The snow coating the Lamar Valley would melt by midday

I meant to sleep in today, and I partially accomplished that feat. Someone set the room's alarm clock before checking out apparently, so I was woken up earlier than expected. Wintery weather this morning, with lots of low fog and clouds limiting visibility. This failed to dissuade the wolf and bear watchers though, as they were seen peering through scopes, trying to penetrate the cloud cover from Hellroaring Overlook. Floating Island Lake was coated in fog, the sandhill cranes barely visible out in the middle of the lake.

I reached Elk Creek and noticed a few cars pulled over. Peering out into the flats, I spotted two furry shapes tumbling about. A black bear and a cinnamon black bear were wrestling. This didn't last much longer, as the bears disappeared into the trees (but not before the cinnamon gave himself a quick standing back scratch). Driving ahead a bit, I watched as the bears bedded down within the trees. I promised to check back later.

Tower was my first real destination, mainly because I was looking for a) Rosie, b) Fox and c) whether the road had indeed been opened. I struck out on all three. Turns out that 2-4 inches of snow had fallen on Dunraven Pass, delaying the opening of the road. I did spot a bighorn sheep, and snapped a few pics of the steam rising from Tower Fall into a foggy sky.

Continuing on to the Lamar Valley, the weather was varied. Low-hanging mist mixed with bright blue skies, making for some interesting and mystical vistas. The floor of the valley was covered with a fresh blanket of white for the moment. Within hours, there would be no trace of it!

I reached the east end of the valley and stopped near Soda Butte. Down near the creek were a number of brown shapes. Seven sandhill cranes were bunched together, possibly more than I've ever seen on any trip combined, much less hanging out together. Generally, I've found the cranes to be skittish, nervous creatures, but in this case, they allowed me within a reasonable distance for shooting. From time to time, one crane would go about chasing some of the others. My results capturing some of these unexpected pursuits were mixed.

Eventually, he scared one of his peers off completely, and the rest of the group soon took off as well. It was time to check on those bears I had seen earlier at Elk Creek. They were nowhere to be found, and I was instead teased by a kestrel which perched on some trees close to and beneath the road. The one chance I had to get close shots was wasted when the small bird wouldn't turn around to look at me. Pretty back feathers though!

A black bear disappeared into the trees as I went back up Tower Road, and more sheep passed along the retaining wall. Still, the road was closed, so I again retraced my steps back to Roosevelt. By then, the bear had moved past the main intersection along the road, and I pulled in to get a few shots.

Bart and Bryan had shown up at this point, and Bart promised to show me the badger site from yesterday. First, one more stop at Tower, where I finally laid my eyes on Rosie. She and the cubs were moseying over the hillside across the creek... perhaps the last time I'll see the family together.

Sandhill cranes chased each other in the Lamar

While the rest of the group chose to hike Trout Lake, I decided to stay at the badger site and see if anything would stir, though I wasn't confident that the badger had remained in the area. It was a good opportunity to rest a bit, as I nodded off once or twice. A bluebird joined me for a short while, and a red-tailed hawk settled into a far tree. Uinta ground squirrels went about their business, occasionally chirping to help keep me awake. After two hours, no badger.

Back to Tower, as I was prepared to make one last sweep before heading back to Gardiner early. But here I ran into Helene and Rene, who had finally returned from the Tetons and come over the recently-opened Dunraven Pass. It turns out that the moment I left them in the Tetons, they started running into oodles of moose (is that just "moodles?"). I related the story of my own moose run-in and the owl encounter. Helene mentioned that she had heard of a golden eagle nest on the Slough Creek road which was supposed to be fairly close, so we agreed to head down and check it out.

Close wasn't exactly the right way to describe it, but we did find the nest through the scope and watched one of the adult eagles feed its chick. The adults would take turns swooping out to glide along the cliff face, before both parents were soon riding the thermals high above the nest.

At the same time, someone else had found a grizzly sow and cubs settled at the top of the peaks on the opposite side of the road. Momma grizz had picked out the highest point to survey her domain, and the grizz family, including two very playful little ones, was beautifully backlit against the late afternoon sun.

Our final sweep led us all the way to Floating Island Lake, where some bison were grazing at the hillside. Then we parted ways, and now I prepare for one final day in the park before starting a two day trek for home sometime tomorrow afternoon.