Ockey Family Adventures: Yellowstone Day 4

The first animal that we saw bright and early was this beautiful pronghorn.

We hit the road at six-thirty excited to be so close to Lamar Valley. We drove out to Slough Creek where the wolf watchers sit, and sure enough we saw a dark colored wolf a few hundred yards away. We were really excited since we don’t see a wolf every trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t see a whole lot after that. We saw the same bear as yesterday (we think), but she was lying behind a tree not moving. She looked like a giant brown beanbag a hundred yards away. Amazingly, though, we ran into Grandma and Grandpa, looking at that bear. They had driven all the way into Yellowstone from Island Park.

Can you see the wolf way out there?

She was pretty far away even with mom's zoom lens.

We also stopped at Undine Falls on the way to Mammoth.

Next we drove all the way over to Mammoth so the kids could do a Ranger Program. They did some painting and listened to a talk about wildlife in Yellowstone and then collected their Yellowstone Junior Ranger Patch. After an hour in Mammoth, we all drove over to Wraith Falls and even Grandma did the hike. We spotted some baby chipmunks and quite a few marmots along the trail.

There was an artist pop up program going on, which the kids were excited for.

Dax was chosen to help in the Ranger Program about animals.

Seth's artistic poem

Mark drew a beautiful picture about Yellowstone.

Even Grandma got to paint.

The ranger was really nice and took a group photo for us.

Mom climbed up to look at the chipmunks and this was her view.

The chipmunks were so cute.

A second one popped up, so here is another picture.

Kate loved Uncle Randy this trip.

This is our favorite bridge in Yellowstone.

I can't remember a year when we didn't visit Wraith Falls.

It was so fun to have Grandma, Grandpa, and Brittany on this trip with us.

There were marmots all over the place.

About a hundred yards from Wraith Falls turnout there is a picnic area. Miraculously, we found two tables, which was just enough for all seventeen of us. As we were eating, a large herd of bison came stampeding down the road causing a traffic jam and putting on quite a show. We split up from there because Dad wanted to do a drive called Blacktail Plateau. The drive was pretty nice, but we didn’t see any animals. Eventually, we ended up driving out through Lamar Valley. We passed some bighorn sheep before the rain came pounding down. It was a quick heavy storm, but by the time we got to the Trout Lake trailhead the sun was out and the trail was soaked. That didn’t bother us too much, but we had to go a lot slower up the hill. The kids did great although Kate and Ray needed some help, and Mom and Stephanie slipped and slid quite a bit, too! We did see some massive trout trying to swim up the inlet in the shallow water, and of course, we spotted a few frogs. There were no mammals, though. After Trout Lake we drove a little farther to see the mountain goats. They were about a mile away, but we saw them high up on the cliffs and marked them off our Bingo sheets.

The picnic area was shady and beautiful.

All the adults ended up at one table. Probably on purpose.

The buffalo ran across the bridge. It was so cool!

It rained very hard. Everyone was asleep in the van except Mom who was driving.

The trail was wet and muddy.

We always like hiking with Abby.

Dad helped Kate up the trail because it was slick.

Steph and Ray worked together to get up this hill.

We love Trout Lake. It's such a gorgeous place.

Seth had a little green bug land on him.

The fish were fascinating to watch swim upstream.

The geese were not happy that we walked on the trail. They hissed at Dax.

Mom and Steph love being together.

Stephanie got a little bit muddy. But no one fell into the mud, phew!

Mark loves this spot as much as Mom and Dad.

Mom always loves seeing the baby animals.

We saw lots of bighorn sheep, but no coyotes, which is weird.

It was getting close to dinner by the time we worked our way back over to Roosevelt. We went to our cabin and the boys played cards for a little while we tried to clean up some muddy clothes and shoes from our Trout Lake hike. Then we headed over to dinner. When we got there at quarter after five they told us the wait was an hour. Since Dad wasn’t into waiting for an hour and then eating for another hour, we made sandwiches back in the cabin. Then we picked up huckleberry ice cream sandwiches at the grocery story in Roosevelt.

Our cabin was cozy, but the boys love playing cards anywhere.

Abby was put to work scrubbing everyone's shoes.

The ice cream sandwiches were delicious.

We still had time for an animal drive though we wanted the kids to get to bed fairly early. It was a short drive, but we spotted two or three bears (one was in the same general area coming as going, so it may have been a repeat bear). We even saw a bear hanging from a branch high in a pine tree. He was draped over the limb with one paw on each side and his chin resting on it. We’d never spotted a bear like that before! Finally, we climbed into bed early, which in Yellowstone was about nine o’clock. The sun was still out, but we’d gotten up so early that we were plenty tired.