Finally, we're nearing our destination. Yellowstone National Park.
The very first national park in the world. So we're driving up the road, having left Grand Teton, on the way up to Yellowstone. Suddenly, everyone
starts slowing down. I look ahead to see what's going on. "Hey, is that a bear?"
Yes. Yes, it was. A grizzly bear, to be precise. He was digging for grubs or something in the highway embankment.
And of course, people were slowing down to get pictures. Quite understandable. But maybe, just maybe, it would be wiser
to stay in the car, and not get so close to the wild carnivore. See those Harleys? One guy had turned off his engine to
take some pictures. Then he started it up again. And then he did that thing that all Harley owners do when they start
their engines. He gunned it. BBRROOOMMM!!!!
This startled the bear. You do not want to startle a bear. People have died after startling bears.
The bear jerked his head up and stared very intently at that motorcycle for a few seconds before returning to his grub digging.
Here's the picture we took as we drove (slowly) past. This was taken out the passenger-side window. Note the long, sharp claws on his foot.
This pretty much set the tone for all the wildlife we saw. All of it was seen from the car, near or on the road. Like these:
Here's some idiot standing in front of an elk with calf.
An elk. This was taken out the passenger window, while we were stopped.
Here's that idiot again, pointing out bison crossing the road.
Herd of bison, taken out the driver's side window. We saw hundreds of bison. They were all over the place.
Speaking of bison, funny story. We went through some road construction. Traffic went down to one lane, and there
were flagmen at each end, only letting one direction go at a time. We get through, but traffic is still all bunched up.
Then it starts slowing down again. We figure it's more construction, but it wasn't. It was this:
I wish I'd thought to pan back and get the 20 or 30 cars that were piled up behind him. You can hear me telling the kids
"Don't make the noise at the bison." Because while we were probably safe in the car, it would have really sucked had he decided to head-butt the door.
When we went back that way later in the afternoon, I asked the flagman "So, did that bison make it down here?" "Yeah..." The flagman was in a hurry,
so I didn't get to find out how they dealt with a bison showing up.
Bighorn sheep. They were also blocking traffic. These are ewes, so the horns aren't very big.
