Friday, July 23rd: Yellowstone II

After breakfast, we headed to the quieter Northeast corner of Yellowstone. On the way we spotted a crowd and joined in their viewing of a beautiful grizzly bear with it's cub way up on the side of a hill on Dunraven pass..quite a sight!

We headed on to Slough Creek, a campground and hiking area for a long hike. We plastered on the sun block and insect repellent and headed upwards! The creek walk was beautiful..a mixture of lakes, prairie, meadows, riverside and hills. Several fishermen were at work in the lake. We hoped to see some wildlife/bear but no luck. We did meet a group of long-term campers using llamas to carry their supplies. We also saw some groups pass by on old-style stage-coaches, perhaps to cater to some group in a remote location? We also met some other campers hiking in for week-long hikes. After the hike, we headed further east and took in some other beautiful riverside and hillside views.

We headed back south and were lucky enough to see a baby black bear beside the picnic area that we had dinner the night before. The bear was being cajoled into going towards a field by some park rangers. We headed south again , and the grizzly bear and cub were in the same location as they were early that morning...6 hours later! We hit Bison traffic again..many were rolling in the sand banks! We were stuck in the traffic jam for an hour but we got some great views of the Bison herd.

Following a quick stop, we headed towards the south east entrance along Yellowstone lake. We spotted much marsh/native wetlands, which was popular with many bird watchers..we even saw yellow-beaked American pelican. We decided to picnic again, and on the way to our picnic area, we came upon a beautiful black bear munching on the side of the road. It was nice, especially with no crowds. We hung out and enjoyed
the scene. We moved on when the bear did and headed to our picnic area on a beach. The sunset was amazing and we enjoyed quite a meal. We headed back and had a huge fire and some brew..we really liked YNP!