10-15-15
Morgan Berquist
Today was pretty interesting! We were up bright and early, and had breakfast at a nearby restaurant. After that, we all piled into a bus and met our guide Shauna. We then left Gardiner, MT and entered the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park. As we were going around our first bend in the road, we spotted some big horned sheep. There were some young lambs jumping and playing around with their mothers. The sheep maneuvered their way up on top of a sheer rock cliff, and one of the young sheep proceeded to jump off the small rock cliff, thinking nothing of it. The sheep seemed to have all limbs spread in mid-air, seeming to be saying “Look at me!” After watching the sheep for a while, a pair of young golden eagles were spotted on the other side next to a tree that seemed to be wanting to topple over. As we went deeper into the park, there was bison everywhere you looked. Elk dotted the landscape as well. We went into the Lamar Valley, hoping to see the wolves that were spotted there this morning, but we were unsuccessful in a sighting. Hiking to wolf #9’s old den from 1997 was interesting, as we found elk sheds as well as an old bison carcass that was nothing but bone now.
Our group attended two speakers today as well. Travis Wyman was the first, giving us a perspective on mainly the elk in the park. He is a bear specialist, but does a little of everything else, too. He proceeded to inform us on how elk are such an important part of the ecosystem, because they are the main food source of many predators in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These predators include wolves and bears, humans, as well as small scavengers such as coyotes, eagles and ravens. The second speaker we attended was MacNeil Lyons. He is a professional photographer as well as a field guide in Yellowstone. He had many amazing photographs to tie into his stories he was sharing with us. Some of the pictures included bison, elk, bears, bobcats, and mountain lions. His perspective on photography as well as life was very interesting and intriguing to me. I like the way he sees things in nature – well I suppose he is a naturalist!
I have already seen and learned so much today, and it is only the first day out in the field! It is my first time being in the Yellowstone National Park as well as the Rocky Mountain Range. It is really amazing and I definitely plan on making numerous trips back to this amazing place. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings! I hope to see wolves and bears on this trip as well as pika. I want to see as many things and learn as much as I can in my short time here.