On Sunday, Aug. 25, we got up early to go to the Lamar valley where we hoped to be able to see the wolves that inhabit that area. We spent the night at the Alpine Inn in Cooke City, Montana so we could get up and only drive a few miles to the Lamar Valley.
Cooke City is a remote but very unique town on the north-eastern edge of Montana that has the dubious distinction, that it cannot be accessed from anywhere else in Montana, only from Wyoming. The Bear-tooth pass byway is closed many months of the year due to the harsh winters and the only way into Cooke City is through the Lamar Valley which is in Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming.
Here is the street that the local school is situated on.
Here is the school, where there are six students K through 8 attending this year. The older students have to go to high school in Livingston, Montana over an hour away.
Never the less, the town was very nice with friendly, helpful people who went out of their way to make us comfortable and feel welcomed. I met several people and made friends with everyone we met.
Here's a picture of my Dad clowning around again with a statue in the town.
Well, our trip was worth it! We were fortunate enough to see three grizzly bears and five wolves taking turns having breakfast on a recently deceased Bison carcass. Unfortunately, they could only be viewed through binoculars and were too far away to be able to photograph them even with Mom's long-range lens. I did my best to be quiet while everyone around us was very excited to watch the bears and wolves quarreling over their breakfast (the grizzly bears won).
We drove further down the valley and found a Bison roadblock. These huge animals are very effective a stopping and slowing down vehicular traffic.
The day before we entered Yellowstone some unlucky visitors to the park had their rental car rammed by a Bison. Someone who was stopped observing the Bison herd accidentally set off their car alarm, which caused the Bison to stampede and one of the animals rammed the car amid the confusion.
On Monday, Aug. 27th we drove back to the Lamar Valley as early as we could to see the wolves again. This time we watched six grizzly bears and eight wolves battling over two Bison carcasses for breakfast. Everyone around us, dozens of tourists, were very excited, but I kept quiet so no one would be bothered by me barking. Again, they were too far away to get decent pictures of them.
Later we headed for the North entrance of the park where we found yet another Bison roadblock.
On the way there we stopped to view a petrified tree that has been there since the last eruption of the Yellowstone volcano. Yellowstone itself is a giant volcanic caldera, over thirty miles across, and is the largest recorded volcano in the world. It is estimated that the last time it erupted the volcanic ash covered the West from Montana to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Then we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs to explore that area and hopefully find some Elk.
This is the remains of a lava tube from an earlier eruption. Wind and water have eroded it and the surrounding area at differing rates, leaving much of the tube intact.
These are pictures of us at the North Gate to Yellowstone NP, also known as the Teddy Roosevelt arch near Gardiner, Montana.
Tomorrow we will be heading into Geyser Valley where we will spend the next two days exploring the big geysers😊.
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