Marmots and Pikas at Yellowstone

Yellow-bellied Marmots

All of the marmot pictures were taken on the Storm Point Trail in the southeastern part of the park.

Yellow-bellied marmot on cliff in front of Lake Yellowstone at Yellowstone National Park
Room With A View
This marmot was hanging out on the crumbly rock cliffs that overlook Lake Yellowstone, while most of the colony was nearby in the grasses of a nearby meadow or on the rock formations where they live. It was a nice opportunity to photograph a marmot with waves in the background.

I’ve seen marmots at various other places in the park, including Mount Washburn, but Storm Point was my favorite not only because of the close viewing and frequent activity of the colony, but also because I observed the marmots in several different settings within a small area.

Yellow-bellied marmot standing in a meadow on the Storm Point Nature Trail at Yellowstone National Park
Meadow
A marmot from the same colony as the marmot in the picture above, this one standing in a meadow right next to the crumbling rock cliffs beside Lake Yellowstone. I dropped to my knees both to get at the marmot’s eye level and to partially obscure it behind the grasses. I think the picture would have worked from a higher vantage point as well, but there was only time for one shot.
A yellow-bellied marmot relaxes on a boulder along the Storm Point Nature Trail at Yellowstone National Park
Spread Out
Marmots aren’t exactly thin, but when they lie down their chubby bodies spread out flat and give them a low profile. This marmot was sunning itself in a boulder field along the trail, my favorite place to marmot watch in Yellowstone.

American Pika

An American pika on Mount Washburn in Yellowstone National Park
Silent Sentinel
A pika keeps watch below the southern trail to Mount Washburn in the fall of 2005. It wasn’t vocalizing like the pikas I had seen in the Tetons, the only reason I saw it was that I had been scanning every boulder field for marmots or pikas. I never saw any marmots on this particular hike (or any other pikas), although I have seen several marmots near the summit before.

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Last modified: October 23, 2009