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Today in the Park Report
June 6th and 7th, 2002


Pelicans on the Yellowstone - 01 June 2002 by John W. Uhler ©

Pelicans by John W. Uhler ©




06 June 2002 - Thursday


At 8:15 am we were headed south to the town of Gardiner, Montana and the North Entrance of Yellowstone. Carlene was driving and the rest of the crew consisted of Joseph, Rachel and myself. We entered the park at 8:30 am. We were on our way to Idaho Falls to pick up two of our grandchildren, Hayden and Cheyenne. They were coming to stay for a week and we were excited to both see and have them stay with us. We had a nice little mini-reunion in Idaho Falls. Now back to our trip through the park.


We saw antelope out in the meadow on the west side just past the entrance station. The northern area of the park is nice and green due to the moisture we have been receiving. Spring flowers are blooming and the area just looks great. Boiling Spring at the 45th parallel is closed due to high spring runoff and will be open later this summer for folks to soak in and enjoy.


There were bison and elk on the south side of Swan Lake flats and this area is greened and looking great so far this year. We did a bear check but none were in sight.


Just south of the Obsidian Cliff are we saw a Canada goose in the wet meadows and a red tail hawk watching from the top of a tree. No bears in this area as we continued our trek south.


Glacier Lily - Spring 2001 by John W. Uhler ©

There were grackles on the reeds and brush in the area of Grizzly Lake trailhead turnout. They were a nice contrast to the brush and have such brilliant yellow eyes. We were surprised to see a trumpeter swan on North Twin Lake. This was a first for us and we enjoyed the sighting. It is a particularly beautiful area and it would be great if the swan or swans stayed for a season. Their numbers are not increasing in the park and it has been a while since we have seen cygnets that had been born in the park.


We saw bison in the meadows that are just southeast of Norris Campgrounds. We arrived at the Norris Junction at 9:15 am. The traffic was light and the road was good. I am going to list as many details as possible on this trip as it may help some folks in planning a trip.


A nice herd of bison were out in Norris Meadows just south of Norris. There were a lot of bison calves and they were cute playing in the meadow and just running and playing. There were also ravens in the area just clowning around as always. Spring is a great time in the park. The bison calves at this age are full of energy and just seem to like to dart around and butt heads with other calves, adults, trees, anything. It is fun to watch them scramble all over.


Folks were out fishing the Gibbon River. We did not see anyone catching anything, but they looked like they were having fun and it was a bright clear warm day to be out and on the river. The Gibbon River is high, but it is clear and looking great. There were elk standing in the river at what is called Tanker Turn. This is a large u-turn where a tanker crashed a number of years ago, thus its name. It is also home of the only phone between Madison and Norris. The elk looked great in the river and folks had stopped to take photos of them.


Approximately one mile south of Norris is where the construction begins if you are headed south. We had about a five minute wait and then they let us through. We had to wait for construction equipment to be moved so we could move past and south. The construction lasted for 3.6 miles of dirt road. The construction ends just before Tanker Turn and then you have paved road from there to just south of Gibbon Falls. It is a nice drive along the river and the falls are still looking like a falls with the spring runoff.


Just below Gibbon Falls we ran into (not literally) bison on the road side and construction. We waited about ten minutes for the lead car to take us south through this area. This is approximately a 4.2 mile drive on dirt road again. We arrived at Madison Junction at 9:42 am and we were clear of the construction.


Ruddy Duck on a Yellowstone Glacial Pond by John W. Uhler ©

We turned west at the Junction and headed to West Yellowstone. We saw Canada geese and goslings just west of Madison Campgrounds along the Madison River. We also saw one trumpeter swan just east of seven mile bridge. It was swimming along the river bank and looked beautiful against the dark river and green river bank.


About a mile west of the bridge, we saw an eagle on the old nest that is just south of the road. They have the road marked with no stopping or standing signs, but they only apply to some folks and not all! In any case, it was great to see the bald eagles back in this old nest. It had been abandoned for a number of years.


