August 20, 2014

Tower Fall Campground, Yellowstone

I made it here around 10:30 am and, as expected, several suitable campsites were available. By 11:30, I was all set up and eating lunch.

The rest of the day was driving around checking streams and hunting for wildlife.

I saw mountain goats on Baronette Peak and looked for osprey and eagles, but only saw one osprey.

On the way in, there was a big crowd in Hayden Valley and I assumed they were seeing a grizzly bear. While watching the mountain goats, I talked to a couple who had spent 2 days there watching the bears. There was a bison kill and, according to this couple, at one time 5 grizzlies in the area. So, later in the afternoon I went down to see. The carcass was almost gone, but there were 2 bears still in the area. One huge one was in some trees sleeping, but the other was on the edge of the trees. Almost as soon as I got the camera set up, it got up and left. I was able to track it for a while, but then I moved down the road a bit to get a better view. It never got really close, but I got a few pictures:

It appears that there may be another dead bison there, so the area may be good for bears and maybe wolves over the next 2 or 3 days.

It was starting to rain as the bear climbed a ridge and moved out of sight, so I went back to camp and had a shower and dinner.