A Simply Amazing Day..........

It was a beautiful day, and we headed out to the park around 7am. The weather changed as we drove through the park, becoming really foggy at points. Once we got to Lamar Valley, an hour and a half away, the sun was shining through nice and bright.

Good Morning!

Woah, fog setting in

limited sight distance here...watch for buffalo!

just so pretty, isn't it?

Lamar Valley is known for wildlife spotting, and many of the spotter folks hang out there-just lookin'. We stopped because there were so many people looking at the same spot. We had our binoculars, but really couldn't see anything. A very nice gentleman came up to us and asked if we'd like to see a grizzly!! You don't have to ask me twice! WOW! It was so clear in the spotting scope, and once we spotted it, it was easy to follow it with our binoculars, and even our "eyes". It had been there feasting on an elk carcass since the day before. Apparently, two wolves were also there the day before...so the spotters came back again to the same place to see what they could see. The carcass was being finished off by a bald eagle, which we could see through the spotting scope clearly. Not so much with the binoculars. And no way a picture! Most of the spotters are so nice....and share their views of wildlife with everyone around. We were all jazzed up seeing something like that! This nice gentleman also pointed out a small plane going overhead. It was a wolf-spotting plane. Didn't know there was such a thing!

Look for a brown dot in the very center of the picture, near the sagebrush line

its a grizzly!

wolf-spotting plane

looking for wolves?

After about a half hour, we went on our way heading towards the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone. Past Cooke City is the Bear Tooth Scenic Byway, another spectacular mountain road with fabulous scenery. We were almost out of the park, when we saw this black bear! The park is really really quiet on this side, but we didn't expect to see bears so close to the road.

Where did you come from?

Good Morning!

Heading on his way

Northeastern part of the park

We drove through the big town of Cooke City. Blink your eyes and you miss it! We were going to stop for a snack, but couldn't bring ourselves to try the jerky. What can I say?

Cooke City...don't blink!

I'm not hungry anymore....

We'll stop next time!

The Bear Tooth Scenic Byway is truly that.....SCENIC! Wow! We stopped at a few overlooks along the way. Everything was pristine. Just amazing. The mountains, the alpine lakes, the snow-peaks, the wildflowers!! All of it was amazing. The pictures just do not even come close to doing it justice.

Heading onto the Bear Tooth Scenic Byway

Nice mountains in the background-also the Shoshone National Forest

going up higher...the view is even more amazing

Peek-a-boo Pica!

The snow stick must be about 15 feet tall

beautiful waterfall across the mountain

ah, nice!

a quick stop at the lake to stretch our legs

so many nice lakes here in this area 

We passed about 40 scientists doing some sort of field research. Not sure if they were with a nearby university, or a private outfit. They were working very hard all day...we saw them on our return trip 6 hours later! They all had notebooks, and seemed to be counting something.

scientists-monitoring something. Flowers?

We passed several snow removal vehicles, like I've never seen before. It could probably snow at any time, so they just leave them up there on the mountain roads.

These roads are "exciting" to drive on when they are dry...in July! Can't imagine snow-covered!

There are so many alpine lakes dotting the mountainside. Now, that's my kind of water. Refreshing! Haha! No hot springs up here!

Looks like a glacier

refreshing spot on the mountain!

The road wound around the mountain, much of it with no guard rails. I was thinking I might need some nitroglycerin to ward off chest pains (hahaha), but I just took a deep breath and focused on the unbelievable scenery. Its no fun being afraid of heights, and I am trying to face my demons. This was a test for me! Tom, on the other hand, loves the heights and had no problem driving these roads and was kinda wishin' he was on a motorcycle. He said it would have been more fun if I wasn't frozen to the seat - whiteknuckled. Oh, and there were so many motorcycles. This must be THE destination for the biker crowd. So many groups of 10 or more. And most of them don't wear helmets! Yikes!

Oh boy...

Nice view..near and far

check out the winding road to get up the mountain

lots and lots of switchbacks (thankfully!!!)

