Today we had a late start but with temperatures rising toward freezing point, overcast skies and some occasional snowfalls landscape photography would be a challenge.
Driving towards Lamar valley we found the 4-6 bull elk shortly after the Wraith Fall trail and before the Black Tail lakes. No sign of wolves near Mammoth (at least for us).
In Lamar there were Bison clearing the snow:
Wolves were present in Lamar just after you Slough Creek through the valley on the right hand side and as usual in the far, far distance. We heard that the group of three (2 black males and one gray female) crossed the road earlier that day. She seems to be injured and is currently using only three legs for walking around. We hope that she is going to recover soon. One highlight of the day was two mating coyotes near the Confluence. I personally did not like the step angle and decided to continue driving.
We had lunch at Mammoth Hot Springs, had a nice talk with a couple from the Chicago area and then hit the road for another round towards Lamar. In the canyon between Slough Creek and Lamar we have seen two coyotes walking along the road and then up to the hills. It was fun to watch them for a while until the disappeared in the woods.
The wolves we have seen earlier that day moved approximately half a mile east but not closer to the road. We continued driving as not much happened and we turned around at Pebble Creek and Eva spotted a Golden Eagle shortly after Soda Butte right across the parking lot where the restrooms are.
He was sitting on top of the hill and I told Eva that we are going to stay until he will take off…
We were lucky and I was patient enough to get some shots while he was taking off. The light was ugly but it is as it is.
Tomorrow we will take the snow coach towards Old Faithful were we are going to stay the next two nights. We hope for better weather and colder temperatures and will update the blog after our return. There will be no internet at Old Faithful (at least not for us).
Leave a Reply