In Reply to: Day 6 - Yellowstone posted by Greg on January 22, 2008 at 23:30:02:
We'll post photo's seperate.
We awoke early and packed the camera and stuff and headed out to Town Grill for an early breakfast and then out to Lamar.
As was the other mornings, there was no traffic. Just us and a few elk and buffy's.
Just passed Wraith Falls, we came across at least 75 buffy's in the road, they were just standing there, not doing a thing. We watched for a bit and then started to slowly drove around them on the left, they looked at us, but they were not spooked and they just stayed on the road.
Then a truck came up behind us and laid on the horn getting them to move. He was hauling snow mobiles to Cooke City, was our guess. We took down the license number etc and would give it to a Ranger if we saw one. Come to think of it, we had not seen a Ranger on the road.
Well, just before the hill climb a few miles up, guess who was in the ditch? You got it. We asked if he needed assistance and he said no, bye.
The area of Elk Creek was gorgeous, fresh snow and the blackened trees from the fires.
Little America is so beautiful in the winter, peace and calm.
We stopped at the bridge and slowed near the rivers looking for any signs of otters, but there was not any. The area had received some snow over night and all of the old tracks were covered up.
Lamar was empty except for one SUV, yellow in color, we exchanged waves as we passed, he was scoping the north side of the road.
We arrived past Soda Butte and we came across one car that was pulled over.
We parked and got out and walked down the road a bit and there they were, the Druids. They were on a fresh a kill. Looks like a buffy Ceri said. Sure enough it was.
We watched them for close to 90 minutes. No one else was around and then a van pulled in, a guide had about 6 people in it. We chatted, then decided to drive down the road a bit to see if we could get a better view. We were maybe 50 feet, when I could see the guide waving his hands at us, we backed up...
Listen he said, all we could hear was the singing of the Druids. And then the answering. This went on for maybe 3 to 4 minutes. It was totally awesome.... This was the longest that we ever heard them.
I was able to to tape maybe 5 seconds on video as we were too busy listening to them.
Soon, one after another, more Druids showed up. All in all 18 wolves were in view. What a great way to end the day in Yellowstone.
We stayed for another hour watching them play. During that time, maybe 4 other cars came by.
We headed down the road towards Pebble Creek and out to Cooke City for one last ride and turned round.
The trail to Trout Lake, what trail, the snow was so deep. We were hoping to snow shoe back there, but I do not think anyone has been there in some time.
By the time we reached the Soda Butte area, it was snowing and the visibility was low, we said our good byes to Lamar and headed back.
As we were driving past the wrecker turnaround, Ceri says, there is an elk by the tree. Then she says, that was not an elk! So we went over the bridge and turned around and drove back. WOW, it was a ram. This was our first ram up close and personal. We watched him for a bit and then another one came out and soon after a third ram appeared.
How very kool, now we were able to see all of the wildlife that we were hoping to see, except the otters.
We needed to pack the winter clothes and take them to the post office for shipping, stop for souvenirs and meet Roadie for dinner.
After all the running round, we finally stopped at the Town Cafe to meet Roadie. Roadie asks, "do yo mind if Lee joins us", not at all.
I knew Lee right away, but Ceri did not. We shared the highs and lows of the week, stories, dinner and then exchanged hugs with Lee as he needed to get going. That is when Ceri realized who Lee was. Pretty funny.
We sat for another hour talking with MA and then it was time to leave. But first MA and Ceri had to get the hats that they had been talking about. I took a few pics, we exchanged hugs and we headed on our ways.
Ceri and I packed for the trip to Billings and the flight home and then we headed to bed.
This last seven days was the best vacation, that we ever had, we were truly touched as only Yellowstone and God can do.
If you ever have a chance to visit the interior of Yellowstone in winter, please do so, it is so well worth it.
Hope you enjoyed
Greg and Ceri