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A Week of Critters

© Connie Troutman

Summer is in full swing but on our annual camping trip to the Shoshone National Forest, it felt more like early winter. First week of June you expect mild temperatures but snow? Yes, snow! We had rain, sleet, snow, but also a week of critters, some I'd never seen in the wild before.

Teddy Roosevelt once said that this forest's Wapiti Valley is "the most scenic 52 miles in the United States". That statement is true even amidst miserable weather.

We arrived at Eagle Creek campground early afternoon and met our campground host who just happened to be the same man from the previous two years. He gave us the scoop on the bears and other wildlife roaming nearby and I was ready to brighten up the dreary days to come.

Every morning I would rise before six in hopes I might just catch a glimpse of something wild lurking in the shadows. One morning, as I scoured the ground for dry twigs to start my morning fire, I happened to glance toward the road and a moose stood there motionless, watching my every move.

Recently, there was an incident at Eagle Creek campground when a moose got a bit fed up with a campers barking dog and charged a couple of kids. The mother should have known better than to have a dog not on a leash and to let it continue to bark behind the moose who just happened to have a baby with it. Luckily, no one was severly injured.

Each and every day we spent several hours driving up and down the scenic Buffalo Bill Cody Byway in search of wild critters. Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm a bear fanatic and we did get to see a couple of these furry animals, one who graced us by standing on his hind legs. Even though I was quite a ways from him, it did send chills up and down my spine because he was staring right at me and I wasn't sure which way he would run.

Luckily he ran across the field at the top of our campground and disappeared into the dense trees but not before sending a doe racing like a throughbred through the campground and across the river. We waited and waited but he must have snuck across the highway.

We saw this same bear on two other occasions near our campground. He must have been around three and just kicked loose from his mother. We also saw another grizzly a few miles from camp but he was very skittish and vanished before I could snap a photo.

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