October 3

I was up early and it was still dark. When I drove through the North Entrance, I was surprised to find a ranger already in the booth. It stayed dark all the way to Mammoth. From there I took the road south to Norris, still dark, with fog in a few spots. By Norris Junction the dawn was starting: orange on the horizon, shading up into dark. Sunrise is my favorite part of the day. A new day, a new adventure. This one looked like a watercolor.

Then the 12 miles from Norris to Canyon. I was almost to Canyon, coming down into the meadow outside the junction, when a great gray owl flew across the road in front of me. I've wanted to see one for a long time. I pulled over, rolled down the window and watched it land on top of a dead tree.

I didn't pick up the camera. It was like the scene in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty where Walter finally catches up with Sean Penn's photographer out in the wild, his lens on a snow leopard. Walter asks when he's going to take the picture. "Sometimes I don't." When a moment is that good, he'd rather be in it than shoot it.

After a few minutes the owl flew off. Then I grabbed the camera and walked out into the meadow looking for it. No luck.

From Canyon I went down through Hayden Valley to Fishing Bridge and on to Bay Bridge. There were a bunch of elk along the way and mist all over the Yellowstone River. Most of Hayden was fogged in, so I didn't see much. Bay Bridge Campground was closed, but a few cars were parked at the gate, and I knew owls had been spotted there. I took the camera and walked in. I found some photographers with their gear all set up. We talked for a bit. They hadn't seen anything yet but were going to keep waiting. I walked back to the car.

On the way back to Gardiner I took Dunraven Pass since it was still open. I'm probably a few weeks past peak color, but it was still good. I didn't see anything else the rest of the way.

Back at the hotel I rested a while, then we went back out. We walked to Slide Lake to look for elk. No elk, but I found a rock that might be an agate. I'll ask Tyler. From Mammoth we drove out toward Tower, and just outside Tower there was a group of bighorn ewes. We went a little past Tower, turned around and headed into Lamar Valley. It was quiet the whole way. The cottonwoods were gold, a perfect day for the photo I've been wanting, and I didn't stop. Tomorrow.

We drove all the way to Pebble Creek Campground for dinner: ham sandwiches and potato salad. I looked up at the clearing past the campground and saw something dark moving. Through the binoculars it was a black bear, moving slowly across the clearing and eating whatever it could find before winter.

After dinner we came back through Slough Creek, where I caught a herd of bison crossing the river. Closer to Mammoth a coyote was working along the side of the road, looking for its own dinner. I got a snapshot but nothing better.

Back in Gardiner now. Not much excitement today, but it was still a day in Yellowstone.