Trip - Day 5

July 17, 2017

We drove to West Yellowstone, Montana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Yellowstone,_Montana this morning. It was a very pleasant drive, sometimes slower than we would have liked, but pleasant.  We saw Bison on the side of the rode, again.  Our destination was the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center https://www.grizzlydiscoveryctr.org/, in West Yellowstone.  This is an education and rescue operation, populated with animals that can no longer be released to the wild.  It is not a rehabilitation facility, but it is a facility that educates as well as houses rescued Grizzlies, Gray Wolves, and Raptors. So, in addition to the some 8 or so Grizzlies, and 6 Gray Wolves, we saw 3 Bald Eagles, 1 Golden Eagle, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 1 Rough Legged Hawk in the aviary, and another Rough Legged Hawk and a Northern Sawhet Owl  during an educational presentation.

We heard part of the Keeper Kids lecture, preparing to allow children into the bear area, while the bears were in their pens.  We heard a brief explanation of how the bears are managed, we saw part of one video and all of another about the wolves and bears in Yellowstone, including the Druid Pack, and we saw the lecture in the amphitheater featuring a Rough Legged Hawk, and the Northern Sawhet Owl.  It was a full day.  We had a tailgate lunch in the parking lot, since there was not much time between two of the shows we wanted to see.

We did a little shopping in West Yellowstone.  Some of the stores there look old and run down, especially the non-tourist spots (supermarkets, for example), but there were many, many new and newly being constructed hotels; some of which featured cabins about three times the size of ours at Yellowstone National Park. Interesting that West Yellowstone is facing such a boom in its existence.  I wonder where that came from.  And when? We did notice, driving out of the park early in the morning that the traffic was very heavy entering into the park.  So the West Entrance must be the new fad.  Of course, we have nothing to compare it to at the South Entrance, since we arrived so late in the day on Saturday.  When we re-entered into the park late in the day, there was almost no traffic entering into the park. 

On our way to the Lake Lodge, we found a nice level shady spot near some water, and sat enjoying the scenery.  No one bothered us, and no animal did, either.