In all the visit’s we’ve made over the years to Yellowstone National Park, we’ve always seen plenty of wildlife. Though we’ve seen large mammals in all parts of the park, by far, we’ve seen the most along the eastern section of the Grand Loop Road.
Large numbers of buffalo can be seen from – and, often, on – the road in Hayden Valley, though we’ve seen them all along the route from Yellowstone Lake to where the road starts to climb towards Dunraven Pass. Bears and wolves can sometimes be seen in the same area, though we’ve yet to see a wolf and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a bear there. We have seen quite a few of the wolves’ younger cousins, the coyotes. From Dunraven Pass past Tower Falls, we’ve seen bighorn sheep a number of times.
There is a bit of thermal activity along this route. The lower potion lies within the bounds of the caldera of the Yellowstone super-volcano.
The lower part of the route follows the Yellowstone River, parting from it at Canyon Village and then returning to it near Tower Falls. At Canyon, the river tumbles over two falls, the Lower Falls the more spectacular of the two, as it thunders into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
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Yellowstone References and Resources:
Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs
- National Park Service
- Wikipedia
- UNESCO World Heritage Site
- National Geographic
- New York Times Travel Guide
- Wikitravel
- Gorp
- PBS
