Ah! Yellowstone.

We arrived In Bozeman where we met our Elderhostel group.  When we stood on the tarmac at the airport we could see snow capped mountains at every point of the compass (which is still upside down, by the way).  Inside the terminal is a life size sculpture of a grizzly bear and I figured that was the only time I was likely to be up close and personal with one of these creatures so I thought a holiday snap would show the size.  I was fascinated by it.  Generally, it's just a leaning post for the people awaiting arrivals but I couldn't take my eyes of it.  Apparently, in Yellowstone, they grow to about 2m and about 350 kg.  I really wanted to see one and I saw two and one with a cub.  Fantastic!  I'll show you my photo when I get back, if you're interested, it's a tiny brown dot on a photo.  Just to prove I really did see one.

We took a shuttle bus to Gardiner, which is just outside of the park.  It looks a bit like the sets for the cowboy movies.  The sun wasn't going down until about 9pm so we had little practice spotting wildlife after dinner and, while we were doing that, first some elk wandered into town followed soon after by a HUGE bison.  He just sauntered past the hotel and down one of the side streets without the slighted concern.  Bison have right of way and I can see why.  They often don't turn their head.  They just look at you out of the corner of their eye and it doesn't make you feel safe.

As an "Elderhotel virgin" (so named by Sue), I wasn't sure of what to expect but we had a great group, thoroughly organised tour leader and a wonderful teacher.  I was the only non US citizen in the group.  A surprising number of them had been to Aus & NZ and had thoroughly enjoyed their time there.

The first day was lectures and an aclimatising walk because of the altitude.  We were going into areas of well over 7000 feet and needed to know what we could manage. We walked along by the Yellowstone River for quite a long way (it seemed to me). In the lectures I learned the difference between a deer and an elk (boy did I feel like an alien!) and many other interesting things.  One of the really great things about this trip was the way we had lectures about what we were going to see next.  I found that really helpful.  Our teacher, Gene Ball, was amazing.  His passion for Yellowstone was contagious and he has basically devoted his life to the area so, every time he opened his mouth, something interesting or amusing came out.  I had bit of difficulty with the accent sometimes but that's my problem,

So the next day we were off armed and dangerous with binoculars, scopes, walking gear, cold gear and cameras.  I had everything on - new wool socks,  toe warmers, plenty of layers, Wallabies scarf, new wool hat, Shetland Island mittens/gloves and swanky Calvin Klein ski jacket.  I needed them all but was warm.  Thanks to our very experienced spotters, we saw lots of wild life and this was made easier with the scopes they had.  My photos aren't the best but I'll include a few and hope you like them.  The big rock is one of many rocks placed by glaciers thousands of years ago.  The mountains were very interesting.  When the sun was shining on the, they looked magnificent.  When the sun was going down or was behind a cloud, they changed character and became quite threatening.  It snowed a tiny bit but not much.  As you can see, it hasn't greened up yet and food is still reasonably scarce for the animals.  However, because it's still quite cool, they haven't moved up into the higher parts of the mountains and can still be viewed from the lower areas.

One of our stops was at the Visitors Centre at Mammoth.  It was very interesting but the thing that amazed me most was the size of the animals.  They were all much bigger than I expected.  I guess when you see them from a distance, it's hard to estimate their true size.  The big horn sheep are especially big and muscular.  That day, in terms of wildlife, we saw: a grizzly bear & cub, a black bear, a mouse, an osprey on it's nest, numerous elk, pronghorn deer,numerous bison and some with calves,lots of different birds, coyote, mountain goats, big horn sheep, a bald eagle and a great horned owl.  Our walks were not too long but frequent and lots of fun.  We didn't get back to the hotel until 9.30 and were really ready for bed.  Field trip #1 over and successful.

I'm having trouble putting the photos where I want them but click on them and see what you can see.