To start, it was raining-consistently and hard enough to not want to take a long hike. We had planned to hike 9 miles to Osprey Falls, but the rain changed our minds.
We drove out to that area hoping that the rain would stop before we got there. It showed no signs of slowing, so we took it easy and enjoyed the scenery. We took a couple of detours and saw a great waterfall.
We passed osprey falls and went into Mammoth. We saw a bunch of elk as we went through town. Rachael tried to get some pictures of the buck, but he was in the grass. She tried to get closer, but startled another elk and decided it was best to leave them alone.
We went past and went to Wraith falls for a short hike. It had stopped raining so we did that and saw Undine falls. We went back into town and got a few things for lunch. On the way in, more elk were there and one huge buck was just sitting there like he was posing. Rach got some great pictures.
Undine Falls
Buck sitting and posing for pictures
We were close to Montana and wanted to at least say we had been to Montana so we went that way. We crossed into Montana (the 45th parallel-halfway between the equator and the north pole) and ate lunch.
Sign for 45th parallel
We were close to Gardner Montana so we left the park and went into town (truth to be told so I could get cell coverage to check emails!!!)
While I went through all 98 emails (seriously...) Rach did a little shopping, but didn't find anything but coffee.
As we went back through the gateway arch, Rach saw an animal so we stopped to look. It was a pronghorn antelope, one of about 200 in the park. It was very close and she got some real closeups. It was especially cool because we didn't expect to see any and that it was so close.
Pronghorn Antelope
We made our way back through mammoth and on towards our last stop. We decided to hike Slough creek. We took off (followed by some Russians from new york that didn't want to hike on their own) and promptly ran into a few mule deer right on the path. More great closeups (and the title for this blog entry....)
Mule deer along the path
Slough creek was a Great hike and wish we could have done more than the 4.5 miles we did, but it looked like it was going to storm again and it was getting late.
View of Slough Creek
Slough Creek
We headed through the rest of the lamar valley to see if we could find any moose (with antlers....) And bear. We saw a group of pronghorn antelope on the road (3 of them). That is how it has happened all trip-you don't see anything and then you see them all over the place! We saw another group stopped and they said they had seen a bear. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later a big grizzly bear showed up on the other side of the river! He was pretty far away but we saw him and got some blurry pictures.
Small Grizzly Bear between the trees
Lastly, as it was dark and on our way back, rachael spotted a couple of moose-another female and baby. A great way to end the day.
Another moose and baby (still no antlers....)
Great sunset through a forest of burned out trees
We are sad that tomorrow is our last day here, but excited for what we will see tomorrow!
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.
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