- Experience the animal diversity of Yellowstone up close - black bears, pronghorns, bison, bighorn sheep, silver badger. Moose, grizzly deer, mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk
- Switch to a motel outside the park, as campgrounds are already fully booked during the popular Memorial Day weekend
We start at 6 o'clock north via Norris to the Mammoth Hotsprings. Even today there is fog over the floodplains and lakes. With the exception of the omnipresent bison, we don't see any animals for the time being. At the Hotsprings we go on a hike to take a closer look at all the different terraces. However, these have lost a lot of their shine, as an earthquake cut off most of the water supply.
We decide to continue driving in an easterly direction. We drive over the Blacktail Deer Plateau to Tower Junction. While visiting a waterfall we see two yellow-bellied marmots scurrying away from us. Finally we get to see a lot of newborn bison. And our happiness phase seems to have only just begun. Next, we observe and photograph pronghorns and a large black bear looking for food. At Tower Falls we get to see a bighorn sheep with its newborn, unbelievable how sure-footed the little one moves even in the steepest of terrain. Unfortunately, we have to note that the Tower Fall Campground is already fully booked, as the popular Memorial Day weekend is imminent.
As a consolation, there is also a small brown black bear hanging around the street, which leads to a large crowd. So we decide to drive through the game-rich Lamar Valley to the northeast entrance of the park and spend the night there again in a hotel. On the drive through the Lamar Valley we see hundreds of bison, I feel like I'm on safari in Africa. Now I understand why the valley is also nicknamed the Serengeti of the North. We also see a silver badger digging and an osprey in its eyrie.
In the small Wild West town of Cooke City, Montana, we stay in the Super8 Motel for the next two nights. After a refreshing shower and some relaxation, we go to the park again. A mother moose with two cubs lies in the thicket on the Lamar River. The cloud cover has become thicker and only lets a few rays of sun through. Through the telescopes of other tourists, we see two grizzlies at a great distance, one of them with two young animals. After a couple of white-tailed deer, we also see two gray mule deer. Back at the hotel we eat the leftovers from the day before and some cheese and bread. We also watch Investigation Discovery, a broadcaster that films mysterious murders.
