Yellowstone Wildlife 2023

Following three wonderful days in Glacier National Park I had one more stop to make before returning home -- Yellowstone.

My focus for this visit was wildlife more than scenery, so despite steady rain I headed straight for the Lamar Valley and drove up and down its length until I ran out of light.  My first obliging subjects were some Plains Bison grazing quite close to the road.

There were Pronghorn in the valley as well, but slightly farther off.  Still, I captured the interest of at least one of them.

As the hour grew later and I made my way out of the park, I came across a bear jam just east of Floating Island Lake.  A mother American Black Bear and two cubs were foraging.  Well, the mom was.  The cubs were a short distance away just romping around some fallen logs.  Conditions prevented me from getting a clear shot of the cubs, but I was able to at least document the mother.

The next morning I was back in the park before sunrise.  Another, much smaller bear jam given the early hour presented itself just south of Grizzly Lake Trailhead.  It was another mother and pair of cubs, but this time they were Brown Bears.

This was one of the rare times when I wish I had a longer lens.  They didn't move any closer to the road, and I wasn't interested in moving any closer to them.  I could have potentially tried a higher ISO, but I haven't embraced that despite the advances in denoise technology.

As the sun rose higher in the sky and I reached the Nez Perce Creek, a sizable herd of bison was in the area.  They were plenty close to the road, and included nursing youngsters with their mothers...

... itchy males...

... who turned into cheeky males, because pictures of animals sticking out their tongues are always funny.

I watched and listened to the group for a while, just soaking in the experience of being surrounded by such powerful but peaceful animals.  Then it was time to make up for something I had missed on our family trip to Yellowstone 13 years earlier.  Cliffhanger!