March 14th - Oh My! The 1st bear sighted in Yellowstone

Bald Eagle, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone
As you have already read, I was in the first group to spot the earliest bear on Monday.
what a thrill!!! what a beautiful bear. What a bunch of crappy pictures I got!!!!!! Dang!
forgive me, I'm still learning to use the camera. I hadn't figured in the snow in the foreground that the camera was going to auto focus on. Oh well. You get "the picture".
That morning started out with finding the Wuffies group at the Slough Creek campground turnout. they were watching the Lamar wolfpack on the hillside SE of the turnout, across the highway. the wolves quickly made their way over the hill so the gang packed up and headed down the valley. Such is the way of the Wolf Followers.
Let me give a little overview of this process:
Someone spots something and pulls over. Others see this, and pull over as well. In the case of the Wolf Watchers, we have athe benefit sometimes of spotting the Wolf Project people who have antenna with which to track to radio collared wolves. that's how they know where to look.
Folks pull in and start setting up spotting scopes, cameras and use their binoculars to "glass" the area to find the animals.
We then set up on in another turnout to watch the Lamar's up on the hillside on the east end of Jasper Bench. Another watcher spotted the Agate Pack on the south end of the bench. they were just lounging out in the gravel, sunning themselves. the Lamar pups (4) born last spring, were playing "king of the Mountain" on a large boulder, and romping in the snow. It seemed like just a family outing. they bedded down shortly and that's when a very nice man nmaed Doug, from Silver Gate Cabins, said, "have you seen the bear on the bison carcass, and do you want to go?" Uh HECK YEAH! LEAD THE WAY!!!
he also showed up were there were otters, MY FIRST SIGHTING, and there was a nice bald eagle overlooking the whole thing.
Of course you got the bear story. that's few posts down, so I won't repeat my excitement.
another night at the Super 8 and tomorrow I start work. (darn) pics to follow