Grizzly Bear and Old West Cookout
Yesterday we had a bit slower start, slept in and then got off late morning. Once again, we had some excellent elk sightings on route to Madison in the park. We headed North with an ultimate goal of getting to Roosevelt in time for the Old West Cookout.
We tried to stop at Artists Paintpots, but there wasn’t any parking so we continued on. We did take a beautiful scenic drive – Virginia Cascade road. Mostly, we just enjoyed the scenery and then stopped at Canyon Village for lunch.
We met up with the Blairs there and we all continued in tandem up towards Roosevelt. The scenery was breathtaking and we got some good panoramic shots. The big excitement came when there were LOADS of cars stopped on the side of the road and people with big cameras and binoculars pointing and exclaiming. We rolled down our window and got a report of bears. The excitement in the car was palpable. We had to go down 3 turnouts before we could find a place to park. Everyone jumps out and then a nice man helps me spot them. Way down in the valley you could see 3 little dots moving. Apparently it was a grizzly and her cubs. Even with the zoom lens, it was still dots. And up on the hill a bunch more dots were elk. So, I guess officially, we’ve seen grizzly, but it was a little bit of a letdown. Laura told everyone for the rest of the day that she’d seen a dot of grizzly bear. However, the power of zoom shows something resembling a bear!
We continued along and spotted some pronghorn up near Roosevelt Lodge and then drove towards Lamar Valley a bit. It was beautiful and fun to see the giant rocks that had been deposited by glaciers many years ago.
Then, it was time for the Old West Cookout! We boarded wagon #8 pulled by Jed and Jake and took a 20-25 minute ride out to the cookout site while hearing a story about why we can use this part of the back country for a cookout. We also learned that bison’s heads weigh 200 lbs and they use them to push the snow out of the way in the winter to get to the grass. They can also apparently jump a refrigerator from a standstill! Who knew?
We got to pet the horses and then settled in to listen to some nice cowboy singing until the dinner bell rang. The kids were first in line! We enjoyed an abundant dinner and then loaded back into the wagons for the ride back and more stories. Laura particularly liked learning that yellow bellied marmots hibernate so deeply that you can pick them up and toss them around while they are sleeping without disturbing them. The kids got to ride up front on the way back and seemed to love it.
Then, we needed to hustle back before the road between Norris and Madison closed for the night. However, we saw slowing and people with photos and Dan said it was probably just more elk, but Laura said “Daddy – they have antlers! We haven’t seen any with antlers yet.” So, we pulled over and took a photo. We made it to the construction zone with 15 minutes to spare and were in the final group let through the road for the night.
It was another amazing day.
We tried to stop at Artists Paintpots, but there wasn’t any parking so we continued on. We did take a beautiful scenic drive – Virginia Cascade road. Mostly, we just enjoyed the scenery and then stopped at Canyon Village for lunch.
We met up with the Blairs there and we all continued in tandem up towards Roosevelt. The scenery was breathtaking and we got some good panoramic shots. The big excitement came when there were LOADS of cars stopped on the side of the road and people with big cameras and binoculars pointing and exclaiming. We rolled down our window and got a report of bears. The excitement in the car was palpable. We had to go down 3 turnouts before we could find a place to park. Everyone jumps out and then a nice man helps me spot them. Way down in the valley you could see 3 little dots moving. Apparently it was a grizzly and her cubs. Even with the zoom lens, it was still dots. And up on the hill a bunch more dots were elk. So, I guess officially, we’ve seen grizzly, but it was a little bit of a letdown. Laura told everyone for the rest of the day that she’d seen a dot of grizzly bear. However, the power of zoom shows something resembling a bear!
 |
| The grizzly at full optical zoom and some digital zoom. |
We continued along and spotted some pronghorn up near Roosevelt Lodge and then drove towards Lamar Valley a bit. It was beautiful and fun to see the giant rocks that had been deposited by glaciers many years ago.
Then, it was time for the Old West Cookout! We boarded wagon #8 pulled by Jed and Jake and took a 20-25 minute ride out to the cookout site while hearing a story about why we can use this part of the back country for a cookout. We also learned that bison’s heads weigh 200 lbs and they use them to push the snow out of the way in the winter to get to the grass. They can also apparently jump a refrigerator from a standstill! Who knew?
We got to pet the horses and then settled in to listen to some nice cowboy singing until the dinner bell rang. The kids were first in line! We enjoyed an abundant dinner and then loaded back into the wagons for the ride back and more stories. Laura particularly liked learning that yellow bellied marmots hibernate so deeply that you can pick them up and toss them around while they are sleeping without disturbing them. The kids got to ride up front on the way back and seemed to love it.
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| The kids at the cookout with Jed, Jake and one of the wranglers. |
Then, we needed to hustle back before the road between Norris and Madison closed for the night. However, we saw slowing and people with photos and Dan said it was probably just more elk, but Laura said “Daddy – they have antlers! We haven’t seen any with antlers yet.” So, we pulled over and took a photo. We made it to the construction zone with 15 minutes to spare and were in the final group let through the road for the night.
It was another amazing day.
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