Yellowstone - Where the Wild Things Are

This summer Yellowstone was on fire! Well, not fire like the 1989 fires (which I happened to witness) but on fire as in wild to see all the wildflowers and wildlife that was around.  The stars must have been aligned just right for some reason.  Below is a small smattering of what I saw this year.

Wildflowers
It tried to play botanist and take a picture of each different wildflower that I came across on this trip.  I didn't come close but there certainly were a ton of flowers out this year.  The spring was wet and the sun was out and hot so the flowers really popped this year.  We saw yellow, red, purple, blue, and white flowers (obviously not the scientific name so I guess the botanist idea is out).  My mother loves Indian Paintbrush so below is a small sampling of the various colors of just that one species of flowers that we saw. 

Indian Paintbrush

Wildlife
Ok...yes, all animals in Yellowstone are wild but this year the big game was out in force!  I've said before that I come to Yellowstone almost every year of my life, and for probably the first 20 years of my life I maybe saw 2 bears.  That's it.  Nada.  A rarity.  For the last 5 years however things have picked up.  Last year I thought it was cool to see multiple bear (as in 2).  Neat, I know.  Everyone heard about it!  This year was off the charts.  In one day alone I saw 7 grizzly bear!!  Yep...7.  Can you believe that?  There happened to be a bison killed only a few hundred yards off the road in Hayden Valley so all the grizzly bear were coming to feed on it.  It was amazing!  After watching them for a few hours someone hollered and we turned around and there were 4 wolves playing in the meadow.  Yep...4!  Can you believe that?  Here's a short sound bite of a wolf howling (crank the volume) - boy, is it a forlorn sound. 

So, within a 4 hour span I saw 7 grizzly bear, 4 wolves and some elk and bison as well.  It was great.  I'm spoiled for the rest of my life. 

One of the grizzly we saw (chomping on buffalo)

The next day I was a little disappointed to only see 1 grizzly bear and 2 wolves.  This reminds me of my Taiwan New Year's celebration and how that has "ruined" me of fireworks!  (see post:Chinese New Year – Taiwan Style:  Part 1 of more than one).  I'll gladly take any of these "ruining" experiences!

Wow...It was amazing to see so many grizzly out over several day and the wolves up closer than normal (typically they are viewed at about 1 mile away through a scope).  I saw interactions with grizzly and each other; grizzly eating a carcass (way cool!) and a wolf and a buffalo go at it.  It was thoroughly awesome to see!  I wonder what next year will bring? 

Check out additional pictures under the "New" section of the tab "Photo Galleries by Type."

One of the 4 Wolves