Adventure Tuesday

Yellowstone National Park - Winter Edition

Lamar Valley is a safe bet for wildlife

In the wintertime you can see almost all the animals you can in the summertime. The big difference of course are the bears. You’ll probably wont see any bear if you go in December or January, unless something is very very wrong. Lamar Valley is a safe bet for a lot of wildlife. The snow white open plains makes it easier for you to spot just about anything, including large boulders that looks like large wildlife :) You’ll always see large herds of bison here, especially in the wintertime since the bison move down in elevation during this season. Of course as always this is the prime spot to see coyotes or wolves. I haven’t seen many wolves in Yellowstone National Park, actually I haven’t seen many wolves at all, anywhere. Wolves do exist in Yellowstone of course, but they are more rare to see. What you do see a lot of are coyotes. I have seen countless of coyotes in Yellowstone. If you don’t have any binoculars or a very good zoom lens it will be impossible to say if you are watching a wolf or coyote. Wolves are very big, and the coyote is a lot smaller, and since wolves are a bit more rare we tend to lean towards coyotes.

Animals Everywhere?

Of course, if you screen the landscape well enough, you will see animals almost everywhere. One winter we ended up seeing close to 10 lone Coyotes, all close to the road or on the road. That was a weird year I would say. Not sure why they all were congregating along the road that year, but to me it seemed odd. Right after you enter Yellowstone National Park through Gardiner, there will be a somewhat narrow road that takes you through some cliffs on both side of the road. That is a prime location to spot for Bighorn Sheep. Of course any place in the park where the road passes some cliffs are prime location for Bighorn Sheep. Other animals you should be on the lookout for are elk and whitetail deer.

Have you been to Yellowstone? What is your favorite animal you have seen there?