Megafauna East.

If you want to see lots of wildlife and lots of large animals, the American West has that championship tied up. The selection of large creatures and vast numbers of animals here on the eastern side of the USA is rather limited by comparison. Unless or until efforts are made to repatriate species that are now vanished from our landscape, there are few places where you can be guaranteed to see such animals.

I've mentioned before that Florida and other parts of the American deep south are great for large animals and species diversity. But if you're not in that part of the country and you want to look elsewhere, then the best option for you would be the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

For species diversity in general, there are few places on the entire planet as solid as the Great Smokies. You could spend an entire lifetime exploring the slopes of those mountains searching out and identifying the dizzying array of flora. In fact, some botanists indeed spend their careers there doing just that.

The animal life there is also impressive. It's one of the few places in southern Appalachia where I can generally depend on being able to view lots of wildlife and lots of larger animals. Because of the elk reintroduction a visitor to the Park can now see these huge deer in various parts of the Smokies. One section of the area was chosen for reintroduction and now they have spread out into other parts of the Park. On visiting Cataloochee you can pretty much guarantee being  able to spot them in the fields and meandering in the deep  forests.

The west has both brown and black bears. We don't have Griz here, but we do have plenty of black bears and if there is one place you can see them, it's inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In fact, it's hard to make an extended trip to the Park and not see bears.

While mountain lions have yet to repopulate this part of the country, you can sometimes spot bobcats inside the Smokies protected boundaries. Until the puma is repatriated, bobcats are the biggest wild feline you'll spot here. Also sometimes seen in the woods here are both gray and red foxes. And, while they may not have been historically part of the ecosystem, coyotes have populated the mountains in good numbers and have filled the niche formerly occupied by Timber wolves and Red wolves. Contrary to negative propaganda inspired by gun owners, the presence of coyotes is a great sign for the Smokies.

One can sometimes get tired of seeing white-tailed deer in the forests, farmlands, and  even citiscapes of the east. But I still get a kick out of seeing them in the Smokies. They're actually not as common inside the Park as they are outside of it, since they have adapted so well to living alongside humans. To me, white-tailed deer in the Park are still a sign of wilderness.

One animal that is not welcome in the Park but which has firmly established itself is the Wild hog. These are largely descendants of European boars brought into the area to supply nearby hunting preserves before and shortly after the Park was formed. These are non-native animals and have created many of the problems one associates with invasive species. Still, it can sometimes be a thrill to spot one of these alien creatures in the deep forests.

A couple of other large animals that have been reintroduced to the Smokies are Northern river otters and beavers. Both of these were hunted relentlessly until they were gone from most of the southern Appalachians, but have now been encouraged to return. Neither are common in the Park, but you can spy them from time to time if you know where to go and are careful and quiet.

I'm hoping that at some time there will be an effort to reintroduce the American bison to the Great Smoky Mountains. They, too, were exterminated and should be allowed to return. But the Park is now closed tightly in by communities with lots of people and lots of development. This is a severe and ongoing problem for the Park. The people who now live so close to the boundaries in large numbers would likely balk at the idea of returning North America's largest land animal to the forests and fields here. But maybe it can happen.

Also, I feel certain that the Mountain lion will--on its own--come back to this part of eastern North America. If that happens before I die, I'd love to see one stalking through our southern Appalachian forests.

For a complete list of the mammals of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you can look here.

It's not a Red wolf, but close enough. Coyotes have colonized the Park.

This is why big animals can come back here...plenty of wild habitat.

A bull elk I photographed in the Park.

A herd of elk at rest in a field in Cataloochee.

I still find it sometimes hard to believe that the elk have returned.

Turkey were hard to see when I was a kid visiting the Park. Now they're very, very common. These I photographed while at the Sugarlands Visitor Center.

Turkey flock in Cataloochee. They browse side by side with the elk.

I cheated a little here. I photographed this black bear in Virginia, but even as grainy as this photo turned out (both the bear and I were surprised to see one another), it's better than any of my bear photos taken in the Smokies.

I got this photo of this regal buck in Cades Cove.

White-tailed deer in the snow in Cades Cove two winters ago.

Bison bull in South Dakota. I hope to see these creatures repatriated to the southern Appalachians some day.

Black Hills of SD.

We had decided during the planning stages of the trip to stay two nights at Custer State Park in South Dakota. This would give us a chance to rest during the long drive, and for Carole to see Mount Rushmore. I wasn't that high on seeing Rushmore, but Carole has always wanted to see it, so it was on the list of stops. Now that I have seen it, I am very glad that we did take the time to go. This is the way it usually is with places Carole wants to see--initially I am either reluctant to see them, or only mildly interested. But like other National Monuments, this one was spectacular, educational, and inspirational.

The biggest reason I am glad that we stopped at Custer is because it's the only place we got a chance to see big animals. Bighorn sheep, bison, mule deer, elk, mountain goats. Custer doesn't have bears, though. The big predator in the park is the mountain lion which a ranger told us is fairly common; but we didn't spot one.

