The Wild West

Today we slept in a bit,  had showers,  saw a ranger program where we got some of our questions answered, and Ellie for her Yellowstone  Junior  Ranger  badge. Then we set out for the western side: the Lamar Valley, called the Serengeti of Yellowstone.  Along the way, we saw the grizzly mama and her two cubs again.  At Tower Falls, we saw a black bear. What could beat that morning? But as Jeremiah noted, it just keeps getting better. We passed into the valley and saw a herd of bison, about 20, with babies! And then we rounded a curve and saw the valley proper...with over a thousand bison. Mind blowing. They just stretched through this enormous  valley, on and on. Then we finally made it to our trailhead,  several hours  later  than we planned, thanks to all those animal stops.
 
Our trail wasn't  that long, about five miles. It was at the south end of the valley, beyond the vast herd of bison. We crossed  a river and headed through a basin to the plain beyond. Jeremiah is our great spotter. First he spotted a Uinta ground squirrel in the sagebrush,  then he found a whole herd of pronghorn antelope, including a male, a dozen females, and possibly  some young  ones. Then he found two bison. We ended up turning around at about  6:15, after being passed  by a group of horses. As we were walking back, we realized that there was a bison in our path! We decided to go up to get around him, figuring that he would be less inclined to want to charge  uphill. He watched us the whole time. We stayed 25 yards away, as monitored by our Junior Ranger. The rest of the trip back was uneventful. We stopped for a late dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge, and started with bison and elk nachos.  Yummy dinner ended with sundaes and huckleberry crisp.