This was our last afternoon in Yellowstone. I was adamant about going to Lamar Valley - I'd heard so much about the wildlife there, and even the remote chance of seeing a wolf or bear on the wild was a quite a draw. Being an inveterate urbanite, the wild outdoors held a certain utopian romanticism.

After some vigorous debate about the probability of seeing animals, the strategies to maximize our chances; a dusk versus dawn debate on timing, our failure to anything other than some lone bison and elk in Hayden Valley (yeah - in the four sausage we had started treating bison and elk as the neighborhood cat and dog!) - we decided to give it a go. Since I had insisted on the trip- I heavily caveated it with the disclaimer that we may not see anything even after driving around for several hours - that it was the journey that was important - blah blah blah!

Driving down to the beginning of Lamar Valley from Mammoth took about half an hour. Suddenly the mountains opened up into expansice lush rolling green valleys as far as the eye could see. It was straight out of a Disney movie and I almost expected to see animals dancing to the "circle of life." As we drove deeper into the valley, the winding streams and watering holes looked straight out of some Discovery channel movie. It was almost dusk amd the setting ray's of the sun bathed everything in a soft shimmering golden hue. In the vastness of the landscape and the strange pregnant silence of the fading light my everyday world felt so mundane, soordinary and insignificant.

Suddenly turning the corner, we stopped dead on our tracks (or rather the tires screeched to a halt behind a gaggle of cars) - there, right in front of were herds of bison. It was as if we were on the African Savannah with these somewhat pre-historic looking animals roaming the plains. Unperturbed by the monstrous moving machines and humans- they were up close to the roads with an air of ownership - we were the invaders!

The size and lumbering gait of these 4000 pound behemoths were a contrast to the elegantly clad fawns in shiny brown and white stripes that grazed nearby - staring at us with curiosity.

As we drove along, the scenary changed and the rolling flats gave way to sharp jagged rocks and boulders. Seemed ordinary enough - but the long line of stopped cars was a signal for something out of the ordinary. Amd there it was! Nestled on a large boulber was a black bear cub sunning itself in the last afternoon warmth.

Beyond happy - and super excited to gave seen a bear- we ofcourse wanted more! Reminded me of one of my first Economics lessons- human with are unlimited! We drove on and decide to stop whenever we saw even a car parked, and kept our eyes peeled on the roadside. And much to the chagrin of some people in the car - these stops were every 5 min and at the slightest imagined movement on the hillsides surrounding us!

We saw several people training their binoculars at the distant sheer peaks- and when asked - informed us that there were two mountain goats high up in the crevices I was super excited- visions of "High on a hill a lonely goat herd," with those super cute long horned mountain goats were firmly etched in my memory. But where were they? Everyone e excitement pointed at two blobs of white on the rocks far above us - could have been bird poop for all I cared! An older gentlemen offered is his binoculars! Now this was it - finally, I get to to see these magnificent creatures! Focusing properly, and steadily holding the heavy binoculars- I stared at the butts of two goats!

Oh well! You can't win 'em all! We had reached the end of Lamar Valley and decided to turn back. As you may have guessed - the trick was to very very slowly drive up and down the valley and stop wherever there were stopped cars - creating massive traffic jams and getting honked at by other cars!

We screeched to a halt seeing a man with a mile long camera lens running in the opposite direction - the word was of bear sightings. As luck would have it - it was a grizzly cub frolicking amongst the shrubs are munching on leaves. It was a Discovery channel moment. The more entrepreneurial amongst us, those willing to chase down hillsides, also saw its brother (don't ask me how they knew of any filial connection!). And even the jaded city kids sitting with their iPads in the car graved the bear with their appearance!

With darkness rolling in behind us and the fiery hues of the setting sun in front - we bid adiue to Yellowstone while a song played in my head in a loop:

"Climb every mountain

Ford every stream

Follow every rainbow

Till you find your dream"

Now this would have been the perfect ending - but we were still quite sad that we hadn't spotted any wolves. So were decided to bury our sorrow in some local bison burgers and elk tacos, and waxed philosophically about the circle of life!