Yellowstone, Canyon, bears!!

The first job of the day was to practise with the bear spray!

We paused briefly in West Yellowstone to pick up lunch supplies and then drove in to the park and through to Canyon Village where we had planned to hike one of the trails. There was much more snow still on the ground on this side of the park so I guess it was not surprising when the Ranger at the Visitor Centre told us the trails were closed because of conditions and also grizzlies had been sighted in the area. We were allowed to walk a mile or so down the road to the viewpoint on the north rim of Canyon Gorge where we enjoyed long views up the gorge to the waterfall with steep sides of pink and yellow rock, and hoodoos. From one of the viewpoints we could see a large osprey nest atop a rocky pinnacle and we were lucky to see an osprey land on it. No young as yet so it was possibly waiting for the arrival of its mate after the winter.

Back at the Visitor Centre we decided to drive over to the south rim for different views of the gorge and to have lunch. It was selfie stick heaven for a while! En route a number of cars had pulled over on the side of the road, a sure sign of wildlife to be seen. We pulled over too, climbed a hill to see these two grizzly bears mooching and lumbering around about 150m!!! They look like a mother and a cub. They kept taking a look at the folks watching them but were quite happy to keep their distance, digging down for food. That has to be the highlight of the holiday for us all!

Eventually the bears drifted away and we turned for home, stopping to blip two groups of bison sunning themselves alongside the Gibbon River.

Bears!!