Salmonflies and Trout Lake

A few weeks ago some folks were talking about salmon flies and how they swarm over the water and the fish jump out to eat them. They said that avid fishermen plan their trips to coincide with the salmon fly arrival because the fishing is so good. I was a little suspicious because I thought they were kidding me. The other day while we were sitting under a tree beside the RV we had our first salmon fly sighting. They are about two inches long and very UGLY. One landed on my leg and another on my back. Here is one on the wooden fence behind the RV.

As I looked up in the tree I saw several of them clinging to the leaves.

I became a believer. They do not bite, but they are annoying. Fortunately they are gone from our area already. And a friend who is a fisherman said that the fish love them. It's just another new experience at Yellowstone....

Friends told us about a trail that leads to Trout Lake where at this time of the year the trout swim upstream to spawn. Since the weather forecast was for temperatures in the 90's we left early in the morning while it was still cool. On the way to the Lamar Valley, where the lake is located, a fox was trotting down the side of the road. He crossed the road and stayed by the side for us to get this picture.

Then he took off running.

A little farther down the road lots of cars were stopped including a ranger so we figured that there was something interesting to see. The ranger had to holler at these folks for getting too close to the grizzly.

We were able to watch him amble through the grass until he decided to go into the water.

After that he made his way into the woods. It's always a bonus when we see a bear - in the distance!

The trail to the lake is an uphill climb and passes through some woods and areas covered with beautiful wildflowers. It is a delightful hike.

Here are some of the wildflowers that we saw.

When we got to the lake we followed a path that led to the running water where we hoped to see some trout swimming upstream. In total we saw seven of them. There may have been more, but their color blends into the rocks in the stream, and it is very hard to see them. Here's a spotted trout on the bottom of the picture.

The ones that we saw were not making very good progress. In fact, there were three swimming together and one of them got pushed back down the stream with the force of the water.

We continued along the path around the lake enjoying the scenery, listening to the birds, and watching butterflies flutter all around.

A few people that we talked to along the way asked if we saw any otters, so we started to look for them. Shortly before we had completely circled the lake some folks were looking into the water. So we stopped and saw two adult and three baby otters putting on a show.

They chased each other in and out of the water. The babies wrestled with each other.

The mama dove down, found food for the babies, and put it on a log where the little ones climbed over each other to get to it.

 It was delightful watching their antics.

Everyone was very quiet as the otters entertained us. The all of a sudden the adults started to swim off to the middle of the lake with the babies following behind. After about 20 minutes the show was over. What a delightful way to end the walk around the lake. We felt very lucky to experience so much on that hike.

As we were traveling the forty miles back home in addition to the amazing scenery we saw two stagecoaches filled with tourists.

We thought that looked like fun, but not on a 90 degree day!