We Can't Hardly Bear It!

We can't bear not seeing some of the wildlife we had hoped to find.

Actually, we can because we saw a momma grizzly bear and her cub playing in a mud puddle.

This post is all about the wildlife. 

The highlight was 'Da Bears'.
On the other end of the the spectrum,  we did not spot any moose or wolves.  As far as the Moose, I think they are hanging out with the unicorns.  We didn't see any last year in New England either.

A common thing in Yellowstone is a 'Buffalo Jam'.  There are 2 kinds of Buffalo Jams. 

The 1st Type of Buffalo Jam is when the buffalo walk up on the road and block traffic.  Sometimes it is just a few crossing the road.  Sometimes it is a whole large group crossing the road.  Sometimes, as happened to us, a large group (30 or 40) decide they prefer the road to the field and they decide to follow the yellow lines for a while (it is their park after all).

The 2nd Type of Buffalo Jam....
A person new in the park spies a Buffalo in a field and stops traffic to take photo.  They do not yet know, that in the next 15 minutes, they are going to see hundreds while on their drive.  I suppose that this frustrates some.  We prefer to be happy for them (mostly - I mean that's how I want to feel).

Spotting the wildlife was a lot of fun, from the chipmunks frolicking at our feet as we take a break on our hike, to the bald eagles we saw on our hot air ballon ride.  It was all so much fun. 

[Reminder: These notes are mostly for us to relive our experiences]

The Eagles were neat.  We had seen a golden eagle feeding on something while on our driving tour of Yellowstone.  We saw a juvenile bald eagle while floating the Snake River in the Tetons, and the best were the 3 bald eagles we saw on the hot air balloon ride.  2 of the eagles were sitting on a fence (several hundred feet below us), and the pilot lowered the balloon down until we were 80 feet away from them.  1 flew away.  We got closer, and then the 2nd flew away.  My lovely got a great shot of that one taking flight.

It's incredible to see wildlife in their natural habitat. The animals are wild but really don't care if we stop and watch...the bears certainly didn't! . Just don't get too close. This is a list of the animals we were lucky enough to see...some of them multiple times.

Buffalo
Long Tailed Weasel (has a black tip)
Prairie Dogs
Big Horn Sheep and Lambs
Mountain Goats
Pronghorn
Swans
Canada Geese
Ducks
Talking Ravens
Merganser
Osprey
Coyote
Elk
Beaver
Marmot
Chipmonk
Ranger PittieOkumaya devam et