"There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of this great human principle." Franklin D. Roosevelt

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Private Wolf Show

It's an odd day when I manage to squeeze in two posts considering how hard it has been up to this point to get in two posts a week. After dinner I decided to head down to Hayden Valley. I knew I would only be able to go into the valley from the north a short distance. Each evening Grizzly Overlook is loaded with people watching for wolves across the river. I managed to pull into a pullout which was not occupied. Scanning across the area I saw movement on a distant hill. It was two wolves milling about!! I had to look around me because I could not possibly be watching two wolves all by myself. No one was around, it was just me!

I had armed myself with my two sets of binoculars and Spot. Unfortunately, my tripod was still attached to my video camera from the party Monday night (my less than brilliant idea to actually film myself dressed as a banana.........what was I thinking?!) and it was still tucked away in my room. So the best I could do to zoom in on the wolves was to prop Spot on my steering wheel. Alas, when using that much zoom the slightest movement is magnified and after a few minutes I could of used a good dose of Dramamine. So alternating between Spot and my binoculars I managed to watch the wolves for about 20 minutes.

I also scanned the hilltops and I saw that a few people from Grizzly Overlook had moved across the road and up onto a hill. I had to tee hee a little because they were all facing the wrong direction because the wolves I was watching was to their backs. But who knows, maybe they were all watching a pack of wolves and laughing at me for parking so far down the road. But I had my own private wolf show.