Late May 2017

Share your latest adventure in Yellowstone.

Moderators: Bruce, DPS

Post Reply
User avatar
Nordwil
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2017 11:41 am
Location: Massachusetts
Contact:

Late May 2017

Post by Nordwil »

We decided to get a jump and go a week earlier this year since it seemed the park was going to get busy quickly, and last year we missed a lot of bear and wolf action (from what I viewed on this forum!). We went May 19-26 and were home to spend some time with our son and grandaughter Memorial day weekend. Totally missed having this site as a resource! Facebook and other sites just weren't the same. Thanks for all the hard work getting it back up and running!

We knew Dunraven was closed but figured we'd use it to our advantage and keep us from trying to explore too much of the park each day. That said, we reserved in W. Yellowstone for the first half and found a cabin at Mammoth for the second half, planning to explore Hayden and South at first, then North and Lamar after.

Then of course the water main closed the road between North and South Rim drives, turning the 90 minute trip to Hayden into what could have been a 3 hour drive! We scrambled and were able to get a room at the Lake Annex last minute. Finally, the snow hit just before our trip and closed the roads. I was watching the closures at work the day before we left and saw the sections of red turn to green one by one less than a day before our arrival. Oh, did I forget to mention the bit of angst wondering if there was going to be a government shutdown as well? Quite the prelude to this years trip.

We didn't seem to see as much this year, apparently missing sightings (and shots) by minutes, including a wolf south of Lahardy rapids and a badger in Lamar.

We did see some interesting behavior tho, such as a spawning trout at Trout lake, a coyote stalking some geese in Hayden and a grizzly punching through ice for some dead fish near West Thumb. The black bears were around at Tower Fall and just north of Roosevelt lodge, and while we never saw the red fox at the Yellowstone river picnic area (plenty of small bighorn), we did see a nice one in the early morning near Wonderland rd just south of Mammoth. The marmots were out and about at Sheepeater cliff. Still haven't seen a Pika!

Rather then spend the last few days in Jackson like we usually do, we drove a bit North to spend a couple of nights at Chico Hot Springs. Since we flew in and out of Bozeman instead of Salt Lake, this was a great option. While the weather ranged from flurries to 80 degrees, we enjoyed the hot pool and a short raft trip down the Yellowstone river, where we saw lots of waterfowl and our second (and best) view of a bald eagle perched in a tree right at our take out point.

Thanks again for getting this site back, I'm looking forward to more reports and great photos! I'll try to post a few of mine in the photo section.



Post Reply