About 10 miles from Tower Junction, there was a pull-off full of vehicles. Many of them were wolf watchers. We set up our scopes and started scanning the valley with the others.
Jason was scanning in the southwest direction and spotted a Black Bear running up the hill. Soon after that, four Gray Wolves emerged from the sagebrush. Two of them seemed to be playing with each other and one was occasionally howling. A total of seven wolves were seen.
Birds seen in the Lamar Valley included Great Blue Heron, Trumpeter Swan, Northern Shoveler, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Prairie Falcon, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Violet-green, Tree, Cliff, and Barn Swallow, Common Raven, Brewer's Sparrow, and Brewer's Blackbird.
While there, someone told us that a Grizzly Bear was being seen in the Hayden Valley. So, after getting our fill of wolves for about an hour, we headed back to Tower Junction and took the Grand Loop Road towards Hayden Valley. We did a quick stop at "The Narrows", a deep gorge funneling the Yellowstone River through it. A Peregrine Falcon flew back and forth among the cliffs.
We got something to eat at Canyon Village and then continued south for six miles to the Hayden Valley, which held multiple herds of Bison.
When we came upon a large amount of parked cars and people, we figured the bear must still be there. And it was. It fed on a Bison carcass for a while, covered up what was left, and then walked over to the river to wash up.
Eventually, it walked over to the hillside, dug out a bed for itself, and laid down to take a nap.
We also got to see a few Elk in the park. Birds seen in the Hayden Valley included Great Blue Heron, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Barrow's Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Northern Rough-winged, Violet-green, and Bank Swallow, and Brewer's Blackbird.
Since we scored with all of the mammals, we decided to head around to the Upper Geyser Basin where we got to see Grand Geyser and Old Faithful do their thing. I talked Jason into hiking the trail up the hill to the overlook of Grand Prismatic Spring. When you're walking around it at eye level, you don't get the same perspective that you do from this vantage point.
A "Pink-sided" Junco was feeding along the trail on the way back to the car.
Additional birds seen while driving and at various stops in the park included Double-crested Cormorant, American Kestrel, Common Nighthawk, Clark's Nutcracker, Mountain Chickadee, Cedar Waxwing, "Audubon's" Warbler, Western Tanager, and Chipping Sparrow.
We headed for the exit of the park at West Yellowstone, Montana on Route 191 where we got stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes. We thought there might be an accident, but it was just everyone blocking the road to get looks and photos of a Black Bear. Eventually, we made it out of the park and drove back to our Motel 6 in Rexburg, Idaho where we decided to sleep in for a change.
Videos of the geysers and more photos from Yellowstone National Park can be found at my Wyoming Adventures Photo Album.
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