A Hike, A Bear and a Two Moose Kind of Day

Today we had blast of a day.  We got up super early...6:30 AM so we could get breakfast, get Cooper to daycare (we... all 3 of us love Bark City) and us to West Yellowstone to hike before the storms moved into the area.  No small undertaking since we've been dodging storms most of the summer.  We managed to get our hike done while the weather still perfect... yeah! 

 

 

Sapphire Pool- Biscuit Basin

The hike from the Biscuit Basin area of Yellowstone follows along the Little Firehole River for a bit and then heads up the mountain for the adventurous types... about 2 miles until you turn back towards the falls.  Mystic Falls drops over 80 feet down in a series of steps.  Since the area has gotten a good amount of rain this season there was still a good amount of water flowing over it.  

 

View of Old Faithful from our hike

The views from our vantage point of the surrounding Geyser Area were pretty remarkable.  Next time we must check the time of Old Faithful's eruption since we could see it from the top of the trail.  A much more pleasing view than the one below with 2000 other souls.

 

 

Edge of Sapphire Pool

Common Eider

Once back down to the car we headed to Yellowstone Lake for our lunch at the spot we loved last month.  A beautiful day with just enough wind to get the bugs away and fantastic views of the surrounding mountains.  

 

Our entertainment was provided by a Common Eider who kept running across the water... never could figure out why it was spending so much energy doing it.  One surprise was seeing a pair of Common Loons diving just off shore...would have loved to hear them make their weird call.

 

Common Loon

 

 

Black bear

We drove on through Hayden Valley and were rewarded by watching a bear playing in the Yellowstone River.  To be honest we're not sure exactly what it was doing in the water.  We first thought it was a young bison unable to get out of the river, then the thought crossed that maybe the black wolf was in the river.  

Eating underwater grasses?

 

A bear never crossed our minds until we took the first picture.  It was throwing itself around and looked like it was really enjoying the water when  suddenly it took off up the bison trail at a full gallop until it disappeared over the ridge line.  

Running for the hills

 

Young Bull Moose

As we left the Park and headed towards Bark City it looked a bit iffy for cooking... so a detour by Montana Ale Works for dinner was 'necessary'.  Imagine our surprise as we were returning to camp in Hyalite Canyon when we happened upon a young bull moose standing in the middle of the roadway.  He quickly took off up the bank, but we were able to turn around and watch TWO moose exit the woods.  It looked like a young bull and possibly its mother... who knows, but it is the first moose we've seen in Hyalite.  

 

Mom?

Common Loons

Bison on the roadway

More playing bear

An exciting day from start to finish... tomorrow is calling for an increase chance of rain so Coop goes back to Bark City for the day and we hope to find something to do somewhere the rain isn't falling... may be a really odd day.