Hayden Valley, Natural Bridge, West Thumb Geyser Basin - Yellowstone NP - Day 4

August 6

Happy birthday to Greg!

Our 4th visit to Yellowstone was to see a few areas that we hadn’t seen yet. We went in via the east entrance and headed straight to the Hayden Valley for animal viewing. At this point the temperature was only 33*. It did warm up to 71 later in the day.

On the way there we saw a lot of cars stopped along the road so we jumped out of the car to see why. There was a bear very close to the side of the road eating a bush with berries. We watched it eat for quite a while until a park ranger came and told us all to get back in our vehicles. We knew we were too close, but there were so many of us and the bear didn’t seem bothered by us at all. (didn’t say it was a smart decision) It was another brown bear (grizzly).

Our morning game viewing was a wash since it was so foggy. You could see Bison shapes, but that was about all.

 he didn't block traffic for long

We stopped at a pond to check out some birds and the fog was a bit better in that location.

 Great Blue Heron

 White Pelicans feeding 

 these ducks started grooming each other

White Pelican in flight

 Great Blue Heron

 We passed a Mule Deer Doe and her fawn.

 Chipmunk

 the fog was clearing in the valley

 We found another crowd of cars & people and stopped to find this Bull Elk

We found the Marina and stopped to use their restroom.

 Barn Swallows

 Barn Swallow

Marina

Next we headed to the Natural Bridge for a hike. There were a ton of birds in the trees where we parked. We watched them a while and ate our picnic lunch. Both here and on the hike were lots of juvenile Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers in all stages of growth. Some were learning to fly which was funny to watch.

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

 juvenile Yellow-rumped Warbler begging

 Yellow-rumped Warbler feeding baby

 Yellow-rumped Warbler 

 Yellow-rumped Warbler feeding baby

 Yellow-rumped Warbler feeding baby- yes, the baby is the larger one

 Yellow-rumped Warbler feeding baby

Chipmunk

We then took off on the hike. This was another trail that had no sign saying how long it was. We saw a lot of birds along the way and the trail was pretty easy. We finally came to the bridge and we saw some people go straight and we followed them. It was rock climbing and when we got to the “top” it just ended. So, we climbed back down over all the rocks and saw that another trail went off to the right and we took that. It was an incline, but easy hiking. We got to the top of the Natural Bridge and then hiked down the other side. Then, we retraced our steps out to the car.

 start of the trail

 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

 Chipmunk

 trail to the Natural Bridge

Clark's Nutcracker

 the top of the bridge - you weren't supposed to walk on it

 Chipmunk

give me all of your nuts and no one gets hurt.....

We then went in search of ice cream. The first place we stopped at was the Marina General Store and they didn’t have any at all. As we went to turn out onto the main road in the other direction, we saw a crowd of cars and went to see what they were seeing. It was 3 Bull Elks, just off the road in the same meadow that we saw the one earlier.

 uh, you are too close girl.....

We got some shots from the car and then drove to Lake Village and they had no chocolate.

 Lake Village

 Yellowstone Lake

So, we ended up at another General Store at the Fishing Village and found some!

Our next stop was at Duck Lake where we took another fairly short hike to a very duck-less lake.

 Mud Pot in the parking lot

 Duck Lake

 we found more Ruby-crowned Kinglets

The last stop of the day (from the same parking lot) was at West Thumb Geyser Basin. We did the short walk around the area.

 West Thumb Geyser Basin - Mimulus Pool

 Thumb Paint Pots 

 Mud Pots

  Thumb Paint Pots 

 Thumb Paint Pots 

We then headed to find our spot for viewing the wildlife in Hayden Valley. There were quite a few Bison, but when we got to the pullouts for viewing there really wasn’t anything going on. We ate our picnic dinner and waited a while for something to show up, but really nothing. We also noticed that the line up of cars going in the direction we needed to go to leave was backed up for miles and was growing. So, instead of driving to another area we decided to join the que. There was a Bison roadblock and traffic could not move until they did. They must have cleared at least one lane once in a while since some cars would pass us from that direction and occasionally we would move up a couple of cars. One car passing by held up a sign that said “Bison ahead”.

 Chipmunk

 Common Merganser

 Common Merganser

We were there at least an hour and a half before we cleared the area where they were. When we got there, there were only 6 Bison left and they were now in the parking lot of the Mud Volcano area.

 driving out of the park past the Mud Volcano with the Bison

So, we had another late night despite that not being our intention.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RR6HLVKHYcZ5eSpG7

Tomorrow we will stay in Cody and visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. (museums)