Yellowstone National Park - BLACKTAIL DEER PLATEAU

DAY 1:

There are many high plateaus in Yellowstone country -  9 have been named so far.  One of them can be found only a short distance from Mammoth Hot Springs - it is  the Blacktail Deer Plateau. Right behind it is Lamar Valley - both areas are now famous for their wolf packs that have been introduced back to Yellowstone in 1995. The wolf pack of Blacktail Deer Plateau is known as Leopold Pack.

 Our Grand Loop Road road cuts through a small portion of this interesting plateau.  One can clearly see how the forces of Nature  work here - the sea layering sediments and creating rocks, the glaciers digging out the valleys and smoothing the tops of the hills. We are driving the sea-bottom now overgrown with silvery sagebrush.
Once again I am a passenger taking photos through the windshield:

Blacktail Deer Plateau spreads over many square kilometers at an altitude of over 2000 meters above the sea level. It is overgrown by sagebrush dotted with thousand and thousand of yellow flowers.

Arrow-leaf Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata. Both, the common and Latin names indicate that there is some kind of substance, the aromatic resin, stored in the root.

The seeds are edible and rich in oils.
They used to be eaten raw or mixed with fat and stored for winter

The plants are quite hairy, the air-filled hairs on their leaves and stems are giving them silvery appearance.
They must have something to do with protecting the cells underneath from strong sun and UV rays.
They help against the loss of water in this dry, sandy and exposed environment. Though all the parts of the plant are edible it might be the best to leave it alone since it could easily be confused with arnica - the plant that is not as user-friendly as balsamroot..

 Further down the road we enter yet another valley. Meadows there are early-summer-green, feeding off a stream that runs through them. Two Wapiti Elk, Cervus canadensis, still bone-thin after the recent winter must be in elk paradise. Their antlers have started to grow and the animals will need a lot of energy to reach their prime pre-winter condition.
Early grasses could mean next winter's survival and possibly a right to mate.


For now the ruminating elk gracefully ignore the crowds of onlooking people crowding on a ledge of the highway - way above their venue.

Beautiful but very poisonous:
Monkshood flowers,  Aconitum columbianum
are also dotting the landscape.
It is also known as
Columbian Monkhood or Western Monkhood.

There is nothing better than a good scratch! And while humans have only 2 limbs for such use, the elk have four plus two antlers. Who said that they could not reach every single part of their bodies?




This elk is in much better condition than the two we saw just a short while ago.

Unfortunately, many cars are already lined up by the road and people, wielding their cameras are starting to close on the animal.
A warning plea results only in an impolite reply from a man who has already passed the invisible barrier of  elk's personal space. The man is possessed by hunting spirit; be it only a photo-hunt the passion seems to be the same - and, who cares about respect.



This elk is patient. So far. The time might come when his patience will run thin - most animal-related injuries do not come from bears. They come from bison and elk. And after watching the people here, I would never point a blaming finger at the elk.

Blacktail Deer Plateau is one of the smaller ones in the park - it soon starts to climb up to one of the mountain passes - we are now nearing Dunraven Pass. Somewhere to the east from here is the famous Lamar Valley that we will have to explore another time. That's where the wolves had been re-introduced to Yellowstone. Their presence proves to be beneficial to maintaining the natural balances in Yellowstone.

We are at a rest stop - someone threw a bunch of peanuts and carrots onto the last snowpatch - did they know that this is actually an illegal thing to do?

Grey Jay, Perisoreus canadensis,
also known as Whiskey Jack does not care - it shows up to stuff its beak with several peanuts at a time to carry them away into some safe storage.
It keeps on returning until the loot is safely hidden away.

Dunraven Pass is one of several passes located on Continental Divide.

Dunraven Pass sits at the altitude of  2,706 m ( 8,878 feet). The views from here are amazing; there are several mountain ranges to the east and a tall mountain to the south-west. it is Mt. washburn - its top is still thickly covered by snow. No wonder - it reaches 3,122 m (10,243 feet). It was named after general Henry Washburn who was is known as the first person to climb this mountain. There may have been some before him but his is the first recorded ascent.

We are nearly at the top; it is cold and wet here but we make a short stop to survey the view - it offers a glimpse into the recent past: the 1998 forest fires in Yellowstone.










This is only a short stop: beginning of June is still closer to winter than to the short summer of the pass.
We are quite happy to hop into the car and continue towards the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River - our last stop of the day.