Day 4 is the final day on the Yellow Bus. We will depart Lake Village and proceed north through the Hayden Valley, Canyon Village, past Mt. Washburn to Tower Junction, and on to Mammoth Hot Springs. We parallel the Yellowstone River and make our first stop at Artist Point – the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
We stop briefly to see the Upper Falls. We crossed the bridge at the top of the image on our way to this view. Mother Nature gave us a beautiful rainbow to enhance the shot.
The Yellow Bus at Artist Point parking lot.
The iconic view of Yellowstone Falls, with an obliging sky.
In portrait orientation.
Tour guide Nancy helped us out. She’s pretty good with a camera that also makes phone calls. Even on June 7, it was jacket weather.
My lovely bride with Matt, our Yellow Bus driver…
…and Nancy, our tour guide.
This is Lower Yellowstone Falls from the other side of the Yellowstone River, and a little closer than Artist Point.
A view of the Yellowstone River looking downstream from the Falls area.
After a lunch stop at Canyon Village, we continued north through Dunraven Pass. Throughout the day, we saw lots of wildlife: Sandhill Cranes, Blue Heron, many small birds, Osprey, a Bald Eagle, and Great Horned Owls in a faraway nest.
Of course, Bison were common. An artsy Bison shot.
After seeing several Coyotes from some distance, I finally got the chance for some up close shots of this one hunting. We had been watching a couple Coyotes at some distance when, as usual, I turned around to see what was behind me. This hunter was just across the road and intent on getting some lunch.
Even with all this wildlife around, the focus of the day turned out to be (drum roll please) the Bears.
This big guy was walking through a thermal area which explains his wet appearance.
We pulled into the Tower Fall parking lot and heard everyone talking about the two Black Bears just down the path.
I grabbed the big camera and ran down the path. Sure enough, a young Black and this Cinnamon Black were playing together in the trees across a ravine.
Since I had run from the Yellow Bus with the big camera, all I had for a picture of the Tower Fall was my trusty mobile phone.
I had been trying for pictures of a Great Horned Owl nest some distance away, when my tour buddies started talking about the Bear in the trees below the nest. (Matt had his spotting scope out and was checking to see what was around.) This Black Bear sat on this rock and watched the people watching him!
I grabbed this shot out the Yellow Bus window as we crawled along with the rest of the traffic. We encountered six Bears in a brief stretch of road.
Another of the many Bears we saw that afternoon.
The Yellow Bus was alive with chatter about our unusual luck seeing bears that day. Nancy and Matt deemed us the luckiest tour that either had ever been on.
We arrived back at Mammoth Hot Springs for our last night in Yellowstone. We all gathered in the Mammoth Dining Room for one last meal together, recounting our wonderful week with newfound friends. As we arrived back at our cabin, all was right with the world.
This Cow Elk was grazing just across the street from our cabin.
We repacked the PhotoFun50 for the trip home and got to bed, still discussing our lucky Bear Watching day.
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
The PHOTOROGR Project 