Tom is a great mountain driver!

so scenic up here

someone just spotted a  mountain goat going down this hill

bikers love this road

We spotted a lone camper, with a tent. What a view he had, with the snow-peaked mountains all around him. Must have been chilly at night! But amazing. Hope he had a clear night for star-gazing too. What an experience!

a lone camper

so so pretty

"a painting"

 As we got near the top of the mountain pass, the snow was still pretty deep in spots. And those snow sticks! Wow! They get a lot of snow up there if this is what's there in the middle of July.

that's a lot of snow! its the middle of July!!

careful around the bend!

As we were admiring the views from close to the top, another visitor spotted a mountain goat just going down the side of the mountain out of view. Later, Tom spotted it as he was driving around the curvy mountain road (Please pass the Nitroglycerin!) and I was able to capture a few photos.

mountain goat-see it? May need to enlarge the picture

he's not afraid of heights!

 More alpine lakes and flowers abound within the snow drifts! There are different types of flowers up here, as the altitude is aorund 10,000 ft.

so pretty

lots of variety in this "bouquet"

 Another view of the location the tenter picked to camp. Pretty awesome experience, I'd say!

another view of the campsite for the tenter...once in a lifetime experience, huh?

So high up! Another mountain lake

Parked and ready for action

 The road kept climbing...up..up..up. Incredibly, two bikers (as in bicycle!) were working their way up the hill. I don't think they were training for the Tour de France, since they had backpacking stuff with them, but we were impressed! Look at this road!!

great views

wouldn't mind a guardrail here

or here

still a white knuckle ride for me

here comes Lance Armstrong!

and his partner (Team USA)?

We came to the overlook/rest area at the top of the mountain (acturally, we went even higher after that, because I have a picture looking down on that overlook area!). The views were amazing. I know I keep using that same word, but I am speechless in regards to the description of the scenery.

view from the overlook

another "painting"

see the stick figure in the grassy area?

more views from the overlook

its chilly up here!

waterfall in the distance...looks dwarfed by the mountains

this is unbelievable Susie!

Amazing views

butterfly on a "new" flower...right on the rock ledge!

I love this!

Okay now...see the roads? The thin brown lines in the middle and at the top

pretty neat

 After spending some time admiring the views, we headed down the other side of the mountain towards the "town" of Red Lodge. We had heard there was a restaurant there, and we were treating ourselves to a late lunch. Well, we rode by one "resort", and then didn't see anything else for quite a while, so....being that it was getting near 2, and we had a return trip over the mountain again, we headed back and ate a delicious lunch at the resort.

hang on to your hat...we're still going up!

more

more road shots - no guardrails!

see the road up there

just beautiful views 

stopped for lunch in Red Lodge

worked up an appetite driving!!!!

We ate near a window with river and some gentle rapids. This resort was actually pretty nice. There are so many places to "get away from it all", I never realized!

just beautiful-heading back now

see the road? around the mountainside

more road shots

there's the overlook/rest area we were at earlier

Don't ask me how high we are (or how we're getting down from here!)

we are at the top of the world, it seems

not too much around here is higher

the road down

beautiful

top of the mountain...pretty flat driving, relatively

awesome flowers up here!

not sure how long these bloom (a couple of weeks?)

beautiful alpine lakes

or are they glacial?

its so nice up here

love the mountain lakes and flowers

 The road at the top was pretty flat actually, and we felt like we were on top of the world. There seemed to be nothing higher than us! Not sure what the ski lift is doing here....there is skiing here?? Wow, looks like a pretty straight drop to me. I couldn't look over the edge..so can't tell you much more. Hhahah. You can see from the winding roads that there is quite a drop.

winding across the top of the mountain

a chairlift...from where? I can hardly look

heading back around the mountain

hang on!

I can't shut my eyes 'cause the view is too nice!!

We stopped at some of the overlooks that we did not stop at on the way up. What views!! Again, we felt like singing some of the songs from the Sound of Music! You don't want to hear that!!

belt it out Tom! "The hills are alive...."

