Make sure you can sprint faster than your companion

I was 20 yards from it, having prudently put myself on the other side of the car, but Ellie and some 60 or so others kept filming the creature.

We had left the bear to his foraging and then saw another cluster of cars. We got out and saw a black bear, working its way between fallen pines, some 40 yards from us.

There are a few essential rules you should realise when going into the Park, which we were to learn at the Centre as opposed to the entrance, particularly with regard to bears. Rule number three is not to wear any perfume or after-shave or deodorant. Apparently bears are attracted to this, perhaps because they don’t like how they smell themselves.

Rule number two is if you are on foot or bicycle and you are approaching a blind corner or bend, make a lot of noise. Bears don’t like surprises so a little advance warning of your arrival is useful.

Rule number one is if you go walking, hiking or camping, make sure you take someone along who cannot sprint as fast as you. That way you are going to be safe from bears.

Actually I got that one off a t-shirt in the misnamed Cooke City, which has more shops and restaurants (just) than Sarratt but much fewer people.

The real rule number one is that you are advised not to go within 20 yards of any of the wild animals and, with reference to grizzly bears, the guidance was quite clear: Do not go within less than 100 yards of a grizzly.

Well, there you are, we had been within 20 and 15 yards respectively and lived to tell the tale.

There were elk lying and congregating all round the centre but when we looked at the list of animals that can be seen, we appeared to have run into most of them in the first hour. The chances of seeing a wolf as mid-morning approached, and similarly a coyote, appeared to be somewhat remote.

After taking in some hot springs and the myriad colours and rock formations we meandered along the road, heading towards the centre of Yellowstone. As in Custer Park in South Dakota, you often see a lone bison, usually a big old boy, grazing miles from a herd. Yellowstone was no exception and when we spotted two cars pulled up alongside the road, we slowed and looked.

Below, lying in a dry mud patch, was a solitary male bison, but we noted the three tourist cameras were pointing at right angles to him. We got out and there, some 40 yards away was a coyote. He was working his way through some long grass, very slowly and deliberately, stopping, listening and then springing forward like a cat.

He was catching mice and he did this for some 15 minutes before heading nearer to us and the bison. Many cars slowed but, upon seeing the bison, drove on, so there were only a few of us watching the coyote. The bison was unflustered by the experience and occasionally rolled over, giving himself a dust-bath, while the coyote walked past him, some six or seven yards away, giving us an ideal shot of a bison and coyote in one photo-frame.

We enjoyed Yellowstone but we were more impressed by the scenery approaching via Beartooth Pass or on the way out through to Cody. The Park’s Grand Canyon is quite a sight and in the evening, on the way out to the west entrance and a hotel, we passed anglers standing in the Yellowstone River, the sun setting and a herd of bison and then a cluster of elk as part of the backdrop.

Moments like those remind you that there are all too few parts of the world that are treasured and almost unspoilt.

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