July 8, 2013 - Lander, WY to Yellowstone National Park

We were getting settled in for the night last night when Tobey noticed something LARGE fly by the window. We went out and he spotted a HUGE owl in a tree across the river. He was at least 18-24” tall. We watched him for a few minutes before he spotted something else and took off in flight. It was a perfect end to the day!

The scenery between Lander and Dubois was quite beautiful. We loved the red rock formations.

We stopped in Dubois at the National Bighorn Sheep Center. The interpretive center had a good 15 minute film about the migration and life of the bighorn sheep along with several taxidermy specimens.

Right next door to the National Bighorn Sheep Center is the Dubois Museum. While the museum is not very large, there were several exhibits of Native American artifacts, as well as items from early settlers in the area. One of the books left from the elementary school in the 1930s was a copy of Goldenhair and the Three Bears.

From Dubois we headed north through Grand Teton National Park. We stopped at the Teton overlook and were a little disappointed at how hazy the mountains appeared. Since we are camping in the Tetons later in the week, we headed on to Yellowstone.

We checked in to our spot at Fishing Bridge Campground and were settled in about 3pm. Our friends, Dean and Eva, arrived about 30 minutes later.

Since it was early we decided to go check out the Yellowstone Lake Lodge and Bridge Bay areas. This big guy was hanging out in the parking lot by the Fishing Bridge gas station!

It was fun to walk through the historic hotel and see the old lodge taxis and imagine the days when visitors arrived here and toured the area in style.

At Bridge Bay we decided to take the hour-long boat tour on Yellowstone Lake.

Even though the weather turned cloudy and threatened rain, it was interesting to hear about the ecology of the lake and history of the area. Since the late 1980s, around the time of the huge Yellowstone fire, the lake has an infestation of lake trout which are killing off the cutthroat trout. The decreased cutthroat population is affecting over 40 different species of animals in the park that feed on the fish, so they are attempting to kill off the lake trout (over 190,000 so far this year alone!)


After the tour we headed back to camp for dinner and cards. Tomorrow we have an early start as we head off to the West Thumb and Old Faithful areas of the park.