Animals, Animals, Animals

Animals, Animals.  Photos

For reasons I cannot explain, seeing animals is always a thrill. Over the course of this trip we saw 4 black bear, more than a hundred antelope in groups of 12 or less, many mule deer, a few whitetails In Glacier, and lots of cow elk, we saw one heard of bighorn sheep, plus a few bull elk. I already mentioned the hundreds of bison. We saw one coyote, but no grizzly or wolf. On two mornings we got started at 0535, in order to try to spot animals, but that really didn’t seem to help.

We like to see animals in their own natural habitat. This is why we enjoyed Africa, and enjoy spotting animals in the wild. We have always loved zoos, but still prefer the natural settings. At one point in Yellowstone, the traffic was backed up and the sides of the road covered with people and cars. A young black bear was feeding on berries about 50-60 yards off the road, and everyone was focused on him, as long as we could see him.

Probably the best sighting of a bear happened on our trio from West Yellowstone to Glacier. On a two-line road, we cross a little brushy creek and there by the roadside fence was the biggest black bear we saw. There was no traffic and we were able to watch it a few minutes. He had a neat reddish-brownish black coat. He could have easily been mistaken for a brown bear by his color. Finally in our last hour in the park, a young reddish grizzly crosses the road in front of us. Thank you L^rd!

We saw lots of birds including white pelicans, which I didn’t anticipate. We saw one bald eagle, lots of Great Blue Herons, lots of ravens, cliff swallows, Canada Geese, osprey (who carried a fish to his nest) and ducks.  Almost every pond had ducks and geese.

Of course, the west grows PLENTY of cattle and horses. Seeing these wide open plains with horses and cattle free to roam was pleasing to the eye and mind.

            The most ubiquitous animal was the pronghorn antelope, which we saw from New Mexico to Eastern WY.

I’m not sure why we take such pleasure I wild animals, but we do.  Thank you L^rd.

I mentioned in the Rocky Mtn NP post about the joy we get from seeing animals in the wild. One of the great thing about this trip, was the abundance of animals of different species.

These were an elk herd right by the road in ROcky Mtn NP. Note the front left one has a collar for tracking their movements.  One other cow had a collar too.

We saw a poster for this t-shirt in Virginia City, MT.  I have too many t-shirts, but not enough funny photos.

 A black bear we saw from the side of a major HWY in North MT. He was a young bear, and had a beautiful reddish coat. The traffic was light, so we watched him for 2-3 mins before he headed into the thick brush of a creek bottom.

This Mulie doe was right by the road. you could have hit her with a rock very easily. I don't recall ever being this close to a free-ranging deer.

Ravens were common and these had little fear as they hoped for a hand-out from visitors. This was one rule we obeyed--we never fed any of the wildlife.

In the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone, this big bull was in the road and impeding traffic. When we finally got around him, he charged our car.
     The most COMMON cause of traffic jams in Yellowstone are photogenic animals lingering near the road. We were in traffic jams on at least 2 occasions for bison, and 2-3 times for elk near the road.

Here's another look at one of the big bulls near Estes Park, CO.

We don't discriminate. We like all the wild animals including these little chipmunks that seemed abundant along with the larger ground squirrels.