We joined a hawkwatch event today. A Ranger gave a pretty good talk about differentiating the raptors most commonly found here in Yellowstone then we headed out to the Hayden Prairie to watch. Even with that tutorial, I am awful at it. We saw over a dozen birds, all soaring pretty high. I did manage to recognize a juvenile golden eagle and a Harris’s Hawk. Red tailed, Swainson’s and Ferruginous all look like blotched black or brown and white to me. I definitely need more practice at this.

More sightings of Elk and the seemingly ever present Bison. Both appeared today along the roadside and among the thermal features. It is quite evident that they consider every inch of this park their home and we are just visitors who need to stay out of the way.

It stinks like sulfur. It is hot enough to cook you. It is so acidic that the vapors have eaten the storm drain grates in the parking lots, even the actual parking lots in some places. But, wow. It is really cool.
The Mud Volcano and the West Thumb Geyser Basin bubbled, burped, steamed and boiled from mud pots, hot springs, and pools. We took a couple ranger led walks and got the whole scoop on why this all happens here. It is the Hot Spot, you know! It is all very fascinating. Memorable too, I can still taste the sulfury smell that has permeated my sinuses. Our ranger, Guida, assured us that it can’t hurt us. She has been is this park 42 seasons and shows no ill affects.

We spent the day in the hydrothermal basin of Yellowstone today. They have redone the Old Faithful visitor center and the exhibits all about geysers, mud pots, hot springs and a bunch of other thermal features are fantastic. We have been here before but I didn’t remember a lot of it so it is like new. Great colors and wonderful sights and sounds. The smells are not so great but hey, they come with the territory! I think the sounds are really my favorite. The springs and mud pots bubble and burble at your feet. The colors are pretty cool too. They are caused by mineral deposits and lots of different kinds of bacteria and stuff that grows in the warm water. It is like no other place in the world, pretty cool.

This is the version not for Mom’s ears.
We were nearing the end of our hike today and moving along a narrow trail above the lake shore line. There was quite a bit of traffic on the trail so no one was really too stressed about bears. Watchful but not overly concerned. Guess what…wrong.
Kent grabbed my arm. “Wait” he said. The people in front of us are moving way to fast and watching behind themselves. Sure enough, the grizzly was following them down the trail at a pretty quick pace. They disappeared around the curve in the trail and must have broken into a run as soon as they were out of the bear’s line of sight. We saw them down on the beach not long after. The bear followed the trail out of sight too. “Now what?” We wait. All of a sudden there seems to be no one else on the trail and we don’t know whether the bear has moved on or is hanging out around the corner. We wait. A kayaker has been watching as have about six or eight people with binoculars on the beach. They watch the bear. We watch them. Finally they all seem to loose interest and the kayaker says the bear is not longer in sight. We take that as a good sign and begin to move on, loudly. We walked and watched and did a lot of talking and emerged on the beach unscathed with not another glimpse of the bear. I suspect he had simply moved on in his berry search never giving any of us humans another thought. That was a closer encounter than I really needed.

Blue sky, bright sunshine, cold blue waters and lots of wildlife. We finally had a day of good weather to head out to the Many Glaciers area of the park. I think the animals must have known it was Holiday weekend and they had a big audience.
Bears: Four of them. A cinnamon black bear sauntering along a quiet pool feasting on berries and ignoring the world. A young grizzly bear walking the trail in among hikers, it must have been the easiest way to get from berry patch to berry patch. A glossy-black black bear working its way through a berry field high on the mountain side. Another (or maybe the same) cinnamon black bear crossing and re-crossing the road in front of us.
A moose: peacefully strolling and munching away; paying us no mind. We saw it first in the shallows then as we watched it moved into deeper and deeper water on its quest for yummy underwater morsels.
Sheep and goats: oh yes, we saw them again and thoroughly enjoyed the goats’ cliffside antics.
The lakes were beautiful. There were falls and lots of little streams to cross. There was a REALLY swingy swinging bridge. It moved A LOT right to left and I had to hang on and stop in the middle to let it calm down so I could get across. Fun.

Two Medicine, lush, green, lake dotted valley floors that seem to splash up the rugged mountainsides that surround them. We checked out this section of Glacier including one of their signature hikes, Dawson Pass. The pass is at 7500 feet and the views into the two valleys are spectacular. We found ourselves looking down to see the sheep and goats. That was cool. They certainly are better adapted to this terrain, the climb (2450 feet gain) and altitude than we are. We are inching up our hike lengths to build stamina for the Grand Canyon hike. This one was 13.7 miles. We were pretty whipped at the end of the day but recovered nicely by morning.

The mountain goat is the unofficial mascot of Glacier National Park. For good reason, they crop up lots of places.