"....with the sound of music"

mountain meadow

love the little blue alpine flowers

another plow at the ready

Traveling back on relatively flat roads, we stopped at Bear Lake again, near the little waterfall. Some people were enjoying fishing from a canoe, and a couple of others from the rocks on the edge of the lake...they had the place to themselves. Can you imagine? (Being from NJ, its really hard to imagine anything like that not crowded).

good place to fish!

As we were driving, we spotted a beautiful waterfall, and got out again to follow the trail. Well, I could only go half way along the trail, as my fear of heights kicked in again, and I refused to walk the trail along the edge of the hill. Just too much for me....Tom did though, and made it to the upper falls. I went back to the road and was able to get some pictures.  Oh, and there were flowers as well. Later, I noticed there was another trail on the other side of the falls, which I should have been able to handle. Oh, well. I really need to work on that height thing!

beautiful waterfall on the way back to Yellowstone

this is where you lose me Tom!

Hi Susie....no worries...I'm coming back now

view from the bridge/road

sweet!

another "bouquet"

By late afternoon, we were getting close to the park again. The skies were getting a little overcast, but we were out of the mountains now, so we didn't care if we had a pop-up t-storm at this point. Once inside the park again, we passed Soda Butte, and then headed home via the Lamar Valley. Late afternoon, I guess the animals start coming out. We were surprised to see pronghorns crossing the road! We were even more surprised to catch a glimpse of a coyote, who looked like he was on the hunt for some dinner.

almost back to Yellowstone-Northeast entrance

Soda Butte-in Yellowstone

prongs in the road? they are usually very shy

more like that

coyote

on the hunt

 Moving on through the valley, another pronghorn cut into the road from the meadow. This one just stood there ...not moving, and not too worried about the oncoming traffic. Well, it turns out she was looking for some others....we saw their heads peeking out from the sagebrush.

what? another antelope in the road? What is she looking at?

ah...waiting patiently for those two

Before leaving Lamar Valley, we stopped to check on the osprey nest to see if anything was happening. Lo and behold, we could see that one of the babies was pretty big! Surprisingly, the photo came out pretty well! (I am itching to get a mega-zoom lens and signing on to work with Nat Geo-ahahha!)

osprey nest again

see the baby?

 About 5 minutes later, a bunch of visitors were lined up on the road watching this guy! He was easy to see, and was moving pretty quickly. Took no notice of all of us!

see the black spot in the middle of the picture-its a black bear

close-up of the black bear

 Had to take this photogenic shot of the pronghorn in the late afternoon sun! Nice, huh? We were just passing through the part of the valley that has rocks randomly throughout. They are glacial rocks, and they dot the landscape for a bit in the area near Lamar Valley.

just a nice picture of an antelope

glacial rocks dot the valley

Heading back over the mountain, I just had to take a few pictures of the new yellow flowers that seemed to have suddenly bloomed overnight! The landscape is filled with them, mostly at the higher elevations though. So pretty!

Deer me...these flowers are tasty

here are those lovely yellow flowers blooming like crazy in the highest altitudes in the park

spectacular show!

still looking for wolves!

beautiful bouquet!

another "painting"

 Do you remember a few posts ago...I had taken a picture of something under a tree (bison, bear, shadow?) where all the spotters were focusing? Well....mystery solved. It was a bison carcass. And guess what? The spotters were waiting for grizzlies or wolves to show up. And guess what? A giant grizzly showed up! The street was flooded with spectators! The rangers had to control traffic and the crowds. The spotters were all lovely, and willingly shared their spotting scopes with the rest of us. That is one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen in nature...a grizzly ripping into a bison. I managed to get a few pictures that aren't too bad, considering how far away we were. Going click click click paid off for me this time, as I even got a picture of his face. When I was looking through the spotting scope, I had the "back" view only.

This is not nearly as pretty as the wildflowers I've been posting, but it was so incredible to watch the grizzly just being a bear. From a distance! Needless to say, we were just thrilled. You may need to enlarge some of the pictures for a better view.

grizzly eating a bison carcass

What an amazing day we had!