. Just seeing them in the wild gives me hope and reminds me of everything our culture has lost.

Moose

These bull elk were hanging out on the hill above where we saw the first black bear.

Stay tuned for part two of my yellowstone trip.. Dum dum, yup.