Day 14 - Stampede!

Another of those cold, snowy mornings. Is it really the end of May? Almost summer? I didn’t pack enough clothes for this type of weather!

Today we’re visiting West Yellowstone, MT. It’s one of our favorite drives because of all the animals we normally see. There is also an eagle’s nest along the route. We usually see lots of anglers in the Yellowstone River.

We started out about 9:30 a.m. and drove toward the West Yellowstone Loop. One of the main roads is closed (Canyon to Tower) because of heavy snow. It was supposed to open on May 23, but they don’t have an idea of when it might open because it keeps snowing there. Because it’s closed we can’t get to Lamar Valley to see the buffalo and wolves. Maybe next time…..

Since the roads along Firehole were open and Eddie and Susan hadn’t seen these roads, we took some time to drive them again. My favorite geyser in the whole park is along one road. It’s small, but goes off every 20 minutes. It puts up a huge steam plume and continues about one minute. If you miss it, just wait or if you want to see it again, jut wait. It’s always every 20 minutes.

We spent a good bit of time seeing each road and it was getting close to lunchtime and we were still 15 miles from West Yellowstone. That may not sound like a lot, but by the time you pull off or over for animals, it can be hours! We decided to drive straight into West Yellowstone unless animals prohibited us doing so. We finally got there about 2:00 p.m.

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Food was good, but I think there were more of us (4) than were employed there! We talked a bit and decided to head back out. Since we were in two different vehicles, we decided to split up going back.

We stopped a few times coming back toward the Canyon Loop. Several animals were along and in the river….mostly elk. When we got close to the turn at Canyon Loop, I saw a “dog” crossing the field in the snow. All of a sudden it dawned on me it wasn’t a dog. It was too large for a coyote, so we decided it was a wolf. As we turned the corner, we saw LOTS of people with cameras filming the wolf. Of course, we did the same. It was then I noticed a second wolf. The pack was traveling through the snow toward Canyon Village. I wish I’d put the telephoto lens on the camera. You can see the wolf, but not as clearly as I could have gotten it.

When we finally got back to Fishing Bridge where we’re camped, I asked David to drive on past the entrance and a little way down the road. It was closed last time we were here. If you wanted to go to Cody, WY, you had to find another loop to get there. We drove down the road and didn’t see a lot, so we turned around to head back to the RV. Just before we got to the entrance of the RV park, we got into a “buffalo jam” – lots of people stopped because the buffalo take over the road. Most people take it in stride and wait for the buffalo to move. This buffalo was a single male taking his time walking up the middle of the road. We were about ¼ mile from him as he approached us. There was no other vehicle in our lane, so the buffalo had a clear “shot” to finish coming down the road. EXCEPT…..one “visitor” decided to blow his horn! What a change happened!

I shoot pictures with a Nikon D50 and it has a feature I really like. When I bought the camera, the salesman told me if I held down the shutter button while a bear was running toward me, the bear would remain in focus the entire time until he got to me! I was sold!

Well…..I started to shoot and held the button down. You can see the buffalo walking a few steps, but when the horn blows, he starts running! You can see that his feet are off the ground! I’m still shooting and not thinking anything more about the buffalo. Then I realize he’s getting closer, but I’m still shooting! He gets closer and closer and he puts his head down like he’s going to ram the truck! I’m still shooting! At the very last second, he turned from my side of the truck and just missed the outside mirror! All David could think of was we’re going to need a new radiator! All I could think of was how to get these pictures posted! LOL LOL LOL I’ll see if I can get them on Flicker so you can see this big boy charging the truck!

It’s our last day here at Yellowstone, so we went to visit Eddie and Susan at their hotel. We ended up having dinner from the deli and had some great conversation about what all we’d seen that day. After hugs, we went back to the RV to pack up for the move to Jackson Hole on Monday.

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)