In the last two weeks there has been a documentary series on BBC1 core of the Yellowstone. I have been watching it and reminiscing on my own experience of Yellowstone a few years ago. The visit to Yellowstone was part of a package trip that included the Tetons, Canyon lands and Moab. In fact this was my one and only camping trip. We stayed at a huge campsite when he got to Yellowstone. We were travelling in a minivan, with some other British travelers. A strange bunch we were, they will as a science schoolteacher, an art dealer in his wife, mother and daughter, the daughter was a PE teacher, there was another young man who was into taking in the walking, and couple of other people who I have forgotten. On the way to the camping site we came across these big herds of bison.
The first sighting of these huge animals was quite amazing even though it was at a distance. I had never seen animals of this size in real life. The van was stopped by the roadside and everyone jumped out eager for a good look at these magnificent animals. The countryside was green with rolling hills and a meandering river. The bison were gathered by the water with their young ones.
While we were exclaiming over the bison by the water suddenly a couple of them came up towards the road where we all were busy clicking the cameras. It was difficult to imagine that they could move at such speed.
One of them moved in even closer. Right next to our bus was a camper van with the Japanese couple and their baby in a stroller busy taking photographs. The bison seemed interested in the stroller but it came up to the road and walked across the board in front of our bus. Everyone assumed that it would carry on to the other side of the road. However it walked back and went past the camper van. The Japanese couple had just managed to grab the child out of the stroller and rush into the camper van, just as the bison came around the back of the camper van and stood right next to the stroller. From the photograph you can see the awesome size of the bison, the huge powerful shoulders with a couple of tons of weight that can do a good deal of damage to a baby in a stroller. It gave us an opportunity to see the animal at such close quarters.
After the first few herds the novelty wore off and we were on the lookout for other animals. We did see some herds of deer grazing peacefully in the afternoon heat.
The next animal we saw was a mother moose and her calf grazing in the long grass alongside the road. I had seen a large moose on an earlier visit to New Hampshire but had never seen a calf that young. As usual the bus stopped and everyone jumped out to take pictures. So many people talking and walking towards them made the mother nervous and she moved in front of her calf to protect it. Because the tourists kept surging forward she turned around and took her baby further into the undergrowth.
As we moved along we saw in the drying grass some antlers of deer sitting in the grass. Again it was nice seeing these animals so close and it seemed that the number of tourists passing through have made them comfortable with so many people wandering about.
The other scenery we passed on the way to the campsite was beautiful with hills covered with trees and a few waterfalls. Here are a couple of pictures showing the beautiful landscape.
After a very busy day of seeing animals and the awesome scenery we made our way to the first night at a campsite. This was the first time I learnt to put up tent. It was demonstrated to us by our driver and we only had to follow the instructions. The first point was to choose the site where we would like to put a tent and spread out the ground sheet. In trying to be away from others we felt proud of picking the patch we did. In fact we had no trouble getting the tent up right. Then a stroll around the campsite was necessary to find out where the toilets were and what was being sold in the local shop. It was only when we lay down on our inch thick air mattress that we realised our folly. We had set up our tent on a slope. As we lay down it kept sliding to the lower end of the tent. As you can imagine it was not the most comfortable of sleep we had. The tiny pebbles under the mattress was another reason to have our sleep. We chose the next tent site it much more care.
