Where There is a Carcass, There Will Eventually Be a Grizzly (August 19 Part 7)

You may have to use your imagination for our last adventure in Yellowstone National Park since I was so far away from the wildlife. After our day of visiting geysers, we noticed a crowd in Hayden Valley and thought we should check it out. They were watching a bison carcass in Yellowstone River. There had already been a grizzly and wolves on the carcass earlier that day. There were a few spotting scopes set up and the owners are usually very nice and share. I sure wish my camera had as great a view as some of those scopes! Remember you can click on each photo to see a larger version. In this photo in the center there are some eagles on the land, a young eagle and an older bald eagle with a white head. The carcass is sticking up out of the water.

A grizzly bear came out of hiding in the trees and ran down the hill toward the water. He is just a dark dot sort of left of center in this photo.

This little blue arrow points at the bear.

The grizzly had to swim across the river. You can see his head in the top right corner. The carcass is in the right lower corner.

The grizzly had to fight against the current of the river, but finally made it across and had to scare the eagles away seen here on the left. You can imagine the excitement of the crowd viewing this!

The grizzly finally made it over to the carcass.

Eventually the bald eagle came back and sat in his spot, and the grizzly was standing over feeding on the carcass. We were really hoping to see wolves, but they never came down while we watched. It was getting late and we still had to make dinner, so we left while the grizzly was still there.

That was the last time we saw the buffalo next to the road! What an exciting day!