Critters big and small

I’ve already posted some moose photos as part of our day 3 hiking in Grand Teton, so here are all the rest of the animals we came across. Zach has photos of a fox and the first bear we saw in the woods on the same hiking day as we came across the moose, so when he puts up his photos, I’ll link to them.

Bison. Bison everywhere! If you saw a big blob out in a field in Wyoming, it’s most like a bison. If traffic suddenly stops on the highway, it’s definitely bison. We were in a number of “bison jams” in fact. On our first day we noticed people pulling off the side of the road to photograph the bison by a fence. Three other times we came across bison actually in the road and had to wait until they trotted out of the way. Once, in Yellowstone, they decided to truck it down the highway along with traffic, but at barely 3 mph, which didn’t make all the commuters too happy, but it was amusing.

Elk are also all over the parks as well as the highways. They were about as plentiful as the bison. If you saw a smallish blob in a field far away and it’s got a white tuft, it’s an elk. Bison are easy to recognize for their bulk as elk are for their pale tufts of hair on their butts. We made a running joke on our trip that bison jams happened during the day and kamikaze elk ran the roads at night. Driving through the parks at night is scary. In Yellowstone, the trees are close to the always winding roads, which makes it difficult to see – especially at night! Add to that a bunch of elk around a bend in the road and slamming of car breaks with much scurrying and bright beady eyes flashing by… you get the idea. Not fun! Grand Teton is just as scary at night because there are NO trees and no lights at all other than the ones on the car. Elk and bison running across the flat plains across the highway is just as likely and just as dangerous. So here’s a tip if anyone plans on visiting: Don’t drive at night! If one must drive, drive slowly and always keep looking for the beady flashes of eyes along the sides of the road.

Moose and bears were common tourist attractions. If one or two cars pulled off to the side of the road, they were most likely checking a map or taking photos of the general splendor. If several cars stopped, then there was an animal around. If several cars stopped plus a large group of people stood in one general area with binoculars or spotting scopes there was an animal far away (usually the case with bears). If several cars stopped plus a large group of people stood in one general area with camera lenses varying in size from 200mm to almost as tall as me, there was definitely a bear or a moose in the area within photographic range. This happened to us on a few occasions and we did stop for some of them. We’d already gotten great moose photos from a hike we took and there’s nothing like finding animals out in the wild on your own. It’s beyond amazing to see and be able to capture. We did stop for a baby moose that was about 2 weeks old. The mom and calf were generally hanging about a wooded area by a pond not far off the main road through Grand Teton. After a couple days rangers were securing the area and always on watch to make sure spectators didn’t get too close. The rangers also set up a spotting scope for people to look through and answered questions. The grizzly bear and cub above we found on the side of the road, but not in the parks. We had to drive in about half an hour to reach the park entrances and the highway we took was always generally full of bison and elk, but one morning we saw someone with a lens like ours standing on the side of the road. When we slowed down we saw the grizzly pair meandering about in a field a ways off, foraging for food. Though we were slightly tipped off by the fact that someone else had spotted them first, it was fantastic to see the bears so near by and without a huge crowd jostling for pictures. Whenever we saw other people standing on the sides of the highways with binoculars and found out there was a moose or bear way off, Zach and I smiled to one another because we realized we’d gotten really lucky in seeing these animals in such a close proximity.

While driving through the Lamar Valley we came across a critter I hadn’t counted on us seeing at all – a beaver! We were again tipped off by a few people on the side of the road with lenses and when we pulled over I saw I was in a prime spot right across from a beaver on the edge of a stream bank. I took tons of this fat cutie wandering about the grassy area, plop into the stream, and swam down.

Two other animals I really wanted to see were pronghorn antelope and longhorn sheep. I was amazed when we came across both. The antelope were wandering in the Lamar valley and surrounding areas. The sheep we found after reading about them being inside the elk refuge just outside of Jackson Hole. At first, we weren’t certain of finding the sheep at all because it was another hot day and they might’ve taken shelter in the woods, but then Zach noticed their little horns on top of a hill and we found them hanging about up at the top with the rocks and boulders. As we drove back the way we came I happened to see something out of the corner of my eye, yelled for Zach to stop the car and pointed a little above eye level across the road to a nearby hill. These sheep are smart! They stay camouflaged by hanging about rocky hillsides where they blend in perfectly! We wondered how many others we’d missed by not being able to tell the difference between a sheep and a rock!

Otters! They were another one we were tipped off about. We’d driven down a dirt road to an area known for wolves (didn’t find any, but did see their HUGE paw prints in the mud), and on the way back a truck stopped in front of us. A finger pointed out the window to the stream that crossed underneath the road we were on and Zach jumped out of the car with camera and telephoto lens, “OTTERS!” We were both really surprised to see them since they were on our “maybe we’ll find them” list of animals. The otters had been splashing about in the stream, but as the truck stopped and then us, the critters got the hint that someone was going on and started to scramble up the stream bank and into the thick brush where they would be safe and hidden.

Since I started the post with bison and I’ve so many photos of them, why not end with one? Here is a bison having a nap time in a soft grassy area by a flooded pond. The woods and mountains were right behind him. We came across this one having a snooze on our hike up the Fairy Falls trail to look at the Grand Prismatic spring. It did wake up and gave us the stink eye as we passed by. Bison know how to give dirty looks – the kind that make you want to move away from them fast, so don’t piss them off!

Six little lambs

While visiting Zach’s family for Easter Sunday I was told by his mom the neighbors had six baby lambs. Their backyard slopes down and ends in a wooded ravine. Since none of the yards around there have fences, it’s easy to wander from one to the other as I’ve done before when visiting the farm animals of the neighbors. I took my camera and trod through the woods and on the other side were the pens where the sheep were held and sure enough – the lambs as well. I heard even more lambs “baaaahh”ing away in another pen owned by another neighbor across the next street from where I stood.  Several of them were running up and down the length of the pen and jumping about in that springing little manner of theirs.

It was a pleasant way to end the weekend.

Since I’m working now I seem to crave the weekends more than anything. I do feel a loss and somewhat regret of losing all my free time. I can no longer run off to the woods of Tyler park in the middle of the week when the mood strikes me. I’m limited now and tonight I’ve thought a lot about how I’m going to try and keep up a decent blog when I come home exhausted from work each day. I know it’s just a matter of getting into a routine and finding a balance, but it seems I’m wanting to balance too many things right now and need to focus on what is most important right now.