Yellowstone 2020 - Part 2

 In the first couple of days of this visit, we heard that wolf pups from a den in the Slough Creek area had been taken to a rendezvous area to the east in the Lamar Valley.  It seems that the entire Junction Butte Pack had gathered in this location with about 34 members, including 18 pups and several  yearlings.  Unfortunately, this area is roughly a mile across the Lamar Valley from where we can park along the road.  Even with our spotting scope, they were hard to see.  Then we heard that the wolves had taken down a bison and the carcass was much closer on the near side of the Lamar River.  We headed out very early the next morning to set up to view the carcass site about 1/4 mile away as dawn was breaking.

A coyote was also out in the same area

Taken with Barbara's iPhone on the spotting scope

Here is a short video from the carcass site

Here are a couple of poor quality videos of the pups at the distant rendezvous site.

Yellowstone 2020 - Part 1

Yellowstone National Park is a favorite place we enjoy revisiting.  We had planned to spend most of May 2020 visiting the park, but the COVID-19 situation forced us to reschedule this visit to September.

We spent the first part of our visit based at Rocky Mountain RV Park in Gardiner, Montana.  Deer and elk are frequently seen near or in the campground.   One morning we found this buck browsing on the bushes right by our motorhome.  He did not pay much attention to us walking around.

Roosevelt Arch stands near the north entrance to Yellowstone on the edge of Gardiner.  The cornerstone for the arch was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.  The arch straddled the Old Yellowstone Highway, which is now mostly bypassed by US Highway 89.

The Old Yellowstone Highway is a nice back country drive, but a landslide has closed  a section of it.

 
Near Gardiner is a very prominent geologic formation named the Devil's Slide.  This formation is now on land owned by the religious group Church Universal and Triumphant which prefers to call it Angel's Ascent.

One of our drives out of Gardiner was the Beartooth Highway up to Beartooth Pass.

Pilot Peak (left) and Index Peak (right)

Tom Miner Basin 2020

The Tom Miner Basin is a place we like to visit when we are in the Yellowstone area during the early fall.  It's about 25 miles north-west of Gardiner, Montana.  Grizzly bears come to feed on the non-native caraway root found in the valley's cattle pastures while they try to fatten up for winter hibernation.  It is common to see multiple bears come to feed during the late afternoon to dusk hours.  But the area the bears are commonly feeding in is about one half to one mile away from the viewing area along the road, making photography difficult.  Spotting scopes are definitely useful for viewing here.

Typical scenery from the basin

Closeup of the rock formations

 

We didn't know what this tipi village was all about.  Later we learned it is for retreats run by The Common Ground Project.

As knowledge of this place has spread, more people are coming to try to see the bears.  There are often many vehicles parked along the road at the viewing area.

Even with a telephoto lens, the bears were often far away.

Two sows each with 2 cubs

A coyote, two grizzlies, and a Sandhill Crane!

Late afternoon sun illuminating seed pods

Museum of the Rockies

After Glacier National Park we spent a few days in Bozeman, Montana.  The primary reason for stopping in Bozeman was to visit the Museum of the Rockies, which houses one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the USA.

In front of the museum is a bronze cast of the bones of the Tyrannosaurus nicknamed "Big Mike" which was discovered in Montana by Kathy Wankel in 1988 and excavated by Museum of the Rockies staff during 1989-1990.  This dinosaur is now the centerpiece at the Smithsonian's new paleontology exhibit (and now called "The Nation's T-Rex").

The museum also has a living reptiles hall.

Green Tree Python

Mangrove Snake

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Frilled Leaf-tail Gecko

These guys have super grippy toes.

This one was hanging onto the glass front of the case.

Star Tortoise

Veiled Chameleon

Rhinoceros Iguana

This one was so still we were not sure it was real at first, since we saw no movement, even breathing.  Later we saw it had changed its posture very slightly.

Viewable paleontology preparation lab

Allosaurus "Big Al"

Tyrannosaurus rex

Triceratops

Deinonychus foot with "switchblade" claw

Clawed Deinonychus hand

Tyrannosaurus skull growth sequence exhibit

Triceratops skull growth sequence exhibit

Beautiful large Placenticeras ammonite fossil

West Glacier and Polebridge Mercantile

We had not previously explored the northwestern part of Glacier National Park and the famous Polebridge Mercantile.

The Polebridge Mercantile has provided supplies to travelers in the tiny community of Polebridge since 1914.

The store carries a wide variety of items ...

... including many goodies baked daily!

And fresh produce

Even a library!

They seem serious about their air quality.

We saw many of these small inflatable fishing boats used on the North Fork of the Flathead River.

Past Polebridge is a part of Glacier NP that we had not visited before.

Bowman Lake would have been even more spectacular with clearer skies.

This doe seemed to be extremely used to people nearby.