Day 10 a BIG day

So, yep.. cold in the van.. and we are now in BEAR country and you get all sorts of messages about not having bears eat stuff out of you hand, tent, van etc!!! so we wake early (actually I think we were awake for hours before that!!) and having made sure nothing is out of the van b4 sleeping, we jump in to the front and... oh,.. I wonder if leaving the driver side window down all night may have contributed to the inside temp!!! oops.. and of course I had food safely stowed on the front seat!! oops!!! lucky there were no scratches on the door. and food was still there!

That sorted, head out of the camp, about 300 yards to the raod, and again almost bump into some elk.. they even posed..

Sunrise was nice (very cold though) and had lovely view of more elk, trumpeter swans (I think) and a couple of noisy Cranes.. and this all just a mile or so from the camp. On furhter, heading back to the wolf valley (Lamar) and had a couple of coyote sightings, live ones this time! one even seemed a bit miffed that we didn't actually leave the road to get out of his way.. cool!

The valley bison were in great form, and made us stop once or twice just so they could walk along the road for a bit. The day b4 we got there, a car was seriously bashed up by a grumpy bull, and two women badly injured by other ones.. Its the breeding season and they are dangerous! of course it doesn't help that people will get out and try and walk up veryclose!

Found the "wolf spotters" where we'd been told to look (kind like paparazzi, but quiet!) and so went and joined them to see what if anything they were watching.. and there they were.. about 5 or 6 wolves way across the valley, lazing around.. even had cubs (almost fulll size now) so we ended up staying there and had interesting time, as a couple of gys we got talking to turned out to be real experts. One had been there almost weekly for the last 11 years, and the other was visiting from Canada, and had been involved with the reintroduction of the wolf to Yellowstone. Of course the watcher had a hugely powerfull telescope that we used as well. Brilliant,, can't actually describe what it is like to watch wolves in the wild. Words don't really work!

They were about half to three quarters of a mile away, but the scope brought them in nicely. They are completely undisturbed by the people. From the same spot we were also watching a juvenile Golden Eagle, a badger and a Falcon.. with of course hundreds of bison as well and the lovely antelope. What a morning! Some bison we really close to the wolves, and there was a little jostling, but this pack are noted for elk hunting and seldom take on the bison.

Ok.. enough wildlife.. Left the Park, heading East.. Stunning drive over Chief Joseph scenic highway and down in to Cody. Visited a huntin and fishin shop.. again.. WOW.. for those interested in this.. it was a bit like a candy shop! you have to see it to believe what you can buy over the counter here.. A really nice little .22 revolver is about US$200. pity I can't bring one back.

The Buffalo Bill museum (sounds tacky, but completely isn't)) was too much to take in by that time, so we plan to retraceour path and go there again. On a par with the Omaka museum for those who know it. Just more diverse.

Then off to the farthest East,,.. Ten Sleep. where we are now. And we sort of expected (or I did) tofind Wyoming a bit boring, but nope.. the whole drive was just stunning.. anywa.. time to quit b4 I ge convicted of rambling..