So there was no pre breakfast drive this morning and instead we had an early breakfast before heading out for the day. On our way back from breakfast we were lucky enough to see a jack rabbit jumping around on the hillside. A jack rabbit is a hare with massive ears!

After our jack rabbit siting, we layered up and started our day. We had literally driving to the outskirts of Mammoth when we saw a black bear walking around towards the river so we stopped and enjoyed our own personal bear viewing before moving on to the Lamar Valley. When we arrived in the valley we went to view a wolf den and were lucky enough to see two little pups and an adult wolf (probably a male) playing around the den! While we were here we were also luckily enough to see a coyote up close and personal and it just strolled straight past us probably only a metre away and this happened not only once but twice.

From here we drove further down the valley and stopped to see a pack of wolves in the distance behind a herd of bison so we waited and watched to see if there was going to be any action. And that's when it got really exciting!! The wolves initially were just lying down looking like rocks, occasionally moving or flicker their tails/ ears and sometimes looking up. But just as we started our lunch (which wasn't quite as I had expected as they had forgotten to actually make my sandwich so I was given 2 slices of bread, peanut butter tub and a strawberry jam tub but nothing to make the sandwich with!) the wolves started howling and playing and then they began to move on through the valley. So we tracked all 7 wolves (some grey, some black and probably part of the Brutte Junction pack). We saw the wolves walking across the valley with a wounded wolf bringing up the rear (we called him Limpy). To begin with the wolves were just walking and then one tried to take on a bison which was quite fun. Then as the wolves walked on they headed towards a bison herd. All the bison stood up and surrounded the young and stared at the wolf. The wolves then started chasing but not the big bison herd they ran straight past this and up towards a smaller herd, all the bison started to run trying to protect the red dogs (baby bison) as they went. It was really interesting watching the wolf behaviour and actually seeing them chase the bison was really fun to watch. The wolves then disappeared for a while before making an appearance further up along the road.

After a couple of hours we left the wolf and went in search of more wildlife. On our way to stopped to look at an osprey nest and saw the osprey sitting in it. As we drove we saw lots of cars parked up so we stopped to look at got a quick sighting of a brown bear hiding in the grass. But more exciting we saw great horned owl owlets in their nest. It was super cute and reminded me of the Owl Babies story.

After seeing the owls we drove to Tower. On our way we saw bighorn sheep crossing the road. When we arrived in Tower we admired the waterfall and I enjoyed a tub of moose tracks ice cream! Yummy yum yum! From here we drove back to see the owl babies and the bear. Although the bear was hiding the babies were standing outside their nest so we got a perfect view.

We then started to make our way back to Mammoth when we heard that there was a moose in the woods. So we parked up and walked up the road and saw a moose lying in the woods. First of all I mistook the moose for a tree stump, something that I have quite often done is mistaken a tree stump for an animal but this is the first time I have done it round his way round.

After our moose sighting we drove back to the hotel only stopping for a bison jam and a bear jam where we saw the bear earlier.

When we got back to our cabins we had some dinner before heading out again. After dinner we went for a walk around Mammoth looking at the mineral deposits/flats and while we were there we spotted another jackrabbit and lots of kildeer. After looking at the flat we walked around Mammoth a bit more before heading back to our cabins ready for another early start in the morning.