Road Trip 2016: Yellowstone National Park

September 29, 2016

Pongo and I took a drive around Yellowstone National Park on Thursday.  It was eventful, I'll probably let the pictures tell the story.  The day started with a rainbow over Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.  That was a good omen.

Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY

Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY

Lewis River, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Lewis River, Yellowstone National Park, WY

River Otter -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

I was thrilled to see four river otters in the beaver pond near Lewis Falls.  I've seen a river otter in the wild once before but I wasn't able to get a photograph.  The otters were very active and often out of view behind the bushes that line the pond.  These aren't the greatest of photos but I'm still pretty excited by them.

River Otter -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

River Otter -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Tundra Swan

The best animal sighting of the day occurred on the Northern end of Hayden Valley.  The was a small group of photographers on the side of the road near a turnout.  I pulled over and asked some people walking toward their car what they had seen.  A badger was digging a burrow, they told me.  Holy cow!  I never thought I'd see a badger in the wild, and here was my opportunity.  I left Pongo in the car for this particular session.  He doesn't mind, to be honest.  He loves being alone in the car and it was a cool, overcast day.  He gets to guard it, barking at people that walk by and running back and forth from the back to the front.  He's also recently discovered the horn.  He was pretty good at honking it by the end of our road trip.

American Badger -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Badger -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Badger -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Badger -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

The animal awesomeness wasn't over for the day, though.  While photographing the badger a lady told me there was a grizzly bear up the road a few miles.  Holy mackerel.  A badger and a grizzly bear on the same day?  Could it actually happen?

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Yep.

The bear was on the edge of a meadow a couple of hundred yards away from the road.  A large crowd was watching the bear from the road with a couple of harried rangers directing traffic.  All I could make out with the naked eye was a dark spot in the field.  My camera and 400mm lens did a little better.

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Yellowstone National Park, WY

On our way back to our campsite at Grand Teton National Park we encountered another large group of photographers.  They were all looking at a tree.  Well, not at a tree but at a bird in the tree.  It was a great gray owl.  Man, what a day!

Great Gray Owl -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Great Gray Owl -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Our final animal encounter of the day was with a small group of elk who were walking toward the ranger station on the Southern end of the South Loop.  They looked like they were checking out for the day.  Miller time.

Rocky Mountain Elk -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY

Soundtrack:

• Daniel Amos -- Alarma
• Echo & the Bunnymen -- Ocean Rain
• Jack White -- Blunderbuss

Road Trip: Grand Teton & Yellowstone

July 10, 2015

Friday was our last day in the parks and it started out  dreadful and wet.  We'd been dealing with sketchy weather all week--with a couple of serious storms mixed in--and the thought that our final day would be overcast and rainy was almost too much to bear.  I considered packing it up early and getting a start on the long drive home.  I'm glad we didn't do that because things cleared up in the afternoon and we ran into something almost on par with the grizzly bears we we'd seen the day before.

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Jackson Lake

We toured around the Jenny Lake area in the morning.  It was very gray and very wet.  I took a lot of photos but most were not interesting.  We had hoped to go kayaking on one of the lakes or hiking but the weather squashed that idea.  Our only real option was to stay close to the car and hope that the rain cleared up.

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Fishing Cone

We decided to drive up to West Thumb Geyser Basin in Yellowstone.  The drive is only about an hour and we didn't do a lot of touring around the thermal features the day before so it would hopefully feel fresh.  It worked out alright.

Black Pool, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, WY

We decided to drive up to Hayden Valley in the hopes of seeing more wildlife.  We thought the bears might be back if we were lucky.  We didn't see any buffalo or elk between the lake and the valley, which was a little disappointing.  It was even more disappointing to see only a single buffalo once we entered the valley.

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park, WY

We headed up to the ridge where we watched the grizzlies the night before.  The rangers had moved the buffalo carcass a little way off from where it was Thursday.  There wasn't a bear in sight.  We saw something even more surprising instead.

Gray Wolf -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Gray Wolf

I had no expectations of seeing a wolf on this trip.  Everything I've read and heard about wolves in Yellowstone suggests that while not an uncommon sight in winter they tend to stay out of sight in the summer.  I was honestly more excited about seeing this wolf than seeing the grizzly bears the night before, and the opportunity to see a grizzly bear or a moose were the biggest drivers for coming back to Yellowstone.

Gray Wolf -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

We headed back to the campsite after that, making occasional stops for photos along the way.  I wanted to get back early enough to get to bed by ten or so.  It was going to be a long trip the next day and we were going to to need to leave early in the morning.

Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Jackson Lake, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Soundtrack:

• The Decemberists -- The Hazards of Love

Road Trip: Yellowstone

July 9, 2015

Thursday would be long day of touristy adventure.  Our plan was to tour the North Loop of Yellowstone.  We did the South Loop on our last visit and it took all day.  Given we'd be entering from the South we assumed this bigger loop might take even longer.  I think it did.

Uinta Chipmunk -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Rocky Mountain Elk

I woke up early in the morning.  Jim was snoring away in his tent so I took the opportunity to do a bit of exploring on my own.  First, I headed to the lodge for some pictures of the lake.  Then I hit out on the road to a couple of wildlife viewing points to see if there was any morning action.  I ran into some elk and a couple of deer.  Well, I didn't literally run into them, I just spotted them in a couple of different areas.

Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, WY

Mule Deer -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Bald Eagle

When I got back to the campsite Jim was moving around.  I'm not sure I'd describe him as being awake.  That would take some caffeine.  We ate a little breakfast then hopped in the car and headed up to the big park.

Lewis Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Lewis River, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Gibbon Falls

We stopped for some photos along the Firehole River.  I wanted to stop for pictures of Grand Prismatic Spring but it was extremely crowded and we had a lot of ground to cover so we kept moving.  I got some good pictures there on my last trip, so it was only mildly disappointing.

Firehole River, Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison

We saw our first buffalo of the trip not too far from Mammoth Hot Springs.  I can't imagine it's possible to take a drive for long in Yellowstone without seeing a buffalo, but it's still exciting.  We found this guy rolling around in the grass and had him all to ourselves for quite a while.

Yellowstone National Park, WY

A storm was rolling in as we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs.  We tried to wait it out by having lunch at the cafe, but the rain was intense.  We settled with it slowing to a mild monsoon and headed out for some pictures of the springs.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Osprey

I'm skipping over large portions of this drive not because they weren't interesting but because this blog entry has to come to an end at some point and I've still got a long ways to go.  Anyway, let's leap forward to Lower Yellowstone Falls, shall we?  It's an amazing sight, an unparalleled combination of power and beauty.

Lower Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY

We also visited Upper Yellowstone Falls.  This was also an impressive sight.

Upper Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Upper Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY

In my limited experience the stretch between Yellowstone Falls and Yellowstone River is usually rich with wildlife.  I think I'm done writing here, there's not much to say about these amazing animals that isn't expressed better in these pictures..

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

American Bison -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Rocky Mountain Elk -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

OK.  OK.  I have one more thing to say.  WE SAW GRIZZLY BEARS!

Not one.  Not two.  Three grizzly bears.  THREE GRIZZLY BEARS!

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grizzly Bear

Holy Schnikeys!  We'd hoped to see a grizzly bear, but figured the odds were pretty low.  We saw a small crowd on a ridge in Hayden Valley and turned off to take a look.  The rangers had set up a perimeter so visitors could watch the grizzlies as they ate.  The ranger said they'd been working on this buffalo carcass for four days.  Jim and I snapped a lot of pictures.  The light wasn't great being overcast and close to dusk, but the pictures came out OK.  I flipped through a lot of different settings on the camera in search of something that worked well.  I think I eventually found something decent.  The ISO was high on all of the pictures, but some of the slower shutter speeds worked out since the bears weren't moving around too much.

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grizzly Bear -- Yellowstone National Park, WY

Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Soundtrack:

• James Bond Theme Songs