In the afternoon, after my short climbing adventure, I did a driving tour of Antelope Flats. At a pullout near a bridge over Carpenter Draw I found some beautiful gnarly bark on a Narrowleaf Cottonwood (Populus angustifolia). Merlin-assisted again, I found a lifer Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus).
Returning to my lodge, on US 191, I found a distant bull Elk (Cervus canadensis) and my first herd of Bison (Bison bison).
Next day, 21 May, there was a frosting of snow from overnight at the lodge, with rain in the forecast for the morning. I needed to do laundry, so—
In the afternoon, trying to stay out of the wind, I walked the approach to Grand View Point. Here’s my rental Nissan Altima; she was very bossy about lane drift and other peccadilloes of my driving, so she never got a name.
I found a few interesting small wildflowers. However, the big surprise caught on the way back to the car: a stirring in the forb layer just to the left of the trail, and then out sauntered a Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus)! This sighting brought my total of life birds for the trip to nine, rather more than I expected/hoped for.
My last day in the Park called for some flexibility. I was planning to explore Willow Flats, in search of more Moose and other good things, but the area was closed due to bear activity. So I pieced together some walks on Lunch Tree Hill, around the Colter Bay area, and the easy part of the Lupine Meadows trail. I met yet another new ground squirrel, Uinta Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus armatus). At Colter Bay, I spied a group of about six of them making use of horse dung. Another new butterfly, Large Marble (Euchloe ausonides). And I achieved another objective: a fine photo of American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) (one of my favorite birds) at the bridge over Cottonwood Creek on the way to Lupine Meadows.
13/10 would come again.