Quiet Day in Town

West Yellowstone, Montana: Prior to our marathon driving day yesterday, we had planned to just stay in town today and visit the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. We happily stuck to this plan, as we always enjoy a visit to this mini-zoo/educational/rehab facility. Nearly every animal in the facility is here due to stoopid human acts. We had a bit of a sleep-in this morning, cleaned, vacuumed, mopped, then walked to the Grizzly and Wolf Center - two blocks from the RV park.

This massive area holds a waterfall and a running stream. I am happy to report construction has started on an even larger co-joining display that will feature a live trout stream! Two bears can be in either display area at a time, so the staff can flip the resident bears between the two large areas. Males are usually in the display area alone.

While one of the Grizzly just wanted to dig around for food, the other just wanted to go from the waterfall to the stream. Spa Day? The bear gave a healthy shake every time leaving the water, much to the entertainment of the crowds. Just like a dog.

We also visited the wolves on display, listened to a naturalist give a talk about raptors (so sad that nearly all the birds were injured by humans - one Bald Eagle had been shot!), and watched the caretakers feed raw fish to the eagles. The Golden Eagle received four dead mice.

There is also a great River Otter exhibit, and it is like the otters have been hired to entertain the tourists. They are so animated and full of fun. Sliding down the little creek! Today there was a plastic cooler (without a lid) floating on top of the pond, and one of the otters was jumping into the cooler, proceeding to rock to make it tip over. This was, apparently, quite fun as the otter continued to try to jump into the cooler from every angle. There are also exhibits of local reptiles, frogs, and fish, and a very interesting exhibit on how non-native fish species are EATING native Cutthroat Trout in Yellowstone Lake. The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is a good, fun, several-hour trip for adults and kids. There are many talks by keepers and if you check with them, they allow kids to go into the enclosures to hide treats (bear chow, carrots, apples) for the bear to "find" when they are returned to the display (after the children are removed and counted 15 times). They also have a very nice "exit through the" gift shop.

It was getting late and we were getting hungry, so we walked into town for lunch. We went to the wrong place, Dear Reader, so will not name names. Even though we split a salad and an appetizer, it was too much food. (TRUTH: we went in to order Bison Burgers, but when we saw the massive burgers and gallons of fries delivered to a nearby table, switched our plan. That said, the burgers delivered to our neighbors were taken down.)

We walked back to our RV because we were having a visitor. Why is it that if we want to see my brothers, we have to head for the wilderness? We saw Brother Rick a few days ago in Montana at his fish camp and today we saw Brother Ken. Ken lives in Washington and has a passion for wildlife photography. He especially loves Grand Teton National Park grizzly bears, and drove over to take photos and visit with us at the same time (and see Brother Rick).

No dinner for us tonight. With the time change, we had a late start-time for the SF Giants game. I made us each a little appetizer plate for dinner. (Too much lunch.) We are going to drive the upper loop in Yellowstone tomorrow, and of course, I will report in.

Until my next update, I remain, your sisterly correspondent.

Campground Information: Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park - This is the best commercial RV park (in my opinion) to camp in to explore the park. We paid $121 per night with a senior discount for a full-service gravel back-in with picnic table. Laundry, bathhouse, playground, gift shop, ice - and you can walk to town to a large variety of tourist shops and restaurants. The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is less than two blocks away.

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