Custer State Park straddles the highest of the Black Hills, which is a pretty darned impressive mountain range. The highest summit in the Black Hills (Harney Peak) is in the park (it's also the highest peak in South Dakota). So the terrain was a lot more rugged and imposing than I had figured it would be. The weather was unseasonably cool while we were there. It rained heavily during our entire journey through the state, so we figured we'd see a lot of rain in Glacier National Park, also. Alas, it was not to be. The rain we experienced in South Dakota would have completely extinguished the fires in Montana. Alas!

We would all like to return to Custer for an extended stay--maybe a week or so. That way I could see more wildlife and could have the time to hike some of the many miles of trails in the park.

More Black Hills photos and details tomorrow...

As soon as we entered the park, there was a bison jam. Traffic stopped for the big critters. Most of these seemed to be licking the mud along the roadside. I will assume that there is salt residue there from spreading of road salt during winter storms.

Our campsite at Custer. Power hookups, but not for water. They had bathhouses with hot showers. Andy forgot to completely zip up the door to his tent and during the night when a rainstorm struck he had to come inside and sleep in the trailer.

The bison herd in Custer State Park is at about 1300 animals.

We spotted pronghorn, also.

Andy in a cave from which a big spring emerges.

The aptly named Needles. This is where it was first proposed that the carvings that eventually became Mount Rushomore should be built. I'm glad this area was spared.

There are two tunnels like this in the park. This is why you have to be careful which roads you use if pulling a travel trailer or driving a big motorhome.

"What you lookin' at, human?"

A baby Mountain goat with its mother.

Continued tomorrow....

Vacation!

Well, we're headed out for vacation. Fortunately we don't have to board the cats this year because Andy is staying home to take care of them. Huzzah!

Just a few photos more here from our trip last summer to Yellowstone. It occurred to me as I stood on a high bluff above Hayden Valley looking down on the herds of bison that this is as close as a human can get to seeing Pleistocene North America. Most of our megafauna are extinct now, and the day is on the horizon when they'll all be gone, but for now you can get a glimmer of what it was once like.

Be sure to click on the panorama shot, as it displays the valley and just a part of the massive herds of American bison who live there today.

There I was, at last. Looking down on Hayden Valley, seeing the huge herds of bison living pretty much as they have for hundreds of thousands of years.

The rut hadn't quite started, but this bull was already making it plain that this cow was on his turf.

This bull was dusting up in a dry wallow.

Forgot to Post this One

When Carole and I were staying at Canyon Village in Yellowstone we decided to walk from our cabin to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I took the smaller of our two digital cameras along. "You never know what we might see," I explained.

After we ate we were walking back to our cabin. These cabins were apparently put in place either in the 60s or 70s. They're pre-fab buildings that are pretty plain, both inside and out, but are functional and comfortable and they're in a really nice part of the park. A bit long in the tooth, they need to be painted or re-stained. There are a lot of them and the lodging is situated in a maze of little streets. It's a pretty peaceful and quiet spot.

As we were getting close to our cabin we looked ahead to see an adult bison walking along the front of one of the other cabins calmly grazing on grass. We stopped to take his photo and then went on, being careful not to get too close.

Here he was:


I'm glad I took the camera along with us to dinner. My advice when one is in Yellowstone is to never be without a camera.

Animals We Encountered

One of the main reasons I went to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons was to view the wildlife. It's one of the finest relatively intact set of ecosystems in the lower 48 States. We were not disappointed. We witnessed more wildlife roaming free and essentially wild than I have seen since I cruised around the Okefenokee Swamp some years back. We experienced more large wild native mammals over our days in the Parks than at any other time in our lives. Here's a brief accounting of only some of the creatures we were able to photograph.

This was the only black bear we saw on the trip. It was high on Signal Mountain. Everyone thought it was a griz, but it was actually a brown-phase black bear. I think it was in the midst of shedding its summer coat and growing in its winter one. It never raised its head the whole time we were watching and was intent only on eating the berries growing all around it.

Click on this stitched panorama. It was taken of a set of bison herds in Hayden Valley. The bison are quite a lot of fun to watch. One must be careful, though, for they can be very temperamental. We went during the rut and a lot of the males were highly aggressive.

We saw several baby grouse as we were hiking out of the forest near one of the geyser basins. They were intent on feeding and seemed oblivious of the humans standing over them.

This was the parent of the grouse chicks. Unlike the young, she was very upset to see us arrive.


This was the first of the Grizzly bears that I saw. This one was in a field some distance away as I was getting ready to hike to the summit of Avalanche Peak in the eastern side of Yellowstone. This bear did not want anything to do with us and it vanished into a ravine before I could get any really good photographs. Good Grizzly bear!


I photographed this osprey with our old pocket camera as we were rafting down the Yellowstone River out of Gardner Montana.

I think Carole took this one. She got caught inside a herd of elk that was crossing the path to get across the road at Mammoth Springs.

This is the only bald eagle that we saw on the trip. It was flying around a high butte on which we were standing above Lake Yellowstone.

I could watch the bison all day. This one was rolling about in a wallow, kicking up the dust.

