Yellowstone National Park 2000 Trip Reports
Yellowstone Otter by John W. Uhler ©
November 2000 Trip Reports
04 November 2000 - Saturday
Wow, what a great day! First November trip to the park and a fantastic day... weather was great... the wolves were great and the company was fantastic.
Got to Lamar Valley about 1:30 pm. Had lunch and then hiked up the hill to look for the Druid Wolves at the rendevous site... there was just seven laying around in the sun... I had the hill and the wolves and sun to myself for about an hour.
Two guys from Denver made their way up the hill and we took turns at the scope watching and chatting.
A few other hardy wildlife watchers joined us. One gray wolf and one black wolf got up and headed west towards the Lamar picnic grounds. As they came near a small rise, all the wolves came out of the woodwork. We had 24 in a big wolf pile and three just laying back in the grass.
Then they headed west down the valley. I headed to the buffalo ranch and Ray and Jo from Idaho Falls joined in, then low and behold Tim and Bruce (a new loon) showed up and we had a blast watching and chatting. We headed west with the wolves and followed them until they disappeared down a draw. We went down to Slough Creek to await their arrival. There were tons of elk all over the hill side, but the someone turned the light out and we had to parted company. Ray and Jo, Tim and Bruce head to Gardiner and Mammoth campgrounds and I headed to west.
What a great day... sure wish you could of been here... Wendy, you would of loved it and it was so beautiful to watch that many wolves out in the open working their way west in the open meadows of Lamar Valley. Tim called it a "herd of wolves" and it was fantastic, just simply fantastic!
Yellowstone Otter by John W. Uhler ©
11 November 2000 - Saturday
It was a beautiful cold morning for a ride through the park on our way to Bozeman. The temp was in the 20's but it was bright and clear and fantastic.
The crew consisted of Carlene at the wheel, Joseph and Rachel and myself. I was buckled in the front seat with camera at the ready in case I needed to eject from the van, seat and all.
We had driven in the park along Highway 191 North for about seven miles. We had driven up a long hill with a truck passing lane and as we came over the hill there was a small stream meandering along the east side of the road.
I happened to look over and there on the ice were two otters! Wow, was I excited! Carlene loves otters and I think they are pretty cool myself. We had seen Bob Landis' film, "The Otters of Yellowstone" and it should of won an academy award for Bob's filming and the crew of otters as best actors, it is fantastic!
I calmly asked Carlene to pull over that there were otters on the little creek. She panic stop and we all recovered and thankfully there was no one behind us. I was out the door with the camera while telling Carlene to turn around and come back to where I was standing.
The two otters just stood there and looked at me. Wow, what a neat experience. I could plainly see their dark brown backs and the white chins and bellies. Way cool! Carlene and the kids watched them as they played and then did a dive in the water.
There were two of them so they are probably a mated pair. They did a couple of dives and head bobs to see if I was still around. They swam up stream and played and swam down the small rapids. Rachel and I walked back so we could see them a little better.
One otter came up and looked at us and then slowly crawled out of the water and onto the ice. I could not figure out why he or she had their tail in their mouth. As we watched and looked closer, it was a trout, way cooler!
He or she just looked at us with the trout in their mouth as you can see from the photo. I ran out of film so as I reloaded the otters dove into the water. We looked and watched for a little while and they did not appear. I then walked down stream and they were out behind a small snowbank just playing and wrestling and romping. They are so very fun to watch and enjoy!
We watched and took photos of them as they played and cars keep passing and headed on their merry way as we enjoyed the otters all to ourselves, but would have shared them with any that would of stopped.
Wow, this was the first time we had seen otters in Yellowstone.
A few years back, we had hiked to Trout Lake in Lamar and watched what we had thought were otters. Ken, a friend, emailed me and said that my otters looked like muskrats. No, I told him I was pretty sure they were otters. Wrong, Ken was right, they were muskrats but fun to watch and enjoy also. But the otters are beautiful and playful and just awesome to watch. Sorry Ken, these I think you will agree are Otters, and they are pretty good fishermen.
We were thrilled! It was nice to add the wildlife and wilderness into a day of shopping... one of my favorite things to do - NOT! Ha!
What a fun experience! Now we know where they are, we will watch the area and see if they have a den there and are going to stay around. If they do, we would love to share with our friends and hope to see some pups next spring!
I have about 14 other photos of the otters playing together on a roll of film in my camera. When I shoot the rest of the roll I will add those photos.
Ponds Above Mammoth
by John W. Uhler - 11 October 1998 ©
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