Animals in Yellowstone

Animals in Yellowstone for Evan

Bison

4 adult black bears and 4 cubs

Elk

Pronghorn

Mountain goats

Pica

Mule deer

Yellow bellied marmot

Red squirrel

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Least chipmunk

Rabbits

White pelican

Owl and 3 owlets

Raven

Canadian geese and goslings

Clark' nutcracker

Magpie

Favorite Animal:  Bison!

What a wonderful trip this has been!

We headed out on the final leg of our trip on May 29.  We are traveling from Mt. Rushmore to Farmington, AR, which is 964.5 miles (about 14 hours).  Evan ate, slept, and watched movies the entire time. 

 It has been such a wonderful trip with Evan!  I love his excitement when viewing wildlife and just enjoying the beauty of nature all around us.  Evan is a great traveling companion - easy going and ready to take on the next adventure!

Mt. Rushmore

 Mount Rushmore!  Since Evan missed out on the Snake River float trip and the Rodeo in Cody (because it is too early), we decided to go to Mt. Rushmore.  It is about a 3.5 hour drive from Buffalo, WY to Mt. Rushmore, SD, so Evan settled in to his travel mode as we drove over.

We made it!

This is the RV "Resort" that we stayed at:

Lake Yellowstone and then on to Cody, WY

Last night we stayed at Fishing bridge campground and awoke to rain this morning.  However, it did not last long and we have had sunny skies most of the day.  We headed over to the Visitor's center which is right on Lake Yellowstone.  

Evan really enjoyed all of the hands-on exhibits...bison horns, elk and moose antlers, etc.  Today was the first day of "ranger-lead programs" at the park - and our last day. I was glad that Evan got to experience a program and it was very interesting.  He had a bear and a wolf pelt and allowed Evan to touch it.  During the presentation, it was evident that Evan was the only one to know ALL of the answers...studying for his Junior Ranger status is paying off.  The ranger brought Evan to the front - which wasn't far since Evan wanted to sit on the front row - for a demonstration.  

After the program we headed out the East entrance to the park towards Cody, looking for wildlife.  We did see several young mountain goats on the side of the road outside of the park.  We did not see a wolf or a Moose, so I guess he will have to come back :)

We stopped at a Walmart in Cody to stock up on food and a then headed to the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum of Natural History.  They have really improved this since Phillip and I first went in 2002.  Lots of hands on activities which Evan seemed to really enjoy.  They have one section with animals (Evan's Favorite), a dinosaur section, and a Bill Cody/Cowboy section. 

About 3:30 we got back on the road towards Sheridan, WY.  We have not driven on this road before and it was beautiful, but very slow going.  We drove through the Big Horn National forest/canyon following the Big Horn River.  Lots of very steep roads and beautiful views.  We arrived at the KOA in Buffalo, WY about 8 and Evan headed directly to the playground.  He LOVES KOAs! He is very excited about the KOA "Resort" that we have reservations for tomorrow night...heated pool, hot tub, bounce house, rock climbing wall and more. He bought a movie at Wal Mart, Open Season 4 (this week we have watched 1, 2, and 3).  So he is looking forward to movie time tonight.

Another great day!

I went out for a walk this morning and was greeted with this beautiful sight!  It's going to be another great day!

Evan spotted this guy near the camper:

We headed over to Chico Hot Springs for a dip first, then had lunch at the restaurant next to the pool. 

Next we headed back to Mammoth so Evan can be sworn in as a junior ranger, entering the park through the Northwest entrance. 

The Northwest entrance "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People."

We headed toward Cooke city to Lamar valley and we saw three owlets that a nice group of people from Montana showed us.  People are so nice and seem to enjoy showing kids what they have spotted.  They had a really powerful telescope pointed to the birds and were nice enough to lower the scope so that Evan could look in.  After that we saw another couple with a big telescope so we stopped.  They were focused on some bison, but turned it around and focused on some Elk so that Evan could take a look.   We saw some elk right next to the road and got some pics.

Bear sighting shortly before making the turnoff to Lamar Valley. Momma bear and two cubs!

We turned around before getting into the mountains after Lamar Valley to head back towards Fishing Bridge Campground where we will stay the night.  Not long after turning at Norris, we saw a group of people with cameras and binoculars...a good sign that wildlife is around :). We did not have a place to pull over the motorhome, so we drove down the road a bit  and found a pull out.  Evan and I jumped out and headed up a big hill to check it out.  It was at least half a mile uphill!  We were rewarded with another Momma bear and her two cubs!  We got pictures of this one too.  

Still on the road to the campground we stopped at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and hiked down to the lower falls right at the brink of the falls.  It was beautiful!!!  However, Evan was a little fussy about the long hike :). I must admit, the hike back up was tough.

We also saw Bison at several points along the road, including a Bison traffic jam.

At the turn at Canyon Village we saw another group of people (which usually means a wildlife sighting).  This time it was a male bear and he was huge.  I was really surprised by how much bigger he was than the female.  This brings our count up to 8 bears today....one that Evan and I saw, but did not get picture evidence...then the first mother and 2 cubs, the second mother and two cubs and then the male...pretty good for one day.

This has been a really long day.  Although Evan was tired and ready to get to the campground, we stopped at the Dragon's breath thermal feature before going to the campground.  

We arrived at the campground around 7:30, stopped at the grocery store, set up camp, cooked dinner, and watched Wild Hogs for our nightly entertainment.

It has rained this afternoon.  Snow in the higher elevations, light rain lower elevations.  By the time we got to the campground it was raining pretty hard.  It has been much wetter this trip than trips later in the summer.  However, we have not let it slow us down.