Day 162: June 12th – Mammoth Hot Springs

Chilly (high 40s), overcast, but not as windy

       We’ve got a full plate on tap for today with a lot of miles throughout Yellowstone ahead of us.  We’ll begin with a ride through the Mammoth Hot Springs area in search of early morning grizzlies and wolves.  As we travel up into higher elevations of more than 7200 feet, we encounter snow squalls.  Weird…..almost the middle of June, yet here there is snow on the ground and snow swirling in the air.  Once we are up on the plateau, it’s time to search for these elusive mammals.  Although we fail to find the grizzly today, we do spot three gray wolves on the opposite side of a bog feeding on some dead carcass.  As we watch, the snow begins to intensify as does the wind and we are soon incapable of seeing across the distance separating us from the wolves.

     

       As we travel throughout the park, we continue to have good sightings of bison and an occasional elk.  Once in a great while, we are privileged enough to find a moose as well.

       As we move through the park, we co me upon Hayden Valley and the chance to observe Harlequin ducks rafting the rapids.  I’ve always seen these handsome ducks in the northeast during winter and they are always riding the gentle waves of the Atlantic.  This, however, is completely different.  There were two Harlequins that we watched for close to a half hour.  They would begin upstream, float through the class III rapids,

 emerge out the back end of the torrent and promptly fly up onto a boulder to regroup.  After resting for a bit, they would once again fly upstream, land in the calmer waters and begin to float back into the rapids.  Unbelievable…..I swear they were doing this just for fun!

       Near the Harlequins, we also found an American dipper, standing on a rock along the rapids’ edge, fishing in the eddy by diving into the swift running water and picking aquatic insects off the stream bottom.

       We remounted the vans and moved on along the lakeside drive next to Yellowstone Lake.  Pulling over at one of many roadside vistas, one of our number called out, ”Cinnamon teal!”  A drake and a hen passed by as we quietly stood and shot away.  They were in a grassy stretch of lakeside, but they would occasionally pop out into the open whereupon we got our opportunities the rare Cinnamon teal photo.

       Moving further up along the mountain road, we eventually end up at Yellowstone Lake Overlook.  While up here, we found our first Townsend’s solitaire as well as a Hairy woodpecker.  The winds were pretty forceful and again we had to remind one another that this is indeed June 10 and not January 10^th.  Back to the vans and off to “Old Faithful”. 

       En route to the geyser, we had several more good avian sightings such as the Barrow’s goldeneye and Cinnamon teal.  Even with the overcast skies and shooting through the snow, we manage to get good looks and respectable photos.

       We arrived at “Old Faithful”, the world’s most famous geyser with about 3 minutes to spare before its next eruption.  In a light drizzle, we all got our pix and many of the group had another check on the “bucket list”.  From there it was a brief stop at the “Paint Pots”, a group of hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles.  A half hour and hundreds of photos later, we were back in the vans and on our way back to our quarters at Gardiner. 

       Tomorrow, it’s back on the road as we head north and our eventual destination of Glacier National Park.  Never a dull moment!