We woke up early again on the third day in Yellowstone to get a start on a long car ride out to the Lamar Valley, one of the park’s premier wildlife viewing areas.  Normally it wouldn’t be a long drive from the Canyon Lodge, but the Grand Loop Road was closed between Canyon and Tower-Roosevelt due to the still burning Antelope Fire.  We didn’t stop for breakfast, just snacked in the car along the way.  It didn’t take long on our drive for us to spot more bison and elk, as well as a group of trumpeter swans.  The morning sunrise provided some great photos.

Once we made it out to the Lamar Valley, we immediately saw a ton more bison, by far the largest herd we had seen in the park.  Further down the road, a group of people were all sitting at a roadside pullout with scopes pointing toward a nearby treeline.  We stopped to checked it out, and were told that there was an animal carcass at the treeline that had attracted both grizzlies and wolves in the past days.  We sat for a while hoping to catch a glimpse but left once it was too late in the day to expect much activity.

We then drove back toward Tower-Roosevelt and checked out the northern parts of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, along with Tower Falls.  Back on the road towards Mammoth we spotted a very playful coyote that provided some great photo opportunities for a few minutes.  Back in Mammoth, we were greeted by a few elk who had claimed their place on the manicured lawns of town.  We stopped for lunch at the Mammoth Hot Springs Dining Room for what became the best meal we had in the park.    After lunch we walked around the Mammoth Hot Springs area before continuing the drive back south to make the loop toward Canyon.

Along the way we stopped at the Sheepeater Cliffs, before driving all the way back down to the Hayden Valley.  As it was already approaching sunset, we were quickly greeted by a large herd of elk, along with a bull who appeared to be the largest we had seen in the park.  We also spotted a few more coyotes while staking out the valley for wolves.  We did spot the same wolves as the night before, but again they were very far out and impossible to photograph.  To round out the night, we drove all the way down to the Lake Lodge Cafeteria for dinner.  Even without table-side service, this cafeteria proved to offer better food than available in the Canyon Lodge.  The drive back to Canyon was dark, but we still were able to spot more elk and coyotes along the way.  It was a great day of wildlife viewing.

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