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April 1996 Trip Report



We made our first early spring trip to Yellowstone the weekend of 19/21 April 96. Friday morning, we called the Park Service to make sure the park was going to be open. They indicated that they were plowing the roads and hoped to have the gates open by 11:00 am.


It was colder than we had hoped, but livable none the less. There was snow on the ground as we headed up into the mountains about 25 to 30 miles south of Yellowstone on route 20. We ran into and out of snow flurries from Idaho Falls to West Yellowstone. We arrived about 6:00 pm Friday evening. The west gate was open and we headed to Gardiner, Montana, our home base for this outing.


After dinner, we hit the hot tub, pool and sauna. This helped us all unwind and relax from our six hour drive. We were up at 5:00 am and headed into the park at 5:30 am in hopes of sighting some bears and wolves. We were not in the right places this time around. We saw days of Antelope, Buffalo, Elk and Coyotes. Lamar Valley and the rest of the park are still pretty well snowed in and the wildlife are basically high up on the mountain and hill sides.


Grizzlies were spotted at Mammoth, Soda Butte area and just east of the Specimen Ridge sign in Lamar Valley on the north side of the valley (left side of the road as you are driving towards the northeast entrance - Silver Gate). The only good wolf report I received, was from a young lady who had spotted eight of the nine wolves (mother and eight yearlings) while cross-country skiing on Specimen Ridge.


We went back out to Lamar Saturday evening and watched the hillsides for the wolves and grizzlies. Again with no luck. It was fun to listen to the bear and wolf sighting from other fellow Yellowstoners and all the excitement involved. After dinner that evening, we were back in the hot tub, pool and sauna. The kids loved it!


We woke to new fallen snow Sunday morning and it was beautiful! Yellowstone was totally white from mountain top to valley floors. I took some photos I hope to put on the page in the near future. We traveled down to Old Faithful and saw (at least we think) the first newborn Buffalo calf. This was just before Old Faithful, it was all wobbly legged and had a hard time keeping up with mother even at a slow pace for just a short distance. We had expected to see many more newborns (one of the reasons we went early), but the cold weather has helped hold things off a little. We did not see any newborn Antelope or Elk. This one Buffalo calf was it. So any day now there should be a bunch of newborns joining this one lonely fellow.


We saw - Antelope, a Bald Eagle, Bighorn Sheep, Buffalo, Canadian Geese, Coyotes, Deer, Ducks, Elk, Red-Tailed Hawks, Sandhill Cranes and Yellow-bellied Marmots. We also watched Old Faithful erupt and then for the first time ever we were thrilled to watch the Beehive geyser erupt. It is much more spectacular than Old Faithful - louder, about as high and last longer than Old Faithful. It is just north of Old Faithful and only goes off once a day. If you are going to the Old Faithful area, I recommend that you ask at the visitors center for the next predicted time for the Beehive. It is worth spending the time to tour around the area and come back to see. Last year, there was a period of two months that it did not go off. So if you get the chance, try to catch it.


Yellowstone is beautiful in winter - even when it is supposed to be spring. They still had tons of snow and it was hard for us to even picture the amounts of snow they had. When we were there in late April and June the snow is basically gone except on Mount Washburn. It is easy to see where all the water comes from for the geyser activity in the park. I love it, and wish I were back. This was one of our most enjoyable family trips, we all seemed to enjoy the whole time together - a family Yellowstone experience our children will talk about in years to come with fond memories. After all, that's what it's all about - isn't it?!





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