Never let it be said that the buffalo don’t own the park.  We had two hours to explore this evening and what a two hours it turned out to be. Just after entering the park, on our way up to Mammoth–we nearly ran into a small group of female big-horned sheep….they were just about 5 feet from the car..a “sheep-jam” if you will. Nobody was around at Mammoth so we decided to head out to the Lamar Valley.  There were more then 300 bison hanging around in groups of anywhere from 1-50…and a few pronghorns,  a herd of elk, a woodchuck-like creature, several magpies, and then the final treat of the evening. We passed a parking lot with several car in it and went in to find out what was happening.  As is typical in the park, folks love to share the stories…off in the distance was a very large grizzly protecting what appeared to be an elk carcass.  Apparently yesterday around midday 3 wolves took down the elk–but the bear then decided the carcass was his “post-hibernation” snack.  At several points during the day the wolves had apparently tried to retake their prize–but the griz was owning the day.   No pix to speak of–the few we took it appears to be a fuzzy rock–he was so far off.  We also found out about another grizzly kill further down the valley.  The carcass is in the water so the bear goes in and out…we’re going to check that one out tomorrow  (it can take a bear several days to down a kill.)  Grizzlies have also been spotted near Norris and in the Yellowstone River in Gardiner!  So, tomorrow should be a “bear” afternoon

The area was also quite muddy recently–and the dried mud was the perfect vehicle for some great animal prints–these are wolf prints–and you can see the difference between the front and the back paws.  There was also a huge grizzly print just a little furthe down the trail.

While watching the bear, a group of 7 rams showed up in the area. Unlike the grizzly, they kept moving closer–so we got some nice full-body shots and some close-in head shots.   As the rams moved, so did a rather large herd of buffalo–up towards the parking lot where there were about 10 cars.  It was quirky to watch all the photographers disappear as the bison got closer–the big the lens, the sooner they played it smart and got away from the herd.    This leads to “the end of the story…. 1)  It’s fairly breath-holding to be in the middle of a bison herd, even if you’re in your car and the top’s up….at times the bison were less than 5 feet away–and there was nothing we could do…they were in front of us, behind us and to both sides….so we just sat and let them pass….other folks tried to get by/around them with little success…but I think none of us realized that the bison were just “on their way home” and had decided that it was easier to cross the bridge than to go down to the stream and then back up the other side. The entire buffalo-jam lasted 20-30 minutes.  It was quite a sight–unlike anything I’ve ever seen–and I can’t help thinking what group of people they reminded me of…there were lots of possibilities…..many of them starting with things like “teaching teachers to use technology in like being stuck in a herd of bison because…”  or, even better yet “working for   (insert whatever) is like being stuck….” or being SBTS is like being a car stuck in a herd of bison….”

Tomorrow is a full day–we check in with our new employers in the morning!