Yellowstone Part 3, the Finale

We started our last day here with a departure for the park at 0445am in order to get to Lamar Valley by sunrise.  It turned into a white knuckle drive.  We had a pretty good rainstorm last night that got everything pretty wet, so with the wet roads, the temp about 26 degrees, dense fog, the darkness, avoiding the animals made for an interesting trip.  Our favorite view point looked a lot different with the fog filling the entire valley.

A bit before sunrise

We finally get over to Lamar Valley and it looks like a alien planet with the fog pouring down over the hillsides.  Very cool, but not conducive to animal, specifically wolf watching.

We did catch a Pronghorn Antelope buck on the way in.

Early morning in the fog

We cruise the whole valley getting a very good look at..........FOG!  We had to make a decision, should we wait and see if the fog lifts or run over to Hayden Valley?  We decide to compromise and drive out the northeast entrance to Cooke City and back and see if the fog is gone when we get back.  An hour later, no dice.  Oh well, we figure the park is looking very different and interesting even with the fog, and we have had a sensational visit this year so no big deal.  The fog and the cold temperatures gave some places a real winter look.

Brrrrrr

Anyway we head on around to Hayden Valley and man o man the spotting scopes are out at the overlook near the buffalo carcass!  We stop, set up our scope and watch 4 wolves eat and play and finally move off into the woods.  Icing on the cake for our last day in the park.  It's only about 1115am so we decide to do 2 short hikes on our way out of the park.  The hikes were only about a mile each and were into small lakes, Ice Lake and Harlequin Lake.  They couldn't have been more different, both were beautiful and peaceful, but one was surrounded by woods and deep and clear, and the other was covered with lily pads showing signs of the coming winter.

Ice Lake

Harlequin Lake

We got one more goodie on the way out when we spied this elk mom and her calf crossing the Madison River.

Come on little one!

So this ends our visit with Yellowstone Park for this year.  We were very fortunate to see all we did.  It was spectacular!  On to the Tetons for a quick visit,