I took this one because the ravens in the Park are just so damned huge! This particular bird was walking around eating the bugs out of the grills of automobiles in the parking lot.

This bull elk had the best rack we saw on the trip. Still in velvet, he was very careful not to let his antlers touch the pine tree limbs as he walked beneath it.

These were bighorn sheep--ewes and kids on Mount Washburn.

I really wanted to see Pronghorn antelope. We didn't see one until we hit Lamar Valley, which was my favorite part of the park (which I'll explain in a later post).

This osprey family had its nest on a rock pinnacle in Tower Canyon. The mother had delivered a big fish just before I took this shot.

Carole wanted to see a moose more than any other animal. On our next-to-last day we finally saw three of them. Here are two of the three. They were really chowing down on the green stuff beside the Snake River.

Overview of Yellowstone National Park (My 1000th Blog Post)

OK.

We've been home for a whole day, now. Thank Jove I took today off, too. Just to recover from that long jet ride back to Charlotte! Going out wasn't so bad, but then I wasn't run ragged from hiking every single day.

What I'll try to do right now is get down my basic impressions before I get into too much detail.

First of all, I can see why so many western hikers/rock climbers/backpackers/kayakers that I meet are so smug about the South and the East. In a nutshell, what constitutes a state or even National Park here in the East is what's in most people's freaking back yards in the western states. I can understand their attitudes about our natural areas here. I always understood that it was different in the west, but now that I've experienced it I can see where that air of superiority comes from.

The western wild lands are vast!!!

That's the feeling you get almost everywhere you go. It's Big Sky country, for damned sure. It really hit home to me when I got up above tree line on my hike to the summit of Avalanche Peak (10,568 feet above sea level). I've hiked tougher peaks here in the South, for sure. I've hiked many such peaks that have far more elevation between base and summit here in the east, too. What was different was that once you're on the top of this 10K-foot peak, you are surrounded by miles and miles and miles and more miles of other such peaks. Above timberline terrain in almost every direction you look. And far away you can see peaks that loom to 11,000 feet and higher, on up to 13K+ feet!


It's amazing!

And the other thing about Yellowstone is its size. It's enormous. And the variation from one section of the park to another was also surprising. Each quadrant was so much more diverse from the one before. I didn't know what to expect as I drove from one corner of the park to the next--every bend in the road and every walk into a valley or onto a summit brought a new kind of ecosystem to view. It was breathtaking.

I have to mention, of course, the wildlife. It was everywhere. And it's the only place I've ever been where large mammals are commonplace. With no fences or manmade barriers (other than roads) to hinder their movements. Of the large animals in the park I saw many. A brief count:

2 grizzly bears
1 black bear
8 black tail deer
1 coyote
3 moose
8 bighorn sheep
dozens of pronghorn antelope
scores of elk
thousands of bison (yes, thousands!)


We saw many birds, including Sandhill cranes, osprey, a bald eagle, huge ravens, trumpeter swans, and others.

Only the grizzly bears seemed disturbed by the presence of human beings. Of the two grizzlies that I saw, one left as soon as it became aware of me, and the other was fast asleep and at a great distance. Everything else we saw were creatures who appear to be only mildly suspicious of humans. It was nice to be able to photograph these animals at relatively close range. But we obeyed all Park regulations and did our best to keep our distance from everything we saw.

I can understand why the geyser basins and the thermal features are so fascinating to most park visitors. There's nothing like this in the Eastern side of our continent. Almost everywhere you drive or hike there are all kinds of active volcanic formations. Geysers are around, as are hot springs and mudpots and fumaroles. It was both exciting and frightening to stand before gaping caverns that literally roared, belching sulfurous hot fumes and expelling boiling water. You have to see this. The nation is lucky to have such a place. I am glad and happy and satisfied to have finally seen so much of this magical park.

Later, I'll write some details of our trip. We hiked every day. I doubt a single day passed where I failed to hike at least three or four miles, although I don't think I covered more than eleven at the most in a single day. We took a long raft trip on the Yellowstone River that was a great experience, too.

The only negative thing I have to say about the Park is that some of the lodging centers and geyser basins are just too goddamned crowded! We stayed two nights at Old Faithful Lodge Cabins and I sincerely wish that I'd booked rooms elsewhere. The huge numbers of human beings in that place are just too much to tolerate. I'd been told that I could have avoided these crowds by booking our trip for the early to middle part of September, but I was getting stir crazy from the lack of hiking time this year and I couldn't bear to wait any longer. Plus, I wanted to be sure that the weather was still going to be warm enough for rafting trips and dips in the rivers and lakes.

If you make it to Yellowstone and want to stay in the park, my recommendations are these:

Canyon Village Cabins. Great little cabins with good facilities.
Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge. (Don't use their cabins unless you enjoy staying in places where you can hear everything your neighbors say through paper-thin walls.)

No lodging in the Park was really bad...but some places were less than desirable for various reasons. All of the lodging at Old Faithful was tainted by the almost endless, horrid crowds and heavy traffic of everything from bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, RVs, and tour buses and freight trucks. Go see the geysers early in the day and otherwise avoid this area during peak tourist season.