For us, that was bear. We would pull up to some large group who were deeply engrossed behind their super-size lenses or binoculars to be told that we'd just missed a bear and two cubs. This happened to us several times. Our only sighting was of one of the aforementioned cubs, but at such a distance it could hardly count as a sighting.
Neither did we ever see any coyotes, fox, or wolves. But we were fortunate to see a number of elk and buffalo.
We saw our first buffalo on our first full day in the park, along the Madison River, as we set out for a day of exploring.
Then we had an elk extravaganza as we neared our ranch lodging at the end of the day. First, we saw an elk and her youngster.
Just a few miles later, we found a mass of cars, with people excitedly looking into the meadow area along the Madison River. We had a striking bull elk and his entourage of females. He was a rather regal looking fellow. He had a harem of around 15 females, and he was trying to round up his group before dark. (Our interpretation, of course, since animals don't communicate clearly or directly with those of us observing them.). The bull bugled several times while we were watching the group. What a wonderful sound.
The group of us watching this drama (or comedy, depending on your feelings about watching a male trying to herd his harem, several of whom were quite aloof and not appearing to be too eager to move along with the rest) followed them from one meadow to another. It was an exciting cap to our day.
On Wednesday, it turned out to be more of a buffalo day. We headed for the vaunted Lamar Valley, which is reputedly teeming with wildlife. We took the 6-mile Blacktail Plateau drive, supposedly the best of the best for seeing the wildlife in a quiet, more off-road setting. It was a slow drive. The road was bumpy, and we took it slowly. It was a beautiful setting and fully enjoyable simply for the scenery. But animals? There seemed to be none. We kept faithfully watching in every direction. But there was nothing. That is, other than the two almost sightings of bear mentioned earlier. We were glad we had taken the drive, but a bit disappointed in the lack of frolicking wildlife.
We headed up the road, still seeking the Lamar Valley and some animal sightings. About halfway up the valley, we came upon a gaggle of stopped cars and people outside their vehicles. A very large herd of buffalo were crossing the road and ambling down a short hill to a riverbank. There were a lot of buffalo, and they were in no hurry to get from point A to point B. It was great fun to watch. There's something that feels very natural about seeing them in a herd, as opposed to the pairs or singles we had heretofore seen.
There were still dozens more coming down the hill.
After we returned from venturing further up the valley, we found still more buffalo migrating from the hills to the streamside in the same general location.
We traveled on down the road, returning home for the day. We ran into yet another herd of buffalo crossing the road. This is definitely a Yellowstone traffic jam.
As we continued our drive home, Jerry spotted a pair of antelope. They're such graceful and pretty animals, but we've only seen a few on this trip.
About the time we were passing the turnoff for our previous detour to Blacktail Plateau, we came around a bend to find a herd of buffalo walking toward us in the road. There were several cars behind them, so they were a bit spooked. I initially put down my window, but when one of these big boys walked beside me and I looked at his horns, I decided the better part of valor was to put my window back up and simply enjoy the moment.
This close encounter caused me to put my car window back up.
Just to round out our buffalo-themed day and shortly before getting back to our ranch inn, we had an opportunity to see a buffalo drinking from a stream.
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