September 8, 2012

WE DECIDED TODAY, for our last day in Yellowstone, that we would explore Fishing Bridge, the name given to both a village and a bridge a few miles north of us. Fishing Bridge, the actual bridge, still exists; but the Park prohibited fishing from it years ago. Nevertheless, the bridge still provides some great views of the Yellowstone River. William Clark spent a short time on the river, but near its headwaters up in Montana. John Colter spent part of the winter of 1807-1808 on and near the river in both Montana and in what is now Yellowstone Park.

In the actual village, we attended another ranger presentation.  This one was on foxes. While we have foxes in the woods behind our house, the only time we see them is when they are loping away. In our neighborhood, they are often mistaken for dogs. However, their bushy tails and their characteristic lope easily distinguishes them from dogs. Their major diet in Yellowstone is pocket gophers which they hunt year round. The ranger showed us a short film clip of a fox hunting pocket gophers in deep snow.  Looking remarkably like a dog hunting for a treat, the fox darted his snout back and forth until it ended up focusing on a specific area of the snow. The fox then leaped into the air and performed a perfect half-gainer into the snow. After its dive, only its tail was visible. When it emerged from the snow, it had a pocket gopher in its mouth. Not a bad trick.
 

Looking for some scenic areas, we drove northeast of the village and checked out a variety of pullovers. At one pullover, a sign proclaimed that we were viewing prime grizzly country. Unfortunately, grizzlies can't read.  We drove a few more miles and encountered a group of people and a ranger looking and pointing to the west. We pulled over and learned that a few minutes earlier a wolf had been hanging around the edge of a woods a couple of hundred yards away munching on a carcass. After waiting patiently for a few minutes, at least patiently for me, we concluded that the wolf had heard that I was coming with my camera and had disappeared into the woods.

A few scenic stops further into the high county, we stopped at Lake Butte and were able to see across Lake Yellowstone to our destination tomorrow: the Tetons.

Back at Grant Village, we checked to see if the Mad Hopper was going to give the nightly ranger talk. Because he wasn't hopping, we attended the program, a talk about grizzly bears. The ranger, a woman in her mid-30s, have been around bears in Yosemite, Alaska and Yellowstone. In fact, she has had several encounters with them. In each case, she had surprised a grizzly while hiking in a remote area. In one case, as she was coming around a corner, she and a bear surprised each other. Both ended up backing away from each other. She gave us the same advice other rangers have given us when in bear country: make a lot of noise and don't run away from them. Not easy advice to follow, especially her further suggestion that you flop to the ground and play dead if a bear sees you.

  

She told us that two hikers were killed by grizzlies in Yellowstone last year. Our earlier rangers had failed to mention this juicy tidbit.