Nature (sort of)...

I got an email asking if we saw any wildlife while in Wyoming.  While the area is home to everything from wolves to bears to elk to moose, we saw surprisingly few animals during our ten days in the Tetons.  And by "few" I really mean "next to nothing".  In fact, the only animal we DID see with any certainty were bison.

 

Here let me show you a picture:

 

 

See them on the little rise in the ground in the middle of the image?  Just to the left of the three trees?  No?  Well, let me zoom in a bit for you:

 

 

How about now?

 

Trevor assured me at the time that all those tiny brown specks were, indeed, buffalo.  I wasn't convinced until we finally passed one that had wondered a little closer to highway 191 on our way to Moose. 

 

Oh, myopia.  You fickle b*tch.

 

Ironically, our lack of animal sightings meant that we actually saw more last year in Durango than we did after 10 days driving around Jackson Hole, Teton National Park and Yellowstone.  I still can't believe my first moose sighting was in southwestern Colorado near the Ice Lakes trailhead last summer.  Because, what?

 

Also, I can't seem to find it in any of my blog postings from last year, but we saw a black bear run across the road while driving through Hermosa (right where the railroad tracks cross 550) at dusk.  And by "we" I mean "Trevor" because I notice nothing.  Even when it is right in front of me.  I like to think of it as my very own completely useless superpower.  Just call me Captain Oblivious.

 

But back to animal sightings (or the lack thereof) in Wyoming...

 

Technically, we heard coyotes one night (and the death screams of whatever prey they took down), but I'm choosing not to count them since I also hear them periodically yipping about while sleeping in my bed at home in the middle of urban Dallas.

 

Which leaves the bat I spotted outside the ladies room in Teton Village and the few chipmunks I saw dart across the road while driving.  Not necessarily the wildlife safari I always expected from that part of the country, but I'm not complaining.  Why?  Because 19 month olds seem a lot like bait.  And nothing says "trolling for grizzlies" like a toddler covered in honey and peanut butter.