Yellowstone, day 1

The Yellowstone leg of the holiday didn't have the most auspicious of starts. Having hired a car in Billings, on arrival, we actually got to North entrance to Yellowstone around 11pm. We were tired and the Sat Nav didn't have Lake Yellowstone as a destination so we were flying blind, in the dark in quite a scary place. It's probably best that we didn't see what we were driving past.

We took a wrong turn at one of the junctions and found ourselves headed to the West Entrance, so I turned around and decided to try and make up some time on the way around to the Lake area. I was promptly stopped by a patrolling ranger for speeding, doing 59 mph, the speed limit is everywhere 45mph or lower. Luckily they decided not to give us a ticket. We set off again this time at a steady 44mph and we're glad of this reduced speed, we passed a bull Bison and a small Bison, both of whom were using the road to move about, we'd not have had time to slow down from 60...!

Eventually we made it to the hotel and fell into bed in the cabin.

As it was our first day in Yellowstone and we were suitably nervous (especially of bears!) we decided to stay close to our cabin for the day, starting with a brief check around the cabin before breakfast in the hotel dining room, overlooking Lake Yellowstone.

Immediately outside the cabins the air was busy with swallows, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Cliff Swallows and Violet-green Swallows. Tree Swallows have a very bubbly call, a delight to hear, and they were buzzing around between the cabins feeding. Most of the human built facilities have been colonised by nesting swallows and a lot of nearby trees were home to nests too. This is a Tree Swallow feeding young in a tree nest:

















Further along these two fledged Tree Swallow juveniles, begging for food:














Perched on a cabin roof, this Violet-green Swallow shows its distinctive colours and head markings:















In the small woodland across the road from our cabins I spotted this Mountain Bluebird, though his colours are a little bleached by the very strong early morning sun:

Also showing well was this Brown-headed Cowbird:

We headed down to the hotel for breakfast then outside and towards the lake itself:
















Lake Yellowstone is huge for a body of water 7,000 feet above sea level. From the shore there were plenty of swallows visible zipping over the water. In addition there was a small flock of Barrow's Goldeneye, visible from the shore (click on the pic to see their distinctive markings):

We headed back from the lake to our cabins to collect our packs, and then made for the Elephantback Mountain trailhead, accessed via a short walk over a wooded hill through some cabins and then on via another small wooded area.

On our way through the cabins we followed some Gray Jays which kept heading away from us, until one of them turned and flew right at Helen, turning only a foot or so away from her face. We think the Jay wanted to perch on her head, then changed its mind :)

The trail itself sets off alongside the road then winds in and up towards the top of the peak, a vertical climb of approximately 800ft on a 3.5 mile walk. There was plenty about in the open area by the road and in the woodland itself, including this Chipping Sparrow:

this Pine Siskin:

This Red-breasted Nuthatch was one of a pair that were working around a small clump of trees in front of us:


















A small group of Mountain Chickadees could be heard making their 'high S' calls, which sound almost identical to our Long-tailed Tits:



















From the top of the trail, the view of Lake Yellowstone was worth the effort. Also very few people appear to make the effort to leave their car and hike or walk, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.














On the way up we'd noticed a few freshly scratched trees and some scat but at that point thought nothing of it. We headed back down encountering some more new and interesting birds, including this female Yellow-rumped Warbler, Auduboni:

















We heard this Red Squirrel before we saw him, they have very loud and sharp contact/alarm calls, which many days later are still enough of a surprise to get the heart beating when one breaks the still.














This is a female Cassin's Sparrow (thanks for the new species ID Edward):
















another Mountain Bluebird, this time the colours are brighter as the bird was in shade:




















A Townsend's Solitaire (thank you Edward for the ID correction):




















and the last downhill bird, a Dark-eyed Junco, mearnsi:


















About 70% of the way down we heard this 'huffing' noise which was an animal deliberately breathing to announce its presence to us, though we couldn't see anything, it had to be big to be making that much noise. We decided to head down, but following the 'don't run' advice.

Having finished the walk and getting more and more nervous as to what may be around, we headed across the main road and met up with another couple. Since we'd crossed through the lodges and staff accommodation some 2 hours earlier, the area had been closed off as there were reports of a Grizzly about. We joined up with them to walk back through the woods to the lodges. Rangers were buzzing around the site in the 4x4's and cars looking, very obviously, for a bear, but we couldn't see anything and they couldn't find him. We topped up with fresh water in the lodge before walking the short roadside path back to our cabins. On the path we bumped into a couple of teenage lads who asked what the commotion was, we advised there was a Grizzly about but they didn't really take it seriously we thought. We headed on for another 20 paces or so before I heard one of the lads yelp. It was a very frightened yelp. I turned round to see this male Grizzly bursting from cover at the roadside and darting across the road on to the meadow adjacent to the cabin area. The two lads were backing away, as did we. There was no one else about to start off with and the bear was getting closer, so we continued to back away.
















A couple of cars approached on the road and saw the bear so began to pull-in. Pretty soon one of the searching Rangers drove past, jumped out of her car and started moving humans and cars away from the bear to give it some space. We decided it would be an excellent time to go back to the cabin and eat our lunch, though our hearts were pumping.

















Settling down to feeding:

















We found out the next day that this is a 3-year old adult male Grizzly Bear. In the midst of that excitement I spied this Cassin's Finch and took his picture between the 2nd and 3rd photos of the bear, above (click on the pic to see it much clearer):




















From the cabins we decided to head over to Old Faithful, as it's the number one tourist draw in the park and number one on most of the 'top ten' sights of the park. The geyser blew as we headed towards the site so we got to watch it from the car, at least in part. The car parks were heaving so we cruised down to the staff accommodation and parked-up there.

We noticed almost immediately this Bull Bison dust bathing in the heat of the afternoon, only a few hundred yards from the main car park. Most of the visitors would never know he was there though as they concentrated around the geysers and visitor facilities:














Still heading up to the main area, we spotted this Common Raven who had clearly detected some food in this biker's bike pack. He was taking turns calling to his mates and attacking the bag. Another Raven showed up and started on a second bag. When we returned later there were some very annoyed looking bikers trying to clean-up after the Ravens who had made a mess of and on their bags.














Old faithful is a single geyser in a hot springs 'field'. There's a lot of seating and the rangers provide a timetable for each impending blast, based on the duration of the previous one. The site was clearing so we took advantage and walked the paths to see other parts of the hot springs, including these geothermal features:














The extreme temperatures and hostile conditions are nonetheless home to extremophile bacteria who help to create some of the colour variations not produced by the volcanic action on the underlying limestone:














Some areas of the landscape appear more akin to what one might expect on another planetary or moon surface:
















Heading back from Old Fatihful, we spotted these Elk resting in the heat of the afternoon, not far from the roadside:














Day 1 in Yellowstone was an amazing experience, what would Day 2 bring? The weather had proved a suprise, at dawn the temperature hovers below freezing, by the middle of the day it was approaching 25-30c. The sun is very bright, wearing on the eyes, and with strong lighting effects for taking pictures. Also the air is so dry sweat evaporates quickly. Yellowstone is the only pace I recall noting salt crystals on my face! Another factor is the elevation. The 3.5-mile Elephantback Mountain trail had an elevation gain of only 800 feet but this proved to be very hard work, we often had to stop to catch our breath and slow down thumping hearts. Acclimatising slowly is a good plan...