Return to Yellowstone

7/1/2019

After saying our goodbyes to the Pleasure-Way gang, we dumped our tanks before heading to the Coffee Stop. We had enjoyed some of their donated pastries at the campout and stopped in to get snacks for the trip to Yellowstone. The staff is multi-talented, not only baking pastries, but sharpening saw blades.

From there we followed up on a hint from last night and visited the graveyard next to the Crazy Mountain Museum. A local mentioned that there were some owlets living there.

We found the right tree and photographed two Great Horned Owl Chicks from close range!

Getting the email receipt from the Coffee Shop we realized they only charged us for three pastries. It wasn’t far to go back, so we swung by and Beth ran in with $3.

Leaving Big Timber with fond memories, we headed towards Yellowstone. The only stop on the way was in Livingston for gas and groceries. We decided on risking a return trip without campground reservations, hoping to see the Lamar Valley area.

Luckily, we arrived early enough to find a camping spot at Tower Fall campground, just west of the Lamar Valley. We were in a group site with a class C, a trailer, and two tents. Not very private, but we were in Yellowstone for two nights without having reservations at a bargain rate of $15/night.

Drove through the beautiful Lamar Valley seeing more Bison than ever before...

with a few pronghorn antelope throw in.

We can only imagine what the country was like when these large beasts roamed the plains by the thousands.

Took naps in mid afternoon, before hiking Pebble Creek and Thunderer trails, both of which were interrupted by high water.

Discovered an interesting skeleton along Pebble Creek.

Cars and RV's were not the only vehicles plying the valley floor.

And it wasn't just vehicles utilizing the park roads.

Driving back through the valley we stopped at the entrance road to Slough Creek Campground as there were lots of cars and tripods visible. People were watching wolves across the valley using high powered spotting scopes. A couple from Wisconsin let us peek through their scope and there were indeed wolves. They come out here from home in just two days to see the wolves on a regular basis driving in a mustang convertible! I took a photo with the 200mm lens and it would be tough to convince anyone that there was a wolf, even under high magnification.

Heading back we stopped at Tower Fall overlook and had a good view of the falls just before a thundershower moved in.

Climbing up to our campground we pulled over to get a photo of a yellow backed marmot sitting on a boulder.

As we were finishing dinner a truck and trailer came in in to complete the foursome in our campsite. We all jogged vehicles around so they could get to the back left site. The campground was at 100% capacity. By 9:15 we were asleep.