BlueRavenBirders

I’ve never entered Yellowstone National Park through the East Entrance before.  After driving through some gorgeous places such as Thermopolis, Meeteestse, and Cody I pulled up to the parking booth for the park…

I don’t know what this structure in Cody is, but it’s fascinating.

I had tossed my parks pass into my bag before leaving, just in case.  So I handed it over along with my drivers license only to be told that I had grabbed the one for last year. Ah well, I’ll need a new one anyway, so here’s hoping I really use this new pass since I bought the one for all of the national parks.  

There are a LOT of mountains and winding roads and rivers and waterfalls between Cody and Yellowstone Lake.

This is not Yellowstone Lake, but some lovely spot along the way, high up in the mountains.

This is Yellowstone Lake
As is this

And this
And even this.

I entered the park around 3:00 thinking I had plenty of time to reach the Snake River Plain before dark. I had forgotton just how HUGE the lake is, and how long it takes when there are mountain passes and a speed limit of 45-50 mph.

American White Pelicans at Fishing Bridge
There were intermittent dark clouds for most of my drive, but very little actual rain.

My only raven photo of the week
As I passed into more familiar areas of the park I decided that I had to take the Firehole Lake Drive. It’s lovely and the sun was starting to go down making the light and the water so lovely. Also there was a chance I’d spot Mountain bluebirds.

The bluebirds were kind enough to pose, but the back lighting made it impossible to see their beautiful coloring. The female is on the right and the male on the left on this lovely lodgepole pine. Sadly I couldn’t move around for a different shot because the ground is unstable.

There were Elk, Mule Deer, and of course Bison along the road, and most of the time I didn’t do more than slow down and acknowledge their existence. This bison is one of a herd that had traffic backed up.

Yellowstone is very green this season because of all of the spring rain and winter snow. Just lovely.
I was out of the park before dark and down the Ashton hill just as the sun finished setting. I’m very grateful for the long twilight that we get here.

It took me a total of 15 hours to drive home, including breaks for fuel and food. It also took 2 Dr. Peppers and quite a number of goodies. The next day I spent sleeping and recovering. — Jenny

Total Bird List for Sunday: Canada geese, Trumpeter swans, Mallards, Gadwalls, Barrow’s goldeneyes, Western grebes, Common mergansers, A. white pelicans, Swainson’s hawks, Red tailed hawks, Osprey, Golden eagle, Caspian tern, Rock doves, E.C. doves, Mourning doves, Kestrels, Prairie falcons, Crows, Ravens, Killdeer, Swallows, Black capped chickadee, Robins, Mountain bluebirds, Starlings, House sparrows, Red winged blackbirds, Brewer’s blackbirds, Brown headed cowbirds, Lark buntings and Magpies.

Total Mammal List for Sunday: Antelope with babies, Bison with babies, Mule deer, Elk, Red squirrels, Yellow bellied marmots, Uinta ground squirrels, other ground squirrels.