National Park Bum: Drive to Hayden

Training is off to a good start minus being down a couple employees from the get go. The staff seems to be on track and on the same page as the managers so that's a big plus. After training today, I made a car ride out of Grant to look for some bears with my coworker Nathan who is also an assistant dining room manager. Even though training went well, Nathan and I had no luck but good conversations. We headed back to the EDR for dinner where Nathan called it quits.

I headed out to Hayden Valley and right by Otter Creek I spotted, you guessed wrong, a pelican. It was pretty far off in the distance but managed to snap some photos anyway. While snapping photos a bison decided to cross the river. When bison cross a river that they simply can't just ford; they swim. I've seen it before but it looks like the bison's rear end is weighing him down and his head is the only part of the body you can see. While it was swimming (Bison Paddling?) it makes some grunts as if it was almost drowning.

I also saw some ducks and more bison along with two more pelicans but they were all far away. I drove through Hayden and went to the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone since it had been a while. There were only three cars in the parking lot so I had the lookout all to myself. I snapped some photos and slowly drove back to Grant. While making my way through Hayden and Otter Creek I would pull off to the side and watch the river and look for otters but no luck. I did happen to see a duck fly into the river and dunk its whole body under water and waited and waited. Finally it popped up but 10 feet down the Yellowstone River.

I saw a grizzly in Hayden about 100 feet off the road and of course tourists were on the side of the road taking pictures. The grizzly kept getting closer and closer while munching down at the ground. I popped his head up and looked at the people and made a dash for them but stopped about 30 feet from the road and made his way up to the top of a hill. I hopped in my car and got stuck behind someone and didn't get to see him/her cross until they were already walking down the hill on the other side of the road.

I pulled up to the next pullout and waited for the grizzly to reappear while others were blocking the road behind me and almost hitting my car. Some type of NPS guy with a radio was trying to tell some Asians to get a move on and get off the road; that was fun to watch. The grizzly made it into the other side of the valley but about 200 yards away and I couldn't snap a good picture due to others blocking my way and it just being to far.

After watching the Grizzly for about a half hour I headed back to Grant with ease. I kept my eye out for more bears but I only saw stumps, rocks and an elk. I have to many pictures of them already so I passed on it and made it back to Grant. The trip lasted about 3 hours and was well worth it. Enjoy the pictures as always!

MacK