We spent a lot of time looking at the waterfalls on the Yellowstone river which were the best I have seen, although memory is a funny thing and each one feels like the best, and then recedes in memory. They were definitely in the top five waterfalls ever! The Yellowstone river is broad, a beautiful greenish blue, and although swift flowing, it seems tranquil. Then there are two huge waterfalls and the river plummets down into a steeply banked ravine and wends its way out of sight, it really is like something from fiction, but even more spectacular. We walked to every view point available, and stood at the very top watching the water rushing over the top, we then climbed down a narrow metal staircase precariously attached to the sheer face of the gorge and saw the whole thing, with the spray from the impact filling the bottom with rainbows and clouds.
One evening we drove to the Lamar Valley to do some animal spotting. On the way we saw a huge grizzly bear up on the hillside. He was a magnificent creature, powerfully built, and a beautiful honey colour. We watched him for a long time, just admiring the grace of his movements and filled with awe at his size and obvious strength. He was close enough to see with a naked eye, even the hump on his back, but he was brilliant with binoculars, and I was rather glad he was no closer!
In the Lamar Valley, which is a wide broad valley which stretches on for miles and miles, and is filled with golden grassland, we saw thousands of Buffalo. It reminded me of children's books describing the plains of America and the Native Americans there were so many of them. There were calves as well as lots of grown ups, and again some of them were just amazing. They had shed most of their winter coats and so they looked more peculiar than normal, with enormous fronts, shaggy legs, shoulders to fit a young elephant, and humps on their backs, and their heads seemed to attach with no neck, and were the size to cover most of their shoulders. By comparison, their rear ends were almost hairless, and looked rather small and skinny. They made the most peculiar, very low pitched grumbling, roaring, gurgling noise, a little like snoring, (almost exactly like Totoro's deepest and loudest roar with more gurgle thrown in, for those of you who have seen the film*) and when they did so they displayed black tongues!
At the end of the Lamar Valley we joined a wolf spotting group, and sat on a knoll with binoculars seeing nothing for at least an hour. Finally some one said I have seen him, over there; which was followed by at least twenty minutes of: "I can't see him, where is he now?" "See that curve in the river bank, well above that there is a dead tree, and he's to the left of that." "Is he to the right of that branch that's sticking out?" "Oh now he's moved, hes moving to the right, near that pine tree." "I still can't find him, is he nearer or further away than the stream?" etc... You get the picture. He was too small to see with the naked eye, but I did finally get a good glimpse through the binoculars, and I was relieved that he looked decidedly woolflike and reassuringly bigger and blacker than a dog would have done.
*My Neighbour Totoro. BTW they have made a film called Arriette based on the Borrowers which has come out in the UK apparently, but wont be out in the states until next year - please someone see it for me, I am so disappointed I have to wait!
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