Well, this morning we got up early to drive to Yellowstone Park hoping that the weather would be lovely – it wasn’t – but we took off anyway. Rather a gloomy day — and not an animal in site (other than the other two legged ones in their cars). We got to see Old Faithful burst forth twice, and had fun walking around in the cool weather before we started back towards Jackson — rather disappointed.
As the backseat was getting a nice nap in the warm car – we were awakened by bumps in the road and seeing a bunch of cars stacked up along the side of the road — a sure indication that some animal was unfortunate enough to be spotted. Sure enough! To my total delight — there were two black bears — momma and last year’s cub — grazing on a grassy hillside. Grabbing the cameras, we joined the rest of the parked cars and snapped a lot of pics – since the bears were far more interested in eating than in fending off the spectators.
You can see how brown Momma is — and how black the cub is. That was the best thing ever!! I have real bear photos in my camera … I can now go home a happy tourist.
We stopped at Signal Mountain for dinner – still talking about the bears … and then decided to do a little geocaching on our way home — confident that our adventure was coming to an end.
Our first search was for the Teton Cache… we headed east on a familiar road – and then took off on a dirt road — bouncing along – watching the clouds dumping on top of the Tetons. So we’re getting close — the GPS unit says we’re 441 feet away from our goal… as we’re all looking up the hill searching for a path…. all of a sudden we realized that we were not alone…
OH my — our very own private MOOSE literally just a few feet away from the side of the car!!! We must have looked crazy to that sweet patient animal as we’re throwing down our GPS equipment and grabbing cameras – being anything but quiet! Anyway, OUR MOOSE waited patiently so that he could pose for some great photos.
By now, as you all know I’ve now totally declared June 3, 2010 — one of the best tourist days ever!! We’ve got bear pics — and moose pics (OUR OWN MOOSE – no other tourist for miles and miles). Filled with excitement, we parked the car in search of the cache only 441 feet away — did I mention that was up hill 441 feet? Sure enough, there are 3 grownups climbing a hill dodging the aspen and sage brush and fallen trees with our GPS units in hand (along with my camera). Up up up up up left right up up up …. finally we’re to the top of the hill and sure enough “The Te Ton Cache” was there for us to find. A few pics and it’s time to head back to the car.
Car? The one that’s down at the bottom of the hill that we just climbed? Oh, oh … that was not good planning. Ken suggested that Sandy and I walk the long long long ridge down the hill and that he’d go down the way we came up and move the car so that we’d have an easier decent. Maybe easier — but not shorter by any stretch of the imagination – as you can sort of guess from this pic taken maybe 1/3rd of the way down the hill.
Well, with few bumps and bruises we made it down to the car …. totally exhausted from the afternoons excitement and hikes. On the way home we spotted some antelope … and oh yes, some buffalo.
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grabbed a few more caches … and collapsed into our room. What a day!! and what a night’s sleep remembering our day of bears, moose, antelope, buffalo … and great company!
