us that a male grizzly bear was hiding out in the sagebrush munching on what he assumed was bison. He also explained it is very rare for there to be a bear sitting so still around sixty yards from the road. It was nice to be able to pick his brain for half an hour about his long history with nature photography and all things Yellowstone. The crowd patiently stood waiting for the bear to finish his meal (as did the ravens so they could have his leftovers) and as the bear stood and with every flick of his head, the paparazzi enthusiasti - cally took photos. Regular cell phones or cameras couldn’t capture the moment, so we just watched instead. There were many moments in the park where we both wished we had brought a pair of binoculars to get a closer peak at the wildlife – so if you ever go, don’t forget them! Regular patrons of the park are very generous with allowing passers-by to look through their lens to check it out. Our bear photographer friend told us to stop a few miles down the road to check out the wolf den as a litter of wolves had recently been born. Seems like we got really lucky with the timing of our trip despite our lack of planning. Sure enough, we began chatting with a couple from Arizona who had been visiting the park twice a year to follow the pack for several years now. I could have asked questions for hours as they shared their insights on the history of the pack and the nature of wolves. We got to look through their scope to see all the pups running around! Slowly but surely, with a few stops, we made it to the trailhead in Lamar Valley where we walked past a huge herd of bison and stayed on the lookout for a momma bear with her two cubs rumored to be high on a hill in the distance. We decided to turn around after being stared down by a bison… maybe he was minding his own business, maybe he was being territorial – we weren’t going to be the ones to find out It was time for lunch, so we had a little picnic with a perfect view of the mountains to have a bite, stretch, and take a little mid-day nap in the sunshine. Since you can’t park or camp in the park overnight without a reservation, we headed out to a nearby town to make risotto for dinner
We would recommend these sites in Yellow- stone National Park: • Mammoth Hot Springs • Grand Prismatic Spring • Midway Geyser Basin • Soda Butte Trailhead/ Lamar Valley Hike • Grand Canyon of Yellowstone • Old Faithful (we unfortunately just missed watching it, but we saw it go off in a video) • Upper Geyser Basin • Norris Geyser Basin Plus, just driving around to see all the bison roaming, sagebrush, rock outcrops and people watching other animals from a distance with bin- oculars :) After learning so much about the ecological disaster that was created in Yellowstone due to the removal of wolves and the increased popula- tion of elk munching on vegetation, seeing a wolf pack through a scope and witnessing the vegeta- tion well again was truly a wonderful feeling. Not only from a beauty perspective, but also from an ecological perspective that we, humans, can restore our negative effects on our environment. It gives us hope for our future as we face climate change due to anthropogenic effects. If we can bring back this system into a balance, why not our climate? After Yellowstone we continued our journey down South to Grand Teton National Park to drive through on our way to Salt Lake City. We stopped in the cute little mountain town of Jackson, Wyoming which was the perfect place to stay the night. Parked HUGO in the parking lot of a grocery store with Wi-Fi – for some rest, grab some fresh produce and keep everyone updated on our adventures! Can’t wait to continue sharing our adventures with you. Until next time! Cheers, Ceiledh & Quinn
and relax. We played the game “we are not really strangers” for around an hour before heading to bed – would recommend it if you want to provoke deeper conversation than your usual conversa- tion might lead to. The following day, we followed the advice of our bear photographer friend and woke up around 5:30am so we had a greater chance to see moose – we saw two that morning, one even walked out on the road in front of us within the first few minutes of driving. As we were crossing through Lamar Valley, yet again, we saw a crowd waiting for a grizzly bear to emerge from the bushes. A friendly, and patient, Dutch man spent a few minutes trying to point it out for us and eventu- ally we saw it! The bear was much closer than we thought, which was thrilling but very intimidating. Later that day, we stopped at the more touristy areas including Mammoth Hot Springs, Artist Point & the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Norris Basin Geyser, and Old Faithful. Each stop por- trayed its own very unique features and stunning impression on the overall landscape. Personally, I didn’t realize the park offered such a diverse landscape or that the area was an active volcano. Now it makes sense why this plot of land was chosen to be deemed the first national park!
125 MAY/JUNE 2022 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
124 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • MAY/JUNE 2022
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator