On our family trip to Yellowstone for my 60th birthday (13 years ago), we stopped at various locations and were able to use spotting scopes. They are the greatest! A couple years after that trip, I did a lot of spotting scope research and finally bought a Kowa scope which I really like. You can buy adapters to mount your camera (without lens) or phone to the spotting scope. If you really want some great optical performance, a spotting scope can’t be beat.
I think I am going to check that out! Thank you for the suggestion...