Lamar, Slough, Bison Jam. 6th day at Mammoth

Tuesday September 1, 2015     Yellowstone N.P.   Mammoth Campground, site 46, 6^th day

 Sat out in the cold morning in front of nice warm campfire with our coffee and watched the elk herd slowly make its way up the hill, through the campground, to sit on and eat up the lawns in Mammoth Hot Springs and entertain the tourists.  It’s something that I can’t do back in Grand Haven.

Spike's big brother having breakfast next to our campsite.

You can see his antlers are more developed than Spike's
but have a way to go to catch up to the bull elk in the herd.

 

Went fishing in the Lamar River where I went last year and had some good luck (last year).  This year not so good.  I caught two cutthroats within the first 20 minutes I was there.  Then nothing for the next couple of hours.  It was frustrating.  But the Lamar is a tough river.  The fish move around and you always have to cover a lot of water to find them.  I climbed back out of the canyon up to the truck and jumped in with my waders on to look for a different spot.  All turnoffs and accesses were pretty much taken and I decided to quit for the day and drive back home.  But on the way is Slough Creek, so I kept my waders on just to give it a quick try.  Slough Creek is pronounced Sloo Kreek.

 

The part of the Lamar where I caught fish.

 

The part of the Lamar where I didn't catch fish.

I’m not as familiar with Slough as with some of the other streams.  I had fished it in the past, but after a 3-mile ride on a horse to an upper meadow.  Not just me, six other guys.  And a cowboy to show us how to ride and lead us.  I parked at the 1^st turnoff on the access road to Slough Creek Campground and set out to walk to the river.  The 1^st clue was there was no path that I could see.  Was high up on a bluff, looking across a vast meadow with a herd of bison heading into it.  I started walking, keeping an eye on the herd.  Eventually I saw water in the distance about a half mile away and walk to it.  When I got there, it was a weedy, froggy looking pond, left over from spring floods.  But I could see the river about another quarter mile away.  So I continued my journey, and that’s what it was turning into.  I finally got to the river and it was pretty shallow in that section and didn’t look like good fish holding water.  I also noticed brown drake mayflies floating on the water and there were no fish eating them!!!  I have never seen big bugs on the water and the fish ignoring them.  I had enough and walked about a mile back up the bluff to the truck and changed out of my fishing stuff.

Looking over the Slough Creek Valley from the bluff where I parked.
The far row of trees is where the river was,  Not the blue ponds to the left.

The bison herd coming down the hill into the meadow.  Fortunately our paths didn't cross.

A closer shot of the herd.

Slough Creek looking upstream.



Slough Creek looking downstream.

 No fish pictures today.

 On the way back, the Northeast Entrance Road crosses the Yellowstone River.  As I approached it, there was a long line of cars backed up.  Because I was on a curve I couldn’t see what it was.  In Yellowstone, a traffic backup is always a wildlife sighting or bison in the road.  In this case, it turned out to be a whole herd of bison on the bridge, blocking it in both directions.  Eventually, the eastbound traffic was sneaking through, but us westbound people were driving at the walking speed of a bison.  This went on for several miles and was about a one hour delay by the time they scattered and we all could get through.  But it was kind of cool overall.

 

Buffalo jam on Yellowstone River bridge on Northeast Entrance Road.

 


They cleared the bridge but not the road.

Almost at Tower Junction.

Got back to the campground for hamburgers and salad.  Marsha told me that while I was gone, she was out on the picnic table hand washing some laundry when the Ranger showed up.  She thought she was going to be arrested for violation of bear rules or something like that.  No.  He wanted to see the Oliver.  He was thinking of a Casita, but heard about Oliver and researched it on the internet, but had never seen one, other than the 17 ft..  So he got the tour and liked what he saw.