We get up at 6.30AM, a brutal start but we’re keen to improve our chances of seeing animals - although we’re a bit groggy when we leave the apartment, it’s only a short journey over Gardiner’s bridge before we at the gates of Yellowstone National Park. As we drive through, it’s clear that we made the right decision as the sky is on fire with pinks and deep purples - the sunrise is staggering and only can be conveyed so much by our cameras.
We drive on through the park, heading towards the Lamar Valley which seems to be the best place for seeing some of Yellowstone’s selection of mammals, including bison, elk, moose and the elusive grey wolf. Bears are also resident in Yellowstone, but given the time of year it seems unlikely we’ll encounter any. About thirty minutes into our drive, we crest a rise in the road and see several cars parked up in a siding - the reason for this is that a herd of what must be over one hundred bison are plodding their way around the cars, heading back up the way we’ve just come from. They are huge, ponderous things, with shaggy fur and a pair of significantly sized horns - at least significant from my vantage point. The bison pass right by the car as they move on by, and whilst their sheer size is impressive enough, the quantity and proximity makes this feel like a pretty special encounter.
With the bison on their way, we continue on through the park, only moving a few kilometres before suddenly stopping again - a large group of tourists with significant telephoto lenses and scopes are all searching furiously on the far side of the valley, a sure sign of an animal. We don’t have much in the way of magnification gear, but we stop to see if we can spot any movement - we don’t, unfortunately, but we can clearly hear the howls of wolfs off on a distant slope. It’s exciting to imagine that these animals, that were only reintroduced to Yellowstone recently, are finding a place out in the frozen hills.
Eventually, we arrive at the Lamar Valley trailhead and get our hiking gear on - it is bitterly cold, well below freezing, and I’m struggling to keep my hands warm even with my gloves and coat. Toes feel icy in our boots and the wind seems to cut through all our layers as we trace to path of the Lamar River through the valley. We quickly come across a significant herd of bison scattered across our path - the advice says to leave two bus lengths between you and a bison, and as we watch their blank, bovine stares and occasional movements towards us as we near, I can see why. Bison, it seems, can be quite territorial around humans with several documented attacks over the last few years - not wishing to tackle over a ton of angry buffalo, we decide to give them a very wide berth and clamber up a hill before carrying on.
We keep walking on deeper into the valley and whilst it’s a particularly serene place at this time in the morning, it quickly becomes clear that we’re not going to meet much more in the way of wildlife so we start to turn back after ninety minutes or so. This takes us to (and around) the same large herd we passed before, as they have continued their own journey along the river, whilst we follow a different trail back to the road. We realise, as we get close to the river itself, that the trail is probably meant for horse riders and summer horse riders at that, as the trail clear requires us to cross a not-quite-entirely iced over ford before we can climb up out of the valley. We cross with gentle steps, one at a time, with the occasional creak and groan of ice focussing our minds on getting to the other side. Icy plunges into a fast flowing river avoided, we climb up the opposite bank and hear distant barking - at first it sounds like a pack of dogs, but the barking is interspersed with long howls - it turns out this mix of barking and howling is the sound of coyote somewhere up in the surrounding hills.
We decide to slowly head back towards Gardiner to see if we can see anything else - on the way we pick out another trail and decide to stretch our legs again. This requires a quick U-turn in the car and we overshoot the edge of the road, obscured in snow, which leads us to having two tires spinning uselessly on compacted snow and ice. We try to free ourselves but more movement just leads to us dragging the car along the road at an angle, so I leap out to push. In a true demonstration of American goodwill, I’m quickly joined by three or four passers-by who give advice, help push and eventually get us back on the road. It’s hard not to be moved by the willingness and immediacy with which people help each other here - it leaves me wondering how a similar situation would have unfolded back at home.
With the car back in action, we head back up the road to the start of the Blacktail trail which should take us over some small hills and into a river valley a few miles away. We head out without our snowshoes, as the way - from the road - seems to be pretty clear and leads us right past a couple of elk stags perched helpfully on a small rise. After some pictures, we carry on up the first big hill only to find that the snow is much, much deeper on the following sides. I push on in my boots, trying to make some progress, but after an hour or so we both agree this is pointless without the right kit.
So we head back again, turned away from a trail two times in one day, and head back to the car, stopping in the Park town of Mammoth Hot Springs to see if there are any other hikes worth completing whilst we’re here. A kindly ranger - who immediately recognises our accents as he has family in the UK - suggests the nearby Beaver Ponds loop, but we spot a larger route and ask if it would be possible to tack this on. He confirms it would be, quite nonchalantly, so we plan to do this tomorrow, given our frustrations today, with the possibility of another night in Gardiner if the going is tough.
Arriving back in town, we decide to grab an early dinner at a local cafe - which is pretty good, despite the painfully strong cowboy themed interior - and then head back to Livingston to catch a movie aft the theatre we’d spotted yesterday. We drive the hour back out of the mountains, arriving quite early, so we head to a local bar that had been recommended to us - as we chat, we notice a lone woman at the bar who seems a bit worse for wear and we’re stunned when we see her get into her car and drive around the block to a Mexican restaurant (so stunned in fact, that my companion heads into the restaurant to warn them she’s probably had enough, although we’re not sure they’re too bothered).
After a brisk walk around town, both in terms of speed and temperature, we head to the movies to watch the recent Spider-Man - which is really great, for anybody wondering - and then get in the car to head back. This journey compounds our most exciting car-based day so far, as we have to dodge several elk that decide to throw themselves in front of that car a number of times on our way back to the hotel.