Trip Report ~ by John William Uhler

01 October 2010

~ October 2010 ~

Friday - 01 October

I left home about 1:30 PM. I was going to meet an old Army buddy that I was stationed with in Germany in West Yellowstone at 2:30 PM. Mark and his wife Carolyn were waiting for me at their hotel. We loaded up and headed into the park.

Mark was interested in seeing elk bugling and Carolyn wanted to see bears. We headed towards Madison and we saw a few bison on the way in with a trumpeter swan on the Madison before 7 mile bridge. We did not see any elk on the drive to Madison and we did not see the bald eagles.

We headed left or north at Madison Junction and our designation was Mammoth. There have always been about 4 or so herds of elk there in the fall. With all kinds of bugling and caring on as the elk are in rut. We did see a few bison along the way in the Gibbon and Norris Meadows. We also saw waterfowl on the Madison and Gibbon Rivers.

Mammoth was disappointing as we just saw two small herds. One by the hotel had a nice 6 point bull the other herd was just cow elk roaming near the employee dorms. No real bugling or caring on. Mark was happy to see the large bull but he was hoping for some larger bulls and some bugling. We stayed for a while, but the action was slow. Se we decided to head out the Lava Creek and see if we could find the bulls out there. No luck! We saw a few bison up high about Blacktail Ponds.

We slowly headed east towards Roosevelt. I had heard from a friend from Scotland who had just visited the park that a black bear had been see on Blacktail Plateau Drive. I asked Mark and Carolyn if they had ever driven it, they had not. So, hoping that the bear was still hanging around, we headed into Blacktail Plateau. It is a nice drive and it is open seasonally. It is a dirt road but drivable for cars and vans. We saw some nice fall scenery and a few bull bison along the road. Finally just about .5 mile of so from the end of the drive there was the black bear. It was a good size bear and it was really interested in eating berries and other vegetation to get ready for its hibernation.

We got out of our car and took some pictures and video and chatted and visited with the other photographers that were there taking pictures. We stayed for about a half hour. Our time and light was running out so we headed on to see what we could find. Just before Calsite Overlook there was a young black bear in the trees on the left side of the road. It was grubbing and in the brush and not too easy to view.

We could see where the Antelope fire had burnt down alongside Antelope Creek as we drove past Tower Falls and over Washburn and Dunraven. All we could see in the valley heading up Washburn was some buffalo way out in the distance. It started to rain when we got up to Washburn. This was good as it would help put the Antelope and Arthur fires out. The park service was monitoring the fires but not actively fighting them. I think they were just waiting for the fall weather to put the fires out.

We made our way to Canyon in a light drizzle. No moose, no elk, not much of anything on our ride out to the Madison Junction. They were finishing up reclaiming the old road from Gibbon Falls to Tanker pullout. They were also working into the night on the Gibbon Falls picnic area, they are removing a lot of dirt and rocks from that area. I think they were supposed to be done by the end of October. It will be really nice to have that picnic area back as it was the largest and nicest picnic area in the park.

We did see some elk along the Madison River on the way out. We also saw a great blue heron standing on a little island in the middle of the river. All in all a nice trip. Not as many active elk as we would like to have seen, but two black bears made up for that.

We had supper in West Yellowstone and then I hit the road and headed south and home. Another nice afternoon and evening in the park with good friends.

Until next time my friends, enjoy the time with family and friends in the great outdoors wherever you are!

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by John William Uhler

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