Wildlife Custer State Park, Custer, South Dakota

We saw lots of wildlife at Custer State Park. They have a special loop road for viewing and we saw lots of buffalo, and more antelope than I have ever seen in any trip west in my life. There are wild burros in teh park, left over from a herd that was set loose many years ago. Somehow these were not "wildlife" to the tourists who allowed the burros to stick their heads into car windows, who fed them carrots, and generally saw them as tame ponies. Have not yet, and when will we learn that this torist behavior is so wrong and is bad for teh animals. I thought this kind of stuff was done with, but I guess not. Wnder what a missed bite of a burro would do to a finger or perhaps a swift heel kick would do to the side of an SUV...

 

Yellowstone Part 5 - You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd!

To get one last hike hike in in Yellowstone we took the advice of a couple of neighbors who were on full touring bikes and spent a couple of days camped next to us. They had gone up to the Pelican Valley trail expressly to see grizzly and were successful seeing one with cubs across the meadow. We decided to go for it!

The Pelican Valley is an offshoot of the Lamar Valley. The trail does not gain much elevation until you are a good ways out so we thought it would be a good out and back.

The Pelican Valley is prime grizzly habitat. It is only open after August 15 and you can only hike there from 9AM to 7 PM when it is open. It is also an area where groups of 4 or more are recommended making noise as they travel. We learned all this at the trail head info kiosk, as our neighbors had not mentioned the above.

The parking lot was full of cars, some with horse trailers. We were two but had seen a group of four head out just as we were pulling in. We had bear spray. We went back and forth, forth and back, and finally decided to pack up and go out.

We went through a the trees that separated the parking area from the grassland of the valley floor. It was a big, expansive meadow about three miles from side to side and at least a half mile to the next tree line.

As we stepped out, we noticed a herd of bison on our left about 200 yards away. As we watched it was clear that they were grazing slowly, but moving from our left to our right. Their path would take them grazing over the trail we would be on.

Dilemma. If we went down the trail it would put us on the far side of the herd with them blocking our way back to the parking lot and safety of our car. We could keep moving to reach some safety by going all the way across and getting to the trees on the far side, but faithful readers will know that we described the power and speed of buffalo we saw in the Hayden Valley a couple of posts ago. We decided that we should just kind of watch for a while and take some pictures.

Bison herds don't move together as much as they mosey here and there. The also don't move in a straight line. As the moved closer we became aware of some of them moving through the trees that bordered the parking lot. We stepped back, all eyes peeled. More of them moving into the trees and now threatening to cut off our escape route to the car. Couple steps back to compensate. More bison moving closer. We stood near the car. Closer. We opened the doors. Closer. Crap! We threw off the backpacks, shoved them in the back and and dove into the car. The parking area became full of bison, all around the car.

They did finally move on but for about 10 minutes we were in the middle of the herd. We got to see one young fella nursing on his mom. Now I don't want to upset the Wyoming Chapter of the Bison La Leche League, and I have nothing against nursing in public or nursing until the child is ready, but this guy was a teenager, and he had horns! No way should he been digging around in there with that apparatus. Momma bison should have cu the cord a while ago!

So here we sit. Bears somewhere out in front of us, bison off to the right but still in the area. If we walked out into the meadow and they decided to wander back, the bear spray could get a couple but just might tick off a couple more. We decided to abandon the hike, take a few more pictures and hike a shorter trail just down the road. Our last hike in Yellowstone. Here are some pictures:

Yellowstone Part 4 - The Buffalo & Others Do Roam!

We knew from previous visits that Yellowstone's Hayden Valley was a prime place to see bison, especially in the evening. And as it turns out, so does everybody else. We made it our business to make our trips take us through Hayden just after suppertime. It was crowded with car pulling over to yank out cameras, and we saw one car that went over the edge of the road not in a designated turn out (no one hurt, but if the car went much further it was going down a steep hill) . The Park Rangers were taking pictures and the car was scraped on the side, so maybe it was a the result of a side swipe.

It also was clear that some folks had this Hayden Valley thing down to a science. Spotting scopes, long lenses, and bag chairs set up in the best places for viewing. The animals did not disappoint. Lots of elk, antelope, deer, and herds of bison.

We enjoyed bison near, we enjoyed bison far, we enjoyed bison playing, and running near our car! Bison kind of scoot as they run and they move FAST! We had the experience of having a herd split into groups on both sides of the road, and having a couple of males disagree on what side of the road whom should be on. It got sorted out but not before a couple of young guys came barrelling across the plain, and cutting through the parking area where we were to get back to where they should be.

The Hayden Valley is beautiful in its own right with subtle colors of green sage, yellow grasses, green trees, brown valley sides and big blue skies. Add a few wild animals and it is wonderful.

One of our big learnings was that Hayden is not the only beautiful valley. In our explorations of thermal features (aka driving Steve to yet another river so he can try to fish) we got to explore other valleys with wildlife. I would put the Lamar Valley in the northeast corner on a par with Hayden, big beautiful with lost of animals and especially bison (see upcoming story).

We got to see a wolf in the Norris geyser basin! Light gray, just turning and heading into the woods. We heard multiple stories one day of an elk that had died near the road in Hayden and wolves coming down to take care of the carcass. A grizzly also came for lunch, and that was enough for the Rangers as people with rocks for brains were running up with cameras and they had to take the carcass away.

Where were we? Steve was annoying trout!