Lamar Valley, Yellowstone Park

 Lamar Valley. We drove this area on the first day and again on the last (?) day.

Caribou? (We think) Kind of a cousin to the deer and the antelope that play on the range.

Pronghorn…we’re pretty sure. We saw these outside Medicine Hat Alberta as well

Bison

More bison

A bison jam. Like a traffic jam, but with bison. When the bison decide to cross the road, they have the right of way. Not only is it the law, but seriously, if the bison are crossing the road, you’re really not going to stop them. Bison don’t see well either so while the bison below probably sees our car, I am not sure they usually see cars very well, and they certainly don’t look both ways before crossing the road. So when a herd of bison cross the road, traffic comes to a stop, and everyone starts snapping photographs.

Lots and lots of bison. The most common animal in the park.

It is probably this picture below that requires a bit of context. Brent took this one. He set the adaptive cruise control, and put on the steering assist, and took this picture. The adaptive cruise control matches the speed of the vehicle in front of, and can actually come to a complete stop. The steering will steer the car for about 15-20 seconds hands free. It’s still a bit scary taking eyes off the road. Even for the few seconds that it took to take the picture.

You are not supposed to get out of your vehicle during a bison jam.Although they do look like they are reasonably far away.

These are videos speak for themselves. Too cute for words.

There are also wolves and bears around but we did not see any. There are lots of people who go looking for the wolves but it is a process that involves getting up before dawn, going out to a location where you might see a wolf and sitting all day in hopes of seeing a wolf. The picture below is a spot where people are basically hanging out all day waiting for a chance to see a wolf. There are probably similar spots for seeing bears. 

We didn’t need to see a wolf that badly and bears come through our yard frequently in the summer so we didn’t need to see them either?