Sam has also really taken to the cat tree, preferring the middle perch that is covered like a tube. Scout is the only one who doesn’t often sleep in the tree, but she doesn’t change her sleeping spots so casually. Even the sweltering temperatures of a heat wave don’t drive her from her favorite locations in the upper floors.
It was my last morning at the Tetons before heading up to Yellowstone later in the day in the fall of 2005, so after watching the sunrise from the Taggart Lake trailhead, I went down to Wilson Road where the day before a mother black bear that brought her two cubs to feed on hawthorne berries. The bears were well known by the park staff who watched over the small group of photographers that had assembled.
As we watched the bears, this morning offered up a surprise. A young bull moose was chasing a cow around the area, making such a ruckus they could be heard from afar. Earlier in the morning, I had seen the male and female on a short trail, with brief glimpses of a baby moose. I didn’t want to risk being around the moose mayhem so I turned back and went to where I had seen the bears the morning before. When I first found the bears, they were pretty hard to see so I settled in to wait when suddenly the young moose popped through the willows beside the road. It seemed as surprised as we were, after eyeing us for a moment it sauntered down the road and then up the hill.
The male and female crossed the road a while later but were still making such a racket that there was no chance of them sneaking up on anyone.
It didn’t, it stopped in the middle and posed for pictures.
Bison own the roads at Yellowstone and they know it. I had gone to hike the Storm Point Trail but discovered the trail was surrounded by a large herd. Bison are normally pretty comfortable around people at Yellowstone, but they had their young with them and I didn’t want to disturb them and decided to hike the trail another time.
When I headed back to the car, a few bison came out across the road, including this one who just stopped in the middle. With the head nicely angled to the sun and a nice backdrop of out-of-focus blue sky, green trees, and brown grasslands, I couldn’t resist taking a picture before it finally got moving again and finished crossing the road.
I’ve posted a picture of this little bear cub before but these two pictures have never been online. This bear and its sibling were breakfasting with their mother on hawthorne berries amidst the fall colors in Grand Teton National Park. I saw them in 2005, my first visit to the park.
I love the tongue sticking out in the first picture.
Did I mention that Emma has taken to the cat tree?