Pronghorn antelope on a hillside in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park

This pronghorn antelope doe had just run across the road in front of some stopped cars and she settled on this hillside where she and her fawn could be safe and have a good view of the area. The horn of the pronghorn has a bony center and a sheath made of material like the horn of a bison, but it sheds this seasonally and grows new ones each year. A buck soon followed them in a great hurry to get across the road and join them. Rick managed to get some video of the buck while he was making his dash to the road. These are the fastest land mammals in North America. As soon as they were all on the hillside, they seemed to feel safe enough to settle in and hang around where we could see them. The sun was also getting low in the sky when we were driving through the Lamar Valley, which gave the hill a yellowish glow.

One of the best things about Yellowstone is seeing all the large- and medium-sized mammals all  in one place. Soon after taking this picture, we continued on our way and saw a red fox cross the road in front of us, but didn't have time to stop and get its picture. Then we joined people who had seen wolves earlier in the day. Yellowstone and other National Parks are sometimes referred to as America's best idea, we couldn't agree more!

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Black-tailed deer face, with antlers in velvet

This black-tailed deer was trying to get a good meal of grass seeds while numerous cars full of people were stopping to watch him in Yellowstone National Park. Deer and other related animals, like elk and moose, grow new antlers every year. During the time the antlers are growing, they're covered in a fuzzy skin called velvet. When the antlers are done growing, the velvet dies and the deer will sometines be seen rubbing its antlers against trees or shrubs to get the velvet to come off. The velvet might hang on in long strips and you can sometimes see blood on the antlers where the velvet still had a good blood supply. After the breeding season, the antlers will fall off from the base and the male deer will be antlerless until the next spring into summer, when the process starts over again. Female deer don't grow antlers, but the related caribou do have antlers for both sexes.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Bison enjoying lip-smacking good plants

This bison was part of a large herd right along the park road in the Lamar Valley of northeastern Yellowstone National Park.  During our visit in early August 2015 we saw herds of bison almost everywhere around the Hayden and Lamar Valleys, where they traditionally hang out, but in numbers much higher than we remember seeing before.  Bison are much larger in their forequarters than in their hindquarters partially as an adaptation to having to bulldoze through snow to get to forage in the winter.  The herds we saw had a wide range of ages from massive old bulls to young calves born this year.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.