caligirl56

What wildlife will be in the Lamar Valley, in Yellowstone, at the very end of August?

I'm planning way ahead--for August 2009 (sounds like I need to get the reservations soon though)!

I am considering getting reservations at the Roosevelt Lodge, for the last 2 days of August. This would mainly be so that we can easily go out to the Lamar Valley to view wildlife at dusk and dawn.

After doing a bit of research, I'm trying to figure out which animals would actually be there at that time of year.

Sounds like the elk might have gone to higher elevations. And the wolves will have followed. Maybe also the grizzlies.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

sharondi

You should see plenty of wildlife. We spent 10 days in YNP/Tetons in early Sept '06 and had an amazing trip. We spent 6 nights (2 nights each in OFI, Mammoth & Canyon) in YNP and could've stayed longer.

We had a grizz sighting our first full day there, right along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/67839325

http://www.pbase.com/peterb/image/67839330

In Lamar we saw many coyotes, herds of bison and pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk, osprey and lots of bald eagles. Saw wolves in Hayden Valley along with another grizzly (feeding on a bison carcass - so cool!) Saw many black bear and cubs, a cinnamon-colored bear just hanging out under a tree at a restroom.

We thoroughly enjoyed the daily antics of the rutting elk. A bunch of elk hang out at Mammoth - they are all over the place and the rowdy males are bugling and charging and causing all kinds of trouble. It's highly entertaining.

Roosevelt was closed when we were there but it has great access to Lamar - it's a great choice. I hope you have a few nights at Old Faithful - walking the boardwalk through the geysers pre-dawn was surreal! And we loved the Norris Geyser Basin - some bizarre thermal features there! You are going to have an amazing trip. If you click on my screen name and scroll down a ways (134+) you'll see our Yellowstone Trip Report and link to pictures. You can also find it by searching on Yellowstone Trip Report. Enjoy!

Everywhere we turned, we saw wildlife.

caligirl56

sharondi,
Thanks so much. That's really encouraging.

Love your pictures and trip report! Too bad our trip is over a year away--this all makes me want to go right now!

I think we will have to move our trip to the very very end of August--because as you already noted, the Roosevelt Lodge is not open in September. We will be driving down from Glacier National Park. So we will spend our first two nights at Roosevelt, and then the last four at Old Faithful Inn.

sharondi

caligirl56,
Your plan sounds great - staying in the north and south sides of YNP is perfect.

When traveling around the park, be sure and stop at pull-offs where you see folks looking thru their binoculars or spotting scopes. That's how we spotted the wolves and black bear cubs.

Glacier is another gem of a park - lots of awesome hikes there. I spent a summer working there about 20 yrs ago (wow! can't believe it was that long ago!) and I hiked all over the place. Even lived in the park so I got to know it pretty well. Just a gorgeous place. Both parks have a healthy grizzly population although I never saw a single grizz in Glacier during 4+months but saw 2 in YNP within a few days. Amazing. Have a great trip.

justme22

the sept 06 trip sounds like my sept 07 trip! I based myself in the lake area (the only res i could get except for canyon but canyon is such a busy area - so i opted for the south) I also stayed in gardiner as a base for wildlife watching.

I saw grizzly in lamar, pronghorn in lamar and on the access road from gardiner, bison everywhere, elk mostly near the madison and firehole rivers, coyote in lamar, wolves in hayden valley, i did not see black bear that trip. mountain sheep and deer again on the way in from gardiner. bald eagle yellowstone lake.

roosevelt closes labor day weekend. enjoy

caligirl56

Thanks so much. The only problem with planning a trip so far in advance is that we're all excited and ready to go RIGHT NOW!!! We don't want to wait almost a year and a half! Yellowstone sounds amazing.