June 10, 2006
Meet the 2006 Team
View the 2006 Itinerary
Read the 2006 Q & A
After a night filled with great anticipation for the trip ahead, our group met at Raleigh-Durham airport at the break of dawn. By eight we were off on our adventure. Two uneventful flights landed us in Bozeman, Montana.
 The weather was a gorgeous 58° as we loaded our vans. The two hour trip to Yellowstone took us through Paradise Valley, aptly named for its awesome scenery. At 4:30 p.m. (Mountain Time) we passed beneath the famous Roosevelt Arch which marks the north entrance to America’s first National Park. Within moments we spotted a pair of bighorn sheep grazing 200 feet above our heads on the side of a shear cliff.
 After dinner, a spectacular rainbow greeted us as we headed for a short hike to Wraith Falls. During our hike, we spotted our first black bear along the Gardiner River, closer to Mammoth than we expected to see it. As we watched, we saw three more bears in the area. Three of the bears were black-colored black bears and one was a cinnamon-colored black bear — more than 30% of Yellowstone’s black bears are cinnamon-colored.  A herd of elk cows and three calves closed out our first wonderful day in Yellowstone.
Q & A for June 10
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