Just past the nest area we were very lucky to see an osprey fly right in front of us with a trout wiggling in its talons. What a sight! We also saw another bald eagle on the top of a large dead tree on the north side of the Madison River. Rachel was able to watch it dive into the river but she was not able to see if he or she was successful in fishing. What an enjoyable area to drive through and nice sightings! We exited the park through the West Entrance at 10:02 and headed southwest to Idaho Falls.

Bald Eagle on nest - 06 June 2002 by John W. Uhler ©

At 5:18 pm we were headed east and back into the park minus one son (Joseph was going to visit family in Utah for the summer), but plus two grandchildren.


We watched one trumpeter swan and two sandhill cranes just east of Seven Mile Bridge. I scoped out the trumpeter nest for cygnets with no success. Bummer! We drove Riverside Drive looking for different birds and anything else along the way. We saw Canada geese and goslings on the north river bank just before we got back on the main road. Riverside Drive is a nice drive close to the Madison River. We did see the bald eagle on the nest as we drove by headed to Madison Junction.


We arrived at Madison Junction at 5:50 pm and we waited for a short while to drive through the construction zones again. We saw elk and bison along the way and had an enjoyable drive. Hayden and Cheyenne were helping us find the animals as we drove through the park.


At about 6:30 pm we had a grizzly bear cross the road right in front of us and that was pretty exciting for all of us! This was just north of Roaring Mountain. The bear was not waiting around for anything, but I was able to get a few photos as it quickly moved up the hillside and out of sight. We watched it for less than ten minutes. Short but exciting. A beautiful grizzly bear.


At Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces, just opposite of Canary Springs there was a black bear grubbing around some trees and there was a large crowd of folks there to enjoy the sighting of the bear. This was at 7:05 pm. What a great day in the park. It was very exciting with all the wildlife and family.


We arrived at Gardiner at 7:20 pm and headed to our home to spend the rest of our evening together.




07 June 2002 - Friday


Grizzly Bear - 06 Jun 2002 by John W. Uhler ©

We had made plans to meet some friends (known as loons) at Roosevelt Lodge for dinner and then a little wildlife watching. We (Carlene, Hayden, Cheyenne and myself) arrive at 6:00 pm. We met some new loons and we met four loons who just lurk on the loon chat page. We also met Unknown Lurker! We had a great evening with great food and friends. We almost solved all the world problems in the mean time... ha! There were about 20 of us at Roosevelt.


At about 8:15 pm we headed east to see what we could see. As we drove to the large Specimen Ridge turnout there was a large group of folks looking south. We pulled in and joined Wendy, MarkR, RayT and other loons to watch two beautiful bears. One was a large cinnamon black bear boar and a black black bear sow. They were a mating pair. If you were driving east of the Yellowstone Picnic area, just as you come out of the trees on the south side of the road and break into the meadow, they were there in the meadow by the trees. They are great looking bears and we enjoyed the sighting.


We then headed east into Little America to see if we could spot some badgers. Just past the large rock turnout we did some looking for a badger den with young. Nothing was out but we enjoyed talking to Lew and Deb, Doug and Tonya and others. We headed east to see what was out. We had heard that the beaver had had young and that the otter was seen earlier at the confluence of the Soda Butte and Lamar.


We pulled in at the confluence turnout and found two friends, Don from Texas and Brian Connely from Bend, Oregon. Brian is the famous author of "The Wolf Journal". It was great to see them both and to visit for a short spell while looking for beavers and otters.


Veronica joined us and chatter for a little while before we ran out of light. Brian headed to Pebble Creek Campgrounds, Veronica headed to the Silver Gate Cabins and we headed west to Gardiner.


What a great evening with family and friends. It just doesn't get too much better than this! The magic of Yellowstone shared with family and friends.




Wildlife Seen on This Trip


Antelope, bald eagles, bears - one grizzly, three blacks, bison, ducks, elk, geese, grackles, magpies, ravens, sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans and loons.


Take care my friends until next time!


Lamar Valley Sunset by John W. Uhler ©

Lamar Valley Sunset by John W. Uhler ©


Back to the 2002 Trip Report Page.





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