Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 351

We ducked the big coastal storm, but we have plenty of snow left which won’t melt until mid-April in my front yard. When it came off the garage roof it was piled up past the windows, some people going up the ski trail said that snow may be there until June.

Inlet’s “Frozen Fire and Lights” winter festival is set for Saturday, February 28. Starting with a free pancake breakfast at the Inlet Community Church 8-11:30, silent auction also there. Starting at 9 a.m., running until 11 a.m. Inlet’s Youth hockey team will hold a couple exhibition games at the Fern Park Rink. At 10a.m. at the gazebo the new King and Queen Ray and Janet Cardella will be coronated this year’s frozen royalty. Also starting at 10a.m. in the Town Hall the Inlet Youth Commission’s Noah’s Ark Workshop will take place. At 10 a.m. the Inlet Public Library will have a book sale, and you can pick up your kite to decorate and fly in the Kite fling later in the day. At 1 p.m. the Cardboard Sled Races will take place on the Fern Park Sledding Hill. At 2p.m. you can decorate your kite at the Woods Inn and fly it out on Fourth Lake along with the gigantic and impressive kites of the American Kite fliers Association weather permitting, wind. At 3 p.m. The Outhouse Races will take place in front of the Woods Inn. At 4:30 p.m. there will be a bonfire with free hotdogs, treats, and hot beverages at Arrowhead Park. Then finally at 6:30 p.m. there will be fireworks in Arrowhead Park.

Back to Yellowstone Park for the final day. Everything packed up we had breakfast in the heated dining room, dark outside just like every morning to start the day. We loaded our luggage in the snow coach and went out looking for wolves again and a Pigmy Owl which we hadn’t seen yet in Hayden Valley. We traveled over to Yellowstone Lake seeing a few coyotes along the way but no wolves. On our return we just entered the valley and Nadia says there is a black wolf and then there is a whole pack of wolves just across the Yellowstone River. Everyone bailed out and got cameras set up as the wolves moved along the other side of the river about eighty yards away. The black wolf had a slight injury, and he was following the pack of ten. Cameras were clicking as they went through a wooded area howling as they went along and came back to the bank of the river with the black wolf trailing. They went along the bank up into the valley with the open river in the foreground and a geyser going off in the background what a show for our final day. They would let the black wolf catch up and then go along. Not two hundred feet to our left was a big, beautiful coyote watching this parade with us from the next parking lot. We packed up and moved to another parking area to get ahead of the wolves. We had them all to ourselves as they moved up the riverbank howling along the way what a treat. We set up again and they came along. Looking up to the next parking area, another snow coach was there setting up as they had seen the wolves coming up the river. They ran by us again and we moved up and set up again. The wolves played around in the sage brush as the leader was down on the riverbank howling and there was music for an hour from the rest of the pack as they laid down in the sunny sage brush for a nap. Some snowmobilers stopped by and looked through our cameras and scopes to see the wolves. They thanked us for letting them see the wolves.

As we traveled out to Mammoth Hot Springs we saw more Trumpeter Swans, ducks, and coyotes but no Pigmy Owl. I said to Tom Murphy our Guide after that experience I could wait until next time to see the owl. We unloaded our luggage to our vehicles, took a few group photos in front of an old snow coach and ours. We said our goodbyes and hugs to our driver Nadia and went back to our house in Gardiner for the night, what a trip.

Going back into Yellowstone Park, Lamar Valley for one more time earlier in the trip but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Pack of wolves Yellowstone River and geyser