Yellowstone, Lamar Valley. Day 3

Day 3 in Yellowstone and we moved up to Canyon Village where we stayed at the Canyon Lodge Cabins to be close to the Lamar Valley and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.






















The cabins were fine. They were basic but clean. The shower was so small however I could barely move my arms to wash myself. :) We didn't plan this move up to Canyon Village in advance though so we were just happy to have gotten a room. The landscape was different than down by Old Faithful and the geyser fields. It was nice to have a cabin in a bit of woods. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere even though the big Canyon Lodge and a "village" of restaurants, stores and a Yellowstone Museum were a short walk away.

From here we made our exploration of Lamar Valley. Lamar Valley, like Hayden Valley is a spectacular place to view wildlife. Located in the Northeast section of the park you can see elk, bison, osprey, bald eagles, antelope, moose, black bears, grizzlies and wolves.

It's also prime viewing for two prominent packs ... of humans. First is the herd of telescoped binocular humans who gather to watch for wolves in the early morning and evenings. Second are the scattered but ubiquitous fly fisherman. We didn't fish here but it made me want to come back and try. My mind's eye is burned with the vision of fly fisherman in their waders, thigh high in brilliant blue water performing their upper body ballet. Laid out behind them is a scene of such grandeur it's epic. A snaking river with a purple wash of rocks at the rivers edge framed by the yellows and greens of grasses and wildflowers. Buffalo graze in the middle ground and beyond them climbing walls of lodgepole pine and rocky granite peaks highlighted by the alpen glow of the westering sun.

I spied an envious scene at one point where a guy with an RV had parked in a turn-out viewing area. He was sitting in a lawn chair, legs extended and crossed in front of him, his body almost in a reclined position with a cap precariously balanced on his head to shade the sun. He had a coffee in one hand and down beside the lawn chair he had his thermos. There he sat, back to us, watching the Buffalo and the colors of the late day change. I wanted to join him. One day I will and sit quietly for hours, nursing my cup-o-joe, as the buffalo graze and the watchful eye of the young granite peaks watch back.







































Lamar Valley is quite different than Hayden Valley. It's much hillier and the mountains feel closer, the valley is not as wide. We drove from west to east and the closer we got to the east entrance of the park the narrower the valley got and higher the peaks. It's very dramatic. I'm told coming into the park from the Northeast Entrance is an eye-popping experience as you drive through the Beartooth Highway. I think I'll try that next visit.



















The valley is wide and grassy in it's western reaches. We drove west to east out of the Tower-Roosevelt area.


















The eastern end of the valley gets very dramatic. This picture doesn't capture the scale.

We watched for wildlife but didn't see too much this day. We pulled over once where a ranger had a telescope trained on a spec of a grizzly bear having his lunch over a dead elk carcase. We also stopped to see the dry white bones of another elk that had been picked clean by the denizens of the Lamar Valley. The most prevalent animal we saw here was once again the Buffalo.

Lamar Valley has it's own herd of Buffalo. In 1907 28 bison were moved from Fort Yellowstone to the Lamar Valley to enhance the park's natural herd. These were plains bison, a distinct subspecies which differed from the park's native mountain bison. Who knew there were different species? Anyway the park herd is now a hybrid of the two subspecies and between Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley numbers about 4,000.

Here's some video we took in Lamar Valley.



When we got to the end of the valley we didn't exit the park. We turned around and drove back. We'd already driven about 50 miles that day, so we had another 50 to get back to our cabin. 30 miles back we stopped at the Roosevelt Lodge for dinner. As we entered the ranch a most western scene greeted us as a posse of horses and riders slowly came towards us trailing a plume of summer dust. Roosevelt Lodge was a very cool place. It's named after Teddy Roosevelt who came to this location to explore Yellowstone in 1904.


















On the property there's a rustic log lodge with a big dining room, a country store and scattered cabins. This is very remote. It's a great place to stay for a back country experience. They offer horseback trail riding, stagecoach rides, chuckwagon outings and it's a perfect launching point for fly fishing. We sat on the front porch waiting for a table as the sun set savoring this pristine location. The view was across a wide valley and the far mountains went from green to orange to red to purple to black. I'm definitely staying here a couple days next visit. Our meal was great, the bar keep made us some amazing margarita's with and interesting twist on the salted rim...cayenne pepper. It added a nice kick.

















Roosevelt Dining Room
Photo from Picasa web album of Diana Magor

We made our way back to Canyon Village in the dark. Molly made me drive. The road gets a little hairy over the Dunraven Pass, and to add a little coda to the day, we saw a coyote. I'm 90% sure it wasn't a wolf.. .even though I'd like to say it was. :)


To read about our three days in Yellowstone from the beginning start here. Day One - Yellowstone.