Awhile ago, my parents were looking to buy a cabin, they perused Tahoe and us kids were excited. Then they came and told us they bought a cabin in Island Park, ID. Whaa...? The Cyclist and I (finally) made our first trip 4 years ago. We've been back every year since.....and we got married there. Thank you Ironparents, for buying a cabin in our favorite place on Earth.
If you are not familiar with IP, it is about 20 miles from West Yellowstone, MT. Although there are many special things about this place, one of my favorites is the animals we see, in and out of the park, in their own environment, doing their own thing. Seeing an animal this way is a hard thing to explain until you experience it yourself....but it is pretty awesome. My favorite are the Moose, which we have been lucky enough to see every year (but never once in the park). This is also Grizzly country, we've seen these guys too, but only from afar and we have yet to capture them on film. Lucky for you, my mom has managed to get a few photos though.
Let's check out some of what we've seen....
Look a Moose! Just kidding. This is our dog, Downtown Otis Brown.
OK, for real now....
Bald Eagle. This guy's nest is right near the West entrance to Yellowstone.
We were lucky enough to see him on our first trip to the park.
Buffalo. These guys are usually a dime a dozen in the park.
Except last year, when they were all hiding over in Grand Teton National Park.
Their size is incredible.
This year, there were so many, we started to get bored of them. Check out this herd....
...there were also lots of babies this year. Not just buffalo babies, but all kinds of babies...
...here are some of the buffalo variety...
Also seen frequently in the park are Elk...
...our first year we saw this coyote from afar (everything is much bigger up there)...
...here's a little guy...
(Chipmunk)
I saw this moose on a bike ride....
...and onto the best named animal of the group - Yellow Bellied Marmot...
...here is a raggedy deer we saw on one of our first days this year...
...this is a Pronged Horned Antelope. They like to hang with the cattle...
...this was awesome...
...Big Horn Sheep. We actually saw these guys on our way home from Bozeman (Costco).
They were right in the road...
At our honeymoon spot, there were deer everywhere, but this little one came right into the yard to say hi one morning...
...we took this photo from inside the cabin...
On our way home from the honeymoon, The Cyclist and I were lucky enough to see this...
...Mama & Baby Moose trying to cross the river...
...too deep!
Here are some bear photos my mom was able to get...
And more recently, a Moose started to hang out around my parent's cabin....
I'm not sure if the one above is the same one that decided to come really close and hang around for about 2 hours the other day. Check her out....
Just so you get the idea of how close she is, the picture above is taken through the window, it's the screen you can see making it look blurry.
Here is a different angle...
Pretty cool!
Anyway, if you ever get to this area of the country, please enjoy the animals in their natural state. Don't get super close (unless you can't avoid it like above) and please don't ever feed the animals. If I catch you, you will hear it from me!
Unfortunately you see this a lot, especially inside Yellowstone. People think they are in a zoo or something, hence the gentlemen who got mauled by Mama Grizzly recently because he wanted to get close to her cubs. As amazing as it is to see all of these guys in the wild, what is most important is to respect them and their space. I am stepping off the soapbox now. I hope you enjoyed our photos!
I love these photos...the one peering through our window is a female (hence no antlers)and we've taken to calling her Bridget. The one with the antlers (male) is Bridger...we haven't seen either of them in a week or so..but I'm sure they will be back!
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