Wyoming Wildlife, Part II

We only saw bighorn sheep once, right on the side of the road as we were headed into Gardiner for lunch Monday.

It was quite a mixed group, with some ewes, young rams and a few lambs.

One of the aforementioned young rams.

Are any babies not adorable?

A most cooperative dragonfly. I'm going to have to see if my go-to butterfly guy Mike Fisher, Colorado coordinator for the Butterflies and Moths of North America database, can help with a more specific ID.

Speaking of butterflies, I didn't see too many except for one very active area by Observation Point near Old Faithful.

Mike Fisher to the rescue, as usual: "The Fritillary is probably Argynnis (Speyeria) zerene. It is widely distributed in the western U.S., including Colorado. We have two different subspecies, sinope - the most common in most of the western part of the state in the Colorado River Drainage and platina - only in extreme NW Moffat County). North they get subspecies garreti which would apply to the Yellowstone area. It looks like it is at Dogbane flowers which is a really great nectar source for many butterflies and skippers." Thanks again, Mike!

I expected to see more elk for some reason. When we did come upon a good-sized bull, I had my camera on the wrong shutter speed. Meh.

This bald eagle watched us float right under him down the Snake River.

A young bull moose in Grand Teton.

An even younger moose, one of two calves I saw on my hike in Cascade Canyon.

The calves' mama, who gave me the evil eye until she'd taken her little family well past me.

Another bull moose from Cascade Canyon, with his antlers still covered in velvet.

The wildlfowers were beautiful and the scenery was breathtaking, but it's the wildlife that I'll remember most from this trip. Now I'm looking forward to getting up to RMNP next month and trying to get some good pics from the elk rut!

Click here for Part I.