Wildlife Along the Road

After leaving the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve at the southern end of Grand Teton National Park we headed back north.  It was after seven when we started driving north, having forgotten how long of a drive it would be.  But as I said elsewhere, I don't regret it.

We saw plenty of wildlife on the drive home that we didn't see at any other time during the trip.  I'm not sure where we saw all of it, but I'm going to assume that most of it was in Yellowstone's Hayden Valley (along the eastern side of the main loop road between Lake Village and Canyon Village).
First we saw elk in the trees, and I was fortunate enough to get both video and still pictures.

Next we saw a fox alongside the road.

He wasn't just walking along, he was hunting and I tried to photograph him mid-pounce.

Further along we spotted geese in droves between the river and road.

 

But the best was yet to come.  I spotted a cluster of cars in one of the roadside pull-off areas and not spotting any bison (since they were quite passé by that point in the trip) I decided to pull over--I'm very glad that I did!

When I walked closer I discovered that people were looking through telescopes.

I wasn't sure what was going on until I asked and someone said that there was a wolf with a kill across the river!  I've loved wolves for many years but until that moment had never seen one in the wild.  I wish I'd taken a picture with my phone at the scope's eyepiece, but I didn't. I did get a great view with my own eyes before trying to find the spot with my camera's zoom.

Even with the camera zoomed in I couldn't make out the detail until I zoomed in further on my camera's review screen.  Below is a cropping of that picture where you can make out the wolf on the right!  The wolf sighting definitely made my day, and to some extent made the whole trip worthwhile from a wildlife perspective.  Some people go to Yellowstone many times without ever seeing a wolf and I'd fortunately managed it on my second trip.

After taking several views I realized that we needed to keep driving as we still had a while to drive.  But before we made it back we encountered a minor bison roadblock.

And there was another one once we arrived back in the campground itself.  Several bison were tussling next to the restroom building and the road.  I stopped the car and proceeded to take some video and pictures while we waited for them to pass.  You don't get in the way of bison even when you're really tired and want to get to your campsite.

Finally they walked over the road and behind the phone booth and I drove past.

~Matt

PS Most of the pictures above are in the Hayden Valley album: