Yellowstone: Sheepeater Cliff

We made a wrong turn and when we realized we had done so, we came upon Sheepeater Cliff and decided to stop and get our bearings.
Sheepeater Cliff was named for the Shoshone Indians who lived throughout this region. Their use of bighorn sheep earned them this name. The cliff is lava that cooled nearly 500,000 years ago.

When we pulled up, we saw a lot of folks admiring this pile of dried lava and wondered what the heck they were looking at.

Then we saw them.

Baby Marmots!

And Mother Marmot.

These brothers were wrestling and flashing their sharp teeth.

Marmots are large squirrels and typically live in burrows within rock piles.

I’ve also heard them be referred to as rock chucks.

They were rolling around like kittens! It was hilarious!

They mostly feed on plants and insects.

Little sister wasn’t having any of it. She was just crawling around the rocks looking cute and eating plants.

Needless to say, we were glad we made a wrong turn because we sure did get a good chuckle. 🙂

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