Post date: May 19, 2013 1:23:58 AM
This year Carol and I decided to take a trip for her birthday. At first we planned a trip to Monterey Bay, California, to visit the aquarium and the birds at Moss Landing, possibly stopping by Redwoods on the way. But very hot weather in the Central Valley, and fog on the coast, persuaded us to change plans. Of course an advertisement helped change our plans.
First Annual Spring into Yellowstone.
So we drove to Cody, Wyoming, by way of Mammoth Hot Springs. Had a few good days along the way (better indicated by my Facebook page). I tried to take pictures with my little camera by holding it up to the eyepiece on our spotting telescope. It worked better than I had hoped. Got good pictures of a crane, resting bear, and others.
Lamar Valley (northern Yellowstone) was well populated with Bison calves, but Hayden Valley was pretty barren - only a few bachelor Bison. Yellowstone Lake still had a lot of broken ice and very few waterfowl.
The event in Cody included a number of tours, the best of which was a Golden Eagle trip through the sage steppes southeast of Cody. Saw several eagles, along with a number of other birds. The Grizzly search was cold and rainy. We did see the back side of one distant grizzly bear, but many elk, mule deer, and a good number of (mostly female) Rocky Mountain Big-horn Sheep. This area really needed rain, so two days of steady rain was more than welcome, even if not conducive to standing around looking for wildlife. I was so cold (even with my winter jacket) that I could not hold the camera still enough to get a good photo of a bighorn sheep through the telescope.
On our way back to Seattle, we saw a pair of cranes, five wild turkeys, and lots of clouds. The rain let up by the time we arrived in Bozeman, Montana. Photos are available here.