Long driving day today, down to Pocatello. We left Mammoth about 8:30, had a “McMuffin” for breakfast from the Grille (uninspiring). We would drive the length of the park down to Jackson. More exciting wildlife sightings would be in store! First, not far down the road, we saw the same three grizzlies that we saw yesterday! Such interesting colors! I didn’t get photos because I couldn’t get off the road due to all the gawkers, but it was the same three as yesterday!
Shortly thereafter we were held up for quite a few minutes by
a very large herd of buffalo rambling lazily down the middle of the road. They could
care less that they were holding up traffic.
Shortly after that we came upon the most exciting sighting
of the day – we were literally seconds behind the birth of a buffalo calf! We
got to see the mom lick the calf clean and help it up to its first standing
position!
It occurred to us today that nearly every sighting we
enjoyed would not have been possible if someone else hadn’t seen it first!
We stopped at the closed visitor center in Jackson for our
picnic lunch, watching the new hatchlings of a Canada Goose getting their first
taste of water. Cute, until they grow up!
We headed south on Rt 89 and turned east on a “short cut”
our GPS suggested on Rt 34. What a beautiful route! Up to a pretty high
altitude with lush farm land on the plateau. Then down into Soda Springs with
its massive piles of Phosphates produced by Simplot and Bayer for fertilizer.
We arrived in Pocatello by 5:30 and our room at the Clarion
In ( we used our points). Quite a nice place, actually! Dinner at Applebees’
next door.
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