This bear got a little too close to a car

Fifteen extra minutes counts as sleeping in, right? I gave myself a little extra rest, hoping that a 5:15 wakeup call would allow me to get through another entire day. It didn't quite work out.

I reached the Petrified Tree area under the constant threat of storm clouds, which seemed to be dark and spooky everywhere but directly overhead. Wanting to check on Helene and Rene's moose from the previous morning, I drove up the road to the PT lot. No moose, but I spotted a small cinnamon bear right near the railing by the tree! It didn't seem to take notice of me, but refused to come down the hill to the parking lot, so I was forced to try to shoot photos through my sunroof as it traveled back up along the hillside.

It continued up, so I decided to take a chance that it would go over the hill toward the main road. Driving back to the road and parking my car, I stood out and waited for the bear to appear. And waited. And waited.

Meanwhile, a white Hummer drove down the road toward me, but suddenly stopped and turned onto the Petrified Tree drive. Was it Bart??? I waited some more for my bear to appear, but it didn't... and neither did the Hummer. So I hopped back in the car to see what happened. Sure enough, the bear was down along the drive. The Hummer was idling in the middle of the roadway, with its occupants taking pictures while standing out of their sunroof.

Then a strange thing occured. The bear suddenly got curious, and got up and approached the vehicle.

It turns out the couple driving the car (it wasn't Bart after all) had a dog... we figure that's what inspired the bear to take a closer look. After satisfying its curiosity, the bear moved off the road down into the trees, and those of us on the scene (some other photographers had shown up by now) started snapping away. I chose to move further up the road, well ahead of the bear so I could see through the branches. As I set up behind a tree a good distance away, the bear suddenly spooked and tried to climb into a nearby tree. It didn't make it too far. Though it's only about two years old (according to the rangers), it obviously wasn't quite as small and limber as it used to be (Willem, keep your comments to yourself ). The bear stayed latched onto the trunk for a few moments, before finally calming down and returning to terra firma.

Afterward, I headed up the Tower Road (empty) and then toward the Lamar. Just past the Lamar River bridge and before the Slough Creek lot, I pulled over for something digging into the hillside. It was flat and furry, and I thought I had another badger on my hands! However, it was just the tail of a coyote that was busy building itself a den. The coyote looked pretty hefty, so it may be preparing to give birth... in which case we might have a third great pup spot within the next several weeks.

There wasn't much happening in terms of wildlife this morning, so I spent the next couple hours doing some landscape photography under the occasional sprinkle of rain.

I drove aimlessly for a while (met Bill and Peggy for the second time that morning, before they left for the airport) before I finally stopped at the Yellowstone Picnic Area for a late breakfast and a much-needed nap.

I woke up an hour later not exactly feeling refreshed, but determined not to waste any more time or miss out on something big. Easier said than done. Turns out that while I was counting little bighorns in my head, the Rainy Lake fox was making a grand circuit of the Tower Road. I learned this from the photographer who happened to be the only one who saw it... and it turned out she was Cathy Wise, whose great work is fairly popular on the Loon page I believe, and whose site I visit occasionally. Anyway, Cathy said she was able to follow the fox as it made its rounds and got several full frame shots since it was so close. Can't wait to see them.

The pelicans at Fishing Bridge are always fun to photograph

Afterward, it was time to finally go south. A brief stop at the owl nest at Mammoth (already too late in the day for good light) and then onward toward Norris, where I encountered a wall of opaque gray sky and a curtain of hail. The bad weather continued on and off all the way to Hayden. I went out to Mary Bay, the site of so much excitement mere days ago. Now, totally quiet except for sea gulls practicing their body surfing and wave dodging technique on the choppy water.

Back to Fishing Bridge, where I had spotted several pelicans. This is always a favorite photo spot of mine, since the pelicans will sometimes make trips upriver before floating back and repeating the process. A few of them were happy to oblige me this time around.

I survived the drive all the way back to Tower, spotting coyotes, a sandhill crane at Swan Lake Flats and sparring bison near Lava Creek. At Tower, I ran into Helene and Rene for the first time today, and met Rialena as well... and we got to hear about H & R's magical, unexpected trip to Bozeman. An hour or so of sunlight remained, and we drove back at a liesurely pace, making a few stops before returning home. Tomorrow... 6-12 inches of snow in the forecast???