Yellowstone #2: Magnificent Elk -- and a blurry black bear?

Tuesday, 19 June 2013.  Today's drive from Missoula, MT, to Coeur d"Alene, ID, while uneventful, was a rainy one -- all day long.  We picked up a storm just outside Missoula and drove toward Idaho via I-90 the rest of this short day (about 160 miles and 3-hours) in light to heavy rains.  What scenery we were able to see was beautiful, both in Montana and Idaho's Panhandle.  For most of the drive thru Montana we were in the Lolo National Forest (LNF) and followed the Clark Fork River (CFR).  Now, I admit I'd never heard of the CFR, but as we discovered, it is a fairly large river that flows through the LNF before we left it at St. Regis, MT.  The low hanging clouds and mist gave off an eerie, almost ghostly feeling as we paralleled the CFR on I-90.  The Wiinebago was put to a pretty good climbing test as we drove up and over Lookout Pass (4725-ft) and entered Idaho and Pacific Mountain Time.  While the climb up Lookout Pass slowed "Winnie" down to about 45-mph, we made it over the top, even passing some huge semis struggling up the long grade.  Made me feel pretty good to pass these guys, because many of them came roaring by us most of the day with I-90's speed limit at 75-mph -- and throwing up spray all over the motorhome and our towed Saturn.  Anyway, we are now safe and sound at our campground in Coeur d"Alene, the Coeur d"Alene RV Resort, in Post Falls, ID, just a few miles west of Coeur d"Alena.  We're hoping the rains let up and we have a clear day tomorrow, our one day here for sightseeing before we head to Yakima.  Right now -- about 8pm -- there's no rain, but the skies are still overcast.  But more on Coeur d"Alene later -- right now, let's go back and pick up more of our Yellowstone sightseeing adventure.

I hope everyone enjoyed the last blog entry with all the bison photos.  I had more than 300 pics to choose from so it was no easy task.  And, again, thank goodness for digital cameras.  Anyway, before heading into any blog entry on Yellowstone's famous geysers and mudholes, and its spectacular scenery, I think I'll share a couple stories and some pics covering some of the other animals we saw in Yellowstone: the beautiful elk and one small black bear.  First, the elk.

While sightseeing during our first day in Yellowstone we came over a small rise in the road and immediately saw several cars pulled over on the shoulder of the roadway -- with people streaming off into the woods with cameras in hand.  An obvious tip there was probably some wildlife in the immediate area.  We stopped as quick as we could, I jumped out and began to follow the stream of people, my Canon in-hand.  The woods off to our right were a jumbled mass of burned timbers strewn all over the place -- it resembled some sort of ugly pick-up-sticks game played on a life-sized game board.  Deep inside the jumbled blackened timbers were three elk: two bulls and a doe.  I immediately realized that getting close enough for a good photo-op -- even with my telephoto lens -- was not going to be an easy task.  To make a long story shorter, after much effort and scraps and scratches -- and black soot on my shoes and pants -- I came away with the following pics of the two bulls.....and a partial shot of the doe.  She was just too far back and blocked by the tangled blackened trees.  Anyway, see what you think.

This bull never did get up so I could get a better shot of him; he just laid there and ignored all the people trying to get close enough for a decent pic.  I guess I got with 10-yards of him and figured that was close enough.  You never know what a wild animal might do when spooked.  And don't you just love the velvet on those antlers!  The sun just sparkled off that velvet, making it a great shot!

The following photo is the one "decent" shot I came away with of the other bull -- also lying down -- and the doe.  They were just too far away in the burned timbers to find a way thru the tangled mess for a better shot.

Now for the black bear story.  Lynette had commented early in the day on our second day sightseeing in the Park that she really, really wanted to see a bear.  Much like she REALLY wanted to see a bison on the roadway.  Once again we came upon a fairly large group of cars stopped along side the road at a spot in the Park that was fairly open, with a meadow on either side.  We also noticed a number of Park Rangers among the people gathered on the side of the road, all looking across a meadow at "something."  That something -- at least according to the Rangers -- was a small black bear, about the size of a medium-sized dog.  The young bear wasn't doing much of anything; he was mostly just lying down in the grass. But the bear was also ever so slowly moving away from our position, so it was hard to determine with the naked eye -- or even with a telephoto lens for that matter -- that it was indeed, a bear.  Now, I have to admit in advance that the couple of "decent" pics I got of this black bear could, in fact, be almost any number of animals -- but a bear will do and a bear it is -- and it fulfilled Lynette's wish.  You determine what you will from the pics -- all I can say is that the Rangers assured us it was a bear.  And if you find it hard to "find" a bear in these photos, look for a little black "blob" in the center of the meadow -- slowly moving away from the camera!

On our way out of the Park on our second -- and last -- day of sightseeing, we were treated to the sight of two doe elk feeding on the lawns among all the civilization of buildings and shops and businesses at the Mammouth Hot Springs junction, very near the north entrance into the Park at Gardiner.  Quite a sight to see them out on the lawn, feeding and ignoring everything around them.  Beautiful animals!