Because I Can: 7th Day at Mammoth Campground, Cooke City, Antelope, Hilltop Views, Mountain Scenery

Wednesday September 2,2015 Day 36 Yellowstone N.P. Mammoth Campground, site 46, 7^th day

This morning was a work day. After the morning coffee and fire and a quick breakfast of cereal and milk, we gathered up our laundry and an empty propane tank and took off for Gardiner. Got the washers going and went out to get the propane tank filled. Same place we went last year. Came back, put clothes in dryer, went grocery shopping. Picked up ice and firewood. Returned to campground and put everything away. The rest of the day was a play day.

If you're ever in Gardiner, MT and you need to find a laudromat, go here.

Took a ride to the Lamar Valley on the Northeast Entrance Road. The Lamar Valley is often called the Serengeti of North America. It is a wide flat valley rimmed by mountains and hills with the winding Lamar River running through it. It is home for bison herds, elk, antelope, wolves, bears, coyotes, and probably bunny rabbits. Lots of people go there with expensive spotting scopes, cameras with huge, expensive lenses, and binoculars. We pulled off on a busy turnout overlooking a buffalo herd. The car next to me pointed out a grizzly bear. “See the clump of trees on the other side of the river? Look to the right for a large pine tree. Then you will see a dead tree between them. Look beyond the dead tree and you will see a black dot. That is the grizzly bear.” I saw the bear in my 10x42 Nikon Monarch 3 binoculars, but only as a wiggly dot. It must have been a mile away. The lady who showed it to me let me look into their $3000 Swarovski spotting scope. I could easily tell it was a grizzly and the image wasn’t jiggling with the scope on the expensive tripod upon which it was mounted. After all these years, it was the first grizzly I’ve seen at Yellowstone. I don't have a picture of the dot that was a bear. I don't have one of those $5000 lenses on my point and shoot camera.

We also spotted some antelope on the way to and from the Lamar Valley.

Antelope laying in short grass.

Antelope laying in long grass.

Antelope eating grass.

Antelope walking in grass.

We took the Northeast Entrance Road all the way to Cooke City, MT which is about 5 miles outside the park on the Beartooth Highway. It looks like a small town you would run into in Alaska. There are some national forest campgrounds in the vicinity we checked out. Soda Butte, which we stayed at in 2011. That’s the one the guy from Grand Rapids was killed by a grizzly while he slept in his tent. I think that was 2010. Up the road about a mile is John Coulter campground. There are a few nice sites there, but a lot of open sunny ones. Then about 6 more miles, over Cook’s Pass, and into Wyoming, is Fox Creek. This national forest campground has electric hookups. All these campgrounds have strict bear policies and do not allow soft sided campers like tents and popups.

Back in Cooke City we ate lunch at the Soda Butte Lodge. A tradition whenever we come to Yellowstone. Kind of like the K-Bar pizza thing.

Downtown Cooke City

The highways around the Northeast Entrance have outstanding scenery.

The upper section of Soda Butte Creek.

The white cone shaped dome that smells like sulpher is Soda Butte.

Mule deer posing by the side of the road for us. Also known as blackmail deer.

We originally was going to hike into a lake called Trout Lake and check it out. It is a mile hike to the lake from the trailhead off the highway. It is a fly fishing destination and is full of Cutthroats. In the spring, during spawning, the trout congregate at the mouth of a creek on the north side of the lake. The bears also congregate there to eat the fish. For this reason, the lake and trail is closed to fishing during that time. We had to abort that hike because Marsha had taken some allergy medicine that was not the “won’t make you drowsy” type.

After we got back to campsite, Marsha rested because of the medication. I decided to climb to the top of the hill next to the campsite and see what the view is like up there. It was about a 500 ft. rise in about ¼ mile. I was winded by the time I got to the top. Some of it was so steep, I had to hold onto the rocks on the trail to keep from sliding back down. But the view was worth it, once I got my breath again.