August 5th, 2010

We spent all of this morning venturing through Yellowstone National Park looking for wildlife. Before we even left the house this morning guess who showed up behind our cabin again? You guessed it, the red-tailed fox. He caught me by surprise yet again as I heard my mom yell again, There’s a coyote!

So as I frantically dashed to the car yet again to get my camera I yelled back, It’s the fox again, not a coyote!

So I run behind the cabin and spot him in a field. I thought he was hunting at first but then he started to circle and bed down.

After he laid down, I started to slowly inch forward and he didn’t even really seem to notice. So bit by bit I got closer and closer until finally I was standing right over him. I could have reached down and pet him he was so close.

He was so beautiful and his eyes were so big and curious looking. As I stood over him he heard my camera click and looked right at me with those big brown eyes. It was an amazing thing to sit there just a foot away from this beautiful wild animal and look him right in the eye. After that I didn’t want to disturb him any further so I backed off and let him fall back to sleep.

We then headed into the park looking for more wildlife. We weren’t actually very lucky on the wildlife front. We saw a couple of antelope playing in the field. But not a lot else for a while

The little baby was adorable, he was prancing around and going wild while the parent just sat there eating. The best part of the day was the black bear. Out by the petrified tree we spotted a black bear up on a hill. We took pictures of him and then I started to notice him moving so I knew he was going to try to cross the road.

He started to slowly move closer and closer to the road picking his way across fallen logs scavenging for food along the way. As always in Yellowstone within minutes the place was completely mobbed with people scrambling to take pictures. A regular road became a dead locked parking lot of people.

My mom was yelling at me to get back in the car and I probably should have listened but I wanted a good shot. I let him get a little closer than I probably should have and it was a little scary. (I did have bear mace though). He was so cool and so very close to me. It was quite the experience.

He finally did cross the road and we moved on to let the bear have his peace. We didn’t see a lot more wildlife except for a nice field full of buffalo next to the Yellowstone River.

Strangely we didn’t see any elk the entire trip which has never happened to me before. So we ended our Yellowstone trip in Mammoth Hot Springs which was mobbed with people so we headed out.

So tonight we are staying in Coeur D’Alene. The hotel situation was a nightmare! We booked a room and then we couldn’t get into it so we had a master-key open it only to realize someone was still staying there. So we then figure out they are actually booked and have to move us to a different hotel because we don’t actually have a room. This is also after we took off our bikes because apparently they would have been stolen. And let me tell you, those bikes are so hard to get on and off that rack. So here we are in a different hotel, without the lake view, and way out of downtown. It was a good day but a frustrating night to say the least.


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One Response to “Travel Update: Yellowstone”

  1. Patty says:

    Unbelievable photos Monica, You must be a wild animal whisperer!
    Loving every minute of your trails. Thanks for sharing.