Yellowstone, Tower, Marmot

Today we drove to the Tower area of the Park. Yellowstone is so immense that it took us over two hours to reach. The Ranger had suggested one of the trails which was open, the Garnet Hill Loop, a hike of eight miles. We were glad to be out of the car and walking in beautiful countryside, even if we did have bear spray to hand!

It was a first for me, walking through sagebrush meadows and forest reminiscent of home but talking loudly and calling ‘Hey Bear!’ Whenever we approachedhidden bends or rose up over hills or entered confined parts of the trail. The idea is to give bears plenty of warning of approach as they are only likely to attack if surprised unawares! Thankfully we didn’t encounter any bears but we did have several other adventures:
- early in to the hike we had to walk out in to very wet meadow to go around a large, male bison who was wary of our presence
- Rob and Tony managed to vault over a stream swollen by meltwater but Becky and I had to hold hands and wade through the rushing waters -wet boots!
- we had to divert up in to the rocks when two bison wandered down the trail in front of us
- we spotted a large, male bison up on the hill above the final valley we were crossing. He was immediately alert and as we rose over the incline we saw the reason why, a large herd of bison across the valley, including calves. At that point the male galloped down the hill to protect his herd and we had to do a wide detour above them before rejoining the trail around the other side. As we crossed we disturbed a small group of antelope which bounded away in to the valley, phew!

Adventures apart, it was a stunning walk through varied landscape. Prairie Dogs crossed the path in front of us and, at our lunch stop, overlooking the Yellowstone River, my blipped marmot provided much entertainment. There are strict rules about interacting with wildlife in the Park, no feeding them, no calling to them or imitating their calls, and keeping your distance.

Lunch complete and bison avoided, we returned to the car and took a drive in to Lamar Valley, which is known for its wildlife due to its wide valley bottom, abundance of grazing and river running through. Once again lots of cars had pulled over and we parked and fell into conversation with a young couple, newly married who had a powerful scope trained on the hillside. We took a look and there was a solitary wolf, ranging across the hillside. We watched it for some time and then turned for home.

Further down the drive we stopped again to view two magnificent crane like birds and then further down encountered a large traffic and people jam. Rob pulled over and we looked up on to the hillside to see a mother grizzly and two cubs contouring around the hill and grubbing for food -what another fantastic day!