River Otter Fiesta

Yes. These otter pups were the cutest things you're ever going to see. The two of them would play and wrestle constantly. They would sometimes fall off the logs near the shoreline and splash into the water. I couldn't tell if they were doing this on purpose or were actually stumbling and falling.

No matter. The show they put on was unbelievable. You could see how special this was by the excitement in Tom's eyes. He moved like a cat along the shoreline putting himself in perfect position for great photos of these amazing animals. I would be fiddling with my darn tripod (when shooting quickly and moving around, these tripods are a HUGE pain!) and then, I'd turn around and Tom would have snapped 10 photos already. After I got a few shots, he'd already be moving to a new spot and getting set for the next otter playground location. It was fun to see him in action and I was tempted to just watch the whole scene and forget about my feeble attempts to get photos.

The otters played in the water and on logs all around the shore. They just didn't seem to mind people watching and really seemed undisturbed by all the camera eyes.

Otter Pup

Adult scratching and two pups on the left

Regal Otter

This was truly one of the most extraordinary nature experiences of my life. I've seen a lot of cool things but this was like we were really getting to see what the otters' lives were like, if even for a brief moment in time. I felt extremely privileged to see this and somehow humbled.

At the end of the otter display, after watching them for a really long time, it was finally time to go. I stopped over my backpack and gathered myself, stunned by what we had just witnessed. This was the other high point of this tour. The wolf and grizzly show in Hayden Valley was the other one. But this was tops because we were so close to the action and could really see what was going on.

I will forever be grateful to Tom (and Rick McIntyre who gave us the tip) for giving us this opportunity of a lifetime.