And now for something completely different.

The morning of June 25th, I woke up early as usual, and as usual had no idea why I was awake. There must be some reason this keeps happening. Anyhow, this is our second morning in Yellowstone. A great campsite, the Norris campground which is near to the Norris Geyser Basin, situated in the forest, with a rambling stream and meadow below. Picturesque, as is everything in the amazing bizarre place.
So here I was awake. The temperature made it up to 40F by 6am. Like yesterday, I decided to take advantage of this time up and look for wildlife to photograph. Early morning and evening is a good time to see animals. An owl was still warbling off in the distance.
Running next to our site to the back is a path that leads to a small amphitheater on the hillside overlooking the meadow and stream, and eventually if you stay on the path it will take you to a trail that leads down to the stream. I thought that would be a perfect place to go picture hunting.
I glanced at the tent as I walked by, making sure the kids were still asleep, and took the shortcut through the back of our site.
I looked about as I walked, wondering if I'd see the mule deer again. Nice cool morning. I stopped for a moment a step away from the path. I thought I had seen something moving in the trees across the path from me. I studied the spot and noticed tendrils of mist weaving through the undergrowth. I was about to walk forward, but something seemed not quite right. A few feet to the left of the mist I saw a large patch of inky black a few feet above the ground, in between the trees, just above a bush. I froze. I had the impression of shagginess and for the first half second thought it was a black bear. But in the next split second as I completely focused on the shape, I had a bit of a shock. An eye stared straight into mine. My sight sharpened further and I saw above the eye a sharp curved horn.
A bison! Right there in front of me! And I knew I was not the recommended 50 yards away from him. More like ten feet away!
He stood there, placidly chewing, watching me.
Oh dear.
I backed up very slowleee. I said, "sorry to disturb you." I turned around and carefully walked back through our site. I noted how close he was to our spot and to the tent where my kids slept.
After reaching a safe distance I watched him and took a couple pictures. Matt was snoozing in the car and I told him about the bison. Still wanting to take my walk down the stream trail, I checked tosee if the coast was clear. No luck. Still there. I walked to the nearby site and watched him. The bison began to move through the trees, walking paralell to me. Then he walked up onto the path itself! He walked to the trail I had wanted to take. I could feel his hooves hitting the earth through my feet and he blew out his breath, snorted, huffed, sounding like a huge bear-bison. All I could think was Wow. Talk about impressive and indtimidating. What a huge animal! Thank goodness he was in a good mood. He walked down the trail and out of sight. So much for my walk!















I decide to take pictures of nice, pretty wildflowers instead.