Yellowstone Wildlife Safari

[urbpan]

On Monday my dad and I went on a Yellowstone Wildlife Safari, organized by Flying Pig and led by a naturalist from the Yellowstone Association. The first wildlife we saw on this tour was a pair of coyotes.



The landscape continued to be beautiful.


And OH MY GOD A BABY BEAR. This black bear's mom was there, too but I didn't get a good shot of her. She looked about the size of a big shaggy dog.


A rainy spring resulted in dramatic amounts of wildflowers in the park this summer.


This scene makes me think of woolly mammoths for some reason. There are between two and three thousand bison in the park.


I thought this dead tree had a lot of character.


How could we possibly see wildlife in this incredible view?


Maybe if there was an osprey nest on one of the columns in the canyon.


On the opposite side--really just a speck in this photo--is a peregrine falcon at a cavity that serves as the entrance to its nest. Good thing we had telescopes to view them.


Near the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, where American bison were brought back from the brink of extinction in the early 20th century, there were many bison, very close. Our naturalist Eric warned us not to get closer than 75 feet. Because it would cause stress for the animals, and change their behavior, and because they could freaking kill us really easily.


I was the only one paying close attention to the flowers for some reason. Maybe 'cause of all the giant animals everywhere. This is blue flax.


I was definitely the only one paying close attention to the lichens.




Eric was an excellent guide. While everyone was looking at charismatic megafauna through scopes, he brought me aside and pointed this plant out to me. He called it "green gentian." The field guide calls it Monument Plant Frasera speciosa. It grows for several years, and then blooms only once.


And there it is. The first of dozens of green blossoms.


I suppose most views of a pronghorn antelope are of its behind. This large male is calmly walking away. We saw some moving more quickly near a wolf which never bothered to chase them. They are simply too fast for a wolf to catch. There used to be several species of antelope in North America, and when they died out, the American cheetah also went extinct.


Two bachelor bighorn rams stood on small rocks as we drove by.


And on the last few minutes of the tour we saw this group of elk fording the Yellowstone River.