The Yellowstone Experience

All told we spent nearly a month in Yellowstone. It’s so close to Teton National Park (less than 20 miles) that it’s essentially two parks in one, so…that’s not as long as it sounds. The first week-ish we spent with my Brother mostly in Yellowstone, and that was really great fun. In fact, the ONLY thing we miss from our previous life is that we don’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as we used to.

MORNING IN THE LAMAR VALLEY

After they left we turned our focus to the Tetons. Maybe it’s not so surprising because so many people visit the two parks, but here we ran into quite a few friends that we’ve made while traveling. And that kind of reunion always makes for a lot of fun…swapping tales and routes and possibly a beer…or three around the fire. In the Tetons we explored the back country, climbed a good distance up the Grand Teton, got busted for having our dogs on the trail…AGAIN – we’ve already beaten this horse a few times so I won’t bore you with that story, fished the Snake River, and of course, spent a lot of time around the lakes marveling at the general beauty of the place.

THE TETONS ARE AMAZING!

Teton concentration complete, we split our time between the two parks for the remainder. Spending A LOT of our Yellowstone time in the Lamar Valley…whose well deserved nickname is the Serengeti of North America. Here we saw several Grizzly Bears, herds of Pronghorns, hundreds of Bison, several large Elk, two foxes, and a Wolf. Unfortunately, since we were fishing the Lamar river, we didn’t see any trout. And here I’d like to tell you about a strange policy that the National Park Service has in Yellowstone. If you catch a Rainbow trout, a brown trout, or any species deemed not “indigenous” to Yellowstone, regardless of it’s size, the Park Service mandates that it be killed. Ignoring the fact that enforcement is impossible – because once you release a fish it’s impossible to prove it’s species. My first question was what generation fish do you have to be to be considered indigenous. Luckily for us…and the fish…we weren’t good enough fishermen to have to make the call. But the plot thickens…it turns out that Yellowstone is under a mandate to return to it’s “original” state. My next question: How exactly does one determine the “original state” of a wilderness area that’s existed for millions of years? And…who gets to decide? While we’re at it let’s not forget that The Park Service’s history is colored by many wonderful activities such as…um…eliminating wolves from the Yellowstone ecosystem IN THE FIRST PLACE. Furthermore, couldn’t a case be made that any animal born in Yellowstone is indigenous? At this point I’d like to recommend a book that I’ve recently read that I think addresses all of the above questions by pointing out the absurdity of someone trying to manage something whose complexity escapes their understanding. The book is titled Feral, and it’s author is George Monbiot.

About half way through our third week in Yellowstone we spent an entire morning watching a Mother Grizzly play with her two cubs. It was totally surreal. As if we were suddenly characters in one of the classic Disney wilderness movies. She’d play…then sleep. The kids would get restless and try to wake her up. She would sleepily slap em around a bit…and go back to sleep…and they’d leave her alone. I tried this on our kids the next day and…I wasn’t nearly as effective.

But Yellowstone has a bit of a split personality that I think is best exhibited in the following story. Driving through the Hayden Valley very early one morning we spied a male Grizzly crossing the Yellowstone river. We were the only car on the road and naturally we stopped to watch. Not two minutes later, about 100 yards downstream of the male, momma Grizzly was crossing the same river with her two cubs. At this point we’re about 300 yards away from them. The mom stopped, stood, and looked up-river. She must have sounded off because the male stood up, looked downstream, and when he saw her…he bolted…full speed…in the opposite direction. If you’ve ever wondered about outrunning a big “slow” bear…don’t. In the extremely unfortunate event that you ever find yourself running from a bear…my advice…focus on outrunning the person you’re with because bears are fricking fast. Now, I’m by no means an expert on bear behavior but from what I understand male bears are sometimes a threat to cubs, and the behavior of this mom seemed to confirm it. Every hundred yards or so the male would stop, check his rear view mirror, and…high tail it. He clearly wanted no piece of mom. It was really, really cool. The Yin of Yellowstone.

And this brought out the Yang. Word of visible bears travels quick. By now there was a traffic jam that was hundreds of yards long and several hundred people were lining the road. The mom and her cubs were now headed up towards the road and everyone wanted the shot. The big lenses were out. The Rangers were out too. They try to maintain 100 yards of separation between people and bears. If you’ve been following the news from Yellowstone over the last couple of months you know why. As the bears approached the road people and cars were still blocking their path. The Rangers were yelling…running…pepper spray out. People were slowly giving way. The mom was just a few yards from the road now and a woman was still parked in the middle of the road…directly in the path of mom…taking pictures. At nearly the last second she responded to the Ranger’s screaming and…rolled up her window?! This is one reason why Rangers always seem like they’re in a bad mood. I’ve no doubt that there are many pictures posted by the big lens crew of this particular bear sighting, all closely cropped and without a hint of civilization. But I think that these will sort of give you the bears perspective on traveling in Yellowstone.

It turned out to be an extraordinary morning for us because no more than a mile up the road towards Canyon Village were the “wolf watchers”. These guys sit up with their scopes and monitor the wolf activity in the valley. We’d gotten to know them over the last couple of weeks and since they watch animals that can’t really be seen or photographed from the road, their presence doesn’t draw a crowd. One of them motioned us over. “We’re watching two wolves harassing two male Grizzlies over a kill.” I laughed dismissively. “No…really!!” He pointed towards an empty field scope. Looking through, I couldn’t scarcely believe what I saw. Two large wolves were involved in a game of divide and conquer. One would distract the bears and the other would speed in, grab a bite of the kill, and take off. And then the wolves would switch roles. Incredible! We watched for quite some time and then…in a move reminiscent of Looney Tunes Sam the Sheepdog and Ralph the wolf, they all…took a nap. I kid you not. Within about 50 yards of each other they all laid down and fell asleep. And when we came back through a couple of hours later…they were still sleeping. Ad Yin.

A couple of days later when returning to our camp from the Tetons the immensity of Yellowstone finally hit me. Just before entering the park you climb over a pass (I can’t recall it’s name) and from this vantage point an immense wild space stretches out before you. I thought about all of the wildness that we had recently seen. I thought about the lack of wildness that we had experienced in so many of the other places that we’ve been, and I suddenly understood. Space. These incredible animals need space…lots of space. And there simply isn’t much of the kind of wild area that they need anymore. Complimenting the enormity of the park itself is the fact that there’s just so little civilization around it. Instantly, I could once gain feel the pull in the pit of my stomach. That connection to something ancient inside me. A very deeply seated sense of place. I thought back to the morning that we watched mom Grizzly play with her cubs. When they finished we watched them walk off into the wildness…that enormous expanse that seems to be nothing but is really everything…and I don’t know exactly how to describe it but in that moment we were one. Free. Going home.

This was my third visit to Yellowstone. To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed the first two times, but this time it really got under my skin. Sure, there’s still the traffic and the knuckleheads who treat the place like it’s an amusement park, or worse, a zoo. But walk just a few minutes from the less than one percent of the park that’s touched by roads, and you pretty much put yourself where you belong…back into the middle of the food chain. Yellowstone is where the wild things are.