Bison Elk Moose and Bears...Oh My!

On Tuesday morning, Pat & Jane took Tom and me to Ennis, MT to pick up our truck which, according to the mechanic, was a problem w/our starter and the battery cables. Mr. B is skeptical so we'll cross our fingers and hope the guy is right and we won't have any more truck problems. After returning to W. Y'Stone, we headed over to the Mammoth Hot Springs in Y'Stone Nat'l Pk. We have had such great weather and have been able to see some beautiful creatures in these here woods. We saw a few elk, a wolf, more buffalo, a marmot, a small Pika (sp?), some huge raven hanging around their nest and a BEAR! Kim...just as an FYI, I am no longer a threat to cuddly Kenley when it comes to bears. GRANDPA IS! I haven't been taking my camera since he always has his and HE is the one who jumps out and takes these action shots (or still shots when the animals are just laying around). Mammoth Hot Springs is a neat area and we've seen lots of cool mountains, springs, geysers, etc. On to Wednesday...Tom has wanted to check out Beartooth Pass in upper WY/lower MT as it is the highest highway in North America. So, off we go around 9:15. We made a few stops while in YNP and actually started heading north around 12:30. OK, so there was some pretty scenery and we saw a large herd of buffalo moms and their calves. Neat! Came across another huge herd of dad buffalos and then saw 3 beautiful moose (the last creature on our list that we were hoping to see)! They were neat and we were all excited to see them. Onward and upward we went. Sidenote: We discovered that Pat Selvaggio does NOT like edges, especially when he's in the passenger seat. So...as we climbed higher and higher, we ran out of railings and there were some tremendous drop-offs. Talk about white-knuckled traveling! Mr. B stayed cool, calm and collected...thank God...as Pat and I were tired of the climb and the scenery. I enjoyed it up to the point of an area reminding me of what I would expect the Swiss Alps to look like. After that...I was ready to start descending. Nada...up and up we went and Tom and Jane were carrying on like this was the best thing ever. Oh well, to each his own! We FINALLY got DOWN to Red Lodge, MT where we gassed up, took a few deep breaths, then talked Tom into going back through Cody, WY rather than the way we came. Pat and I were ecstatic and you could certainly tell a difference in the mood in the car. We even ate at a really neat hotel w/the "Bill Cody's Irma" restaurant. It was named after his daughter and had all kinds of neat old west stuff for us to look at. Tom, Pat and Jane had some good meatloaf and I had some great prime rib. Then, it was on to the east entrance at YNP so we could get back to the cg. Right before getting to that entrance we saw several cars pulled over. We thought sure it would be more buffalo (boring)...but it was (ready for this Kimmie?), a momma grizzly bear and her cub!
They were beautiful and awesome and Grandpa B took not 1 but 2 movies of them. I actually got a little nervous when they started to come our way but then they turned back around and headed towards the stream. It got dark and eerie as we ventured on and we made one wrong turn but we finally got back around midnight. Whew, I almost got out of the truck and kissed the ground we were standing on! A very long day. I'm glad we did it, but that's one of those things where you say "Been there, done that, and don't care to do it again." Mr. B might have a different opinion...that's just my feeling. Like Jane said...there is SO much more in this beautiful country we live in that there's really no need to go back to a lot of these places. Of course, Tom and I are creatures of habit and do still have our favorite places we like to revisit ie Florida and Las Vegas.