Not long after departing from the hotel this morning we saw a bighorn sheep on the side of the road. When we were nearing Tower, we saw some whitetail deer (still apparently a rare sight in Yellowstone), so we pulled off the road and hiked a ways to a skree field. In the rock piles, we got to see some pika scurrying about collecting and eating plants. I also learned that all the white berries on the ground were called snowberries.

Our second stop was by Barronette Peak. We scanned the rock faces and ended up finding a handfull of mountain goats. I learned that they were introduced to the Beartooth area in the 1940’s. They aren’t native to the park and are apparently quite aggressive to bighorn sheep.

Later that day, we heard that a kid had been bitten by a coyote. We ended up stopping at the same place about an hour after the incident, the Lamar River Stock Trailhead. There were some rangers walking around looking for the coyote because once they get habituated to humans feeding them, they get “food stupid.” The rangers returned to their vehicles and a man was standing by the trailhead sign looking at the map. All of the sudden, the coyote appeared right behind the man, looking like it was about to bite him. We all yelled at the guy to get back, and he ran before the coyote could get close enough to him. The rangers then approached the coyote with bear spray and an AR. The coyote got sprayed and still was lunging at one of the rangers. We really wanted to see them drop the thing, but they waved at us to leave, so we did.

Later that day, we hiked to the confluence of the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers, stopped to hear some more wolf stories, and then walked down to the shore of the Lamar. While we were there, our guide had us all find a private spot and write a prompted journal entry starting with the phrases: “I noticed…, I wonder…, and It reminds me of…” This is what I wrote:

“I noticed all of the beetles, bugs, flies, and spiders that were flying, crawling, and milling about among the rocks on the shoreline of the Lamar River. Two spiders were either courting or battling for territory, I couldn’t tell. An enormous bluebottle fly was moving from rock to rock searching for food. Shiny blue beetles and little black bugs were in near-constant motion, only stopping long enough for me to get a good look at them. A harvestman was on the prowl, sometimes pursuing and sometimes lying in wait to capture its prey. Under every rock I overturned, insects and arachnids were taking shelter.

“I wonder what species each of these arthropods are. I wonder how they fit into God’s tree of life. What do they eat and what eats them? What niche do they all fill and how does it affect the rest of the ecosystem? Do different individuals of the same species exhibit personality differences? What makes each one unique?

“It reminds me of humans in a way. Everyone doing their own thing, fitting into society wherever they are. Each one related trough creation. Each one created for a purpose. Each one unique.”

When we returned to Gardiner, we ate and then went to a presentation by Mike Tercek on climate change.