West Yellowstone, Montana // 20 September
As it was Claire’s Roth day this week she got to pick something special to do. She choose the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center which is a rescue and education center. They have grizzly bears, wolves and birds of prey who are no longer able to be released to the wild. The bears generally have been taken in due to becoming used to foraging for food near humans (once they learn bins are an easy target they make a frequent habit). The wolves are in packs, though may have been injured or been forced out of their territory by another more aggressive pack. And the birds of prey have injuries that prevent them from hunting on the wild. It was incredible to see these animals up close. The grizzlies are kept stimulated by testing new containers and methods for ‘bear-proofing’ bins.
After the Discovery Center and checking out West Yellowstone village we headed to Norris Geyser area via Beryl Spring, the Artist Paintpots, and a little hot spring Robin spotted on the roadside.
Beryl Spring…
Artist’s Paintpots…
’Secret’ hot spring…
Norris Geyser basin… This area has so many huge steam vents and one of the biggest geysers, Steamboat, which erupts around 100m into the air. Unfortunately it’s very unpredictable. We saw it spurting and steaming away and turns out it had a major eruption about a month after we’d been there! It was a really interesting area to explore but the kiddos weren’t too impressed by the excess of very sulphur-y smelling steam.
