October 15, 2015
Today my journey started with a trip to the breakfast buffet, which led me to eat wonderful foods such as Fruit Loops, sausage, eggs, pears, and orange juice. We then proceeded to finally leave Gardiner, MT at 8:00 with our guide Shauna, and within 2-3 minutes of entering the park we saw Bighorn Sheep. We proceeded to watch them for about 15-20 minutes. At one point, the sheep were on top of a big rock on top of the mountain, and after watching for a little bit, one of the younger sheep jumped off the rock and shocked most of us watching. We then proceeded on to Mammoth Hot Springs and saw the Elk that make their home in the town, including the bull called Touchdown. Our stop in Mammoth Hot Springs included visiting and listening to an elk management seminar by Travis Wyman, a bear specialist for the National Park Service.
After finishing our seminar we then drove down into the Little America Valley, where we stopped at one point and saw Bison and Pronghorn, which we observed for some time. We had seen bison before but had not had the opportunity to stop and observe/take pictures of them. After leaving this area, we stopped along the road and walked out to a spot where we could stop and eat our lunch. We then continued to the Lamar Valley in search of the Lamar Canyon pack that had been sighted earlier that morning. Shauna had planned on hiking to their den, but since the pack had not been sighted with the pups of this year, she did not want to risk walking to the area. Since this plan did not work, we went back to the Little America Valley and hiked out to Wolf Number 9’s den from her 1997 year. We then learned more about the wolf and how detrimental she was to the wolf population of today and the initial reintroduction.
After leaving her den we drove back to Gardiner, where we had a quick supper along with a quick nap, before we met Shauna at the Yellowstone Association’s classrooms. Here we had a presentation on photography and the wildlife in Yellowstone from McNeil Lyons, a professional photographer and wildlife tour guide. He helped share some key tips and things to think about to take beautiful pictures. That’s about all the excitement I had for today, and I hope to learn and experience more tomorrow.