John needed to make calls and deal with problems related to selling his property in Oklahoma, so we could not make it out at a reasonable hour. Rather than fight with other tourists, we waited until late afternoon/early evening to go out.

The plan was to hike Cascade Lake Trail to look for birds on Cascade Lake. There are supposed to be swans and grebes on this lake. We choose the trailhead off of Grand Loop Road/Dunraven Road because it was shorter and more scenic than the Norris-Canyon Road trailhead. The “shorter” trail being only about a 5 mile round trip.

The trail started in a pine forest, but quickly opened into alternating patches of fields and forest. Occasionally, it crossed a stream, and only 50% of the streams had bridges. Sometimes, the trail followed a stream, but we never saw any fish.

We ran across a patch of Glacier Lilies early on. It is not the largest patch we have seen, but it was the densest. All the flowers in this patch had matured to the point where the petals bent backwards.

A little latter we ran across another Green Comma Butterfly. John thought it was one of the other ubiquitous orange butterflies, until he zoomed in. This one was inconsiderate and flew away in the middle of its photo shoot.

As we approached the lake, the mosquitoes got worse and worse. The mosquitoes here can fly against a 20 mph headwind to suck your blood. They should probably have a hunting season for the mosquitoes here. They are nearly the size of chickens, but they probably do not taste as good.

The lake hike out was a bit of a disappointment. We saw one bison on the entire hike. The lake was overflowing into the grass to make the trail a swamp. The only birds were Trumpeter Swans (probably) on the opposite side of the lake. Zooming in with the camera, they looked like little white specks.

We bought mosquito head nets in Jackson, just in case. About 100 feet into the hike back from the lake, the mosquitoes were waiting. The swarms at the lake paled in comparison to the numbers waiting to ambush us on the way back. We put on our head nets, and it immediately improved the quality of our lives. Also, we were now properly equipped to cook school lunches.

About 100 feet further, John saw a dog trotting down the trail. Wut? It turned out to be a Coyote. This is the closest we have been to a Coyote. We just stood still, took pictures, and let is pass. It probably passed within 20 to 30 feet of us.

The Coyote was the only really interesting thing on the hike. We stopped by Canyon Village on the way home to visit the restroom. (It missed us. The texts it was sending were depressing. We needed to cheer it up.) On the drive out, a guy standing on the side of the road was pointing east towards a rainbow over the Canyon Lodge.

(Click here for a high resolution version of the rainbow panorama.)

The mosquitoes made the hike shorter than anticipated, so we decided to stop by a few places to see what was there. Kate saw a Bison fording the Yellowstone River, so we stopped to take pictures and watch. Sadly, the video makes it look like one of the front legs or feet is injured. I think the rangers only intervene in extreme cases to end the suffering of an animal.

When the Bison limped over the ridge, we moved on. The Nez Perce Ford picnic area was open again, so we stopped in there. We ran across a bird we had not seen. A small Spotted Sandpiper was running around on an island in the river.

We also saw a Great Blue Heron fly by. The Great Blue Herons tuck their head in when flying, and the Sandhill Cranes stick their necks out.

We continued our drive out towards the East Entrance Road to check for Marmots and the Dusky Grouse. We did not see any Marmots, but we did see a Dusky Grouse sneaking around the hillside. We also saw some White-crowned Sparrows. They should have been called Zebra-head Sparrows.

It was a less eventful day, but we still saw new things.