Day #4 – Yellowstone NP

I know, I am skipping a few days but I am hopeful that I will be able to add them in the next couple of days. I just think it is best to write this while memory is still fresh. Soooo, here we go:

We got up at 5 am this morning so that we could do some wildlife watching. Drove to Lamar Valley (I can't believe that it is not included in most travel guides, because this is one of the game must sees in Yellowstone!). It takes about 90 minutes to get there which effectively became 120 minutes because of all the stops we had to make along the way. When we were driving up the pass road to Lamar valley it was all snowy white – about 1m of snow still lying around at the end of June.

The valley itself is like a huge green meadow with a number of rivers running through it. We first saw a bison herd (about 300 animals), the most we have seen so far. Then we spotted a lone coyote (they look like beige foxes). Elk and deer were abound. While watching buffalo and deer, our attention was then diverted to two coyotes that were feeding from a buffalo carcass.

After that we tried to spot some wolves but we did not get closer than to spot the ears of a single wolf about 3km away. On our way to Mammoth Hot springs however, we pulled over because we saw about ten cars that were stopped along the road – and there it was: a wolf amid a bunch of buffalo. This wolf was trotting along the river bank and then swam across to the bank where we were watching. Hope that the photos turned out alright… I can't tell now because our digital camera broke yesterday (it always seems to do that when we're traveling. The last time it let us down was in Africa two years ago), so we're back to the old film.

BTW: If anyone likes Rotorua – go and visit Yellowstone – its thermal features are even more spectacular (and there are many more of those around here). We spend all our time around midday and afternoon to walk in areas full with geysers, hot springs and pools in the most spectacular colors one can imagine.

This was our last day in West Yellowstone and we will head south tomorrow. We are sure to miss this place because for anyone who likes the great outdoors, this is a marvelous spot to visit.

We will now have a drink on Germany's 3:2 win over Turkey in the semi final of the European championship! Please keep your fingers crossed for the final on Sunday!

Thanks for your comments so far, have a nice day and I will hopefully be back tomorrow!