Monday:
The drive from Townsend MT to Yellowstone was a smooth one.
I got an early start, snapping a picture of the dawn before I left, and made
the trip to Yellowstone in about 4 hours. On the way I went through the Tobacco
Root mountains, saw a herd of antelope (no place to pull over and take a
picture), watched some real cowboys and cowgirls herding cattle across the road
and chatted with a couple from South Carolina at a rest stop. We were trading
places as they had just left Yellowstone and were headed for Glacier. I decided
to stop in West Yellowstone for gas as I wasn’t sure what the cost would be in
the park.
I knew Yellowstone was big, but gosh. It took me another
hour and forty five minutes to reach Fishing Bridge campground after I crossed
into the park at the west gate. But it was a pleasant drive, crossing the
Continental Divide twice and seeing bison and elk. These animals cause some bad
traffic jams as people just act nuts when they see one. I almost hit one guy
who ran across the road in front of me to get a picture of a bison that was
about 5 feet off the shoulder of the road. I was surprised that the people were
getting so close to the huge animal. They pretty much had him surrounded.
I checked in at Fishing Bridge around 130pm and set up camp.
Only hard sided campers allowed here due to bear activity. The girl in front of
me had a pop-up and the campground attendant was trying to help her find a
place to camp elsewhere in the park. Guess she didn’t know about the hard sided
camper only rule at Fishing Bridge.
No fire pits or picnic tables at the sites because of bear activity.
But the sites do have full hook ups so I will be able to spend more time
exploring the park instead of loading up the camper and driving to the dump and
then taking on fresh water before returning it to my site.
The cell phone reception is quite good at the campground and
my Verizon hot spot is working well for internet use. I will spend the evening planning tomorrow’s
activities and then get a good night’s sleep.
Tuesday:
Yellowstone, the first of the national parks and home of Old
Faithful; over 2 million acres of wilderness, more than 230 miles of roads,
thousands of bison and elk and over a hundred grizzly bears, wolves and bighorn
sheep. A park on a volcano where geysers, hot springs and fumaroles can be
found and where earthquakes happen at a rate of thousands each year. While most
of the park is in Wyoming, it does cross into Idaho and Montana as well.
I woke up to 34 degrees this morning, outside that is. Inside
was a comfortable 71. Looks like it’s going to be in the mid 60’s for the rest
of the week with nighttime temps around 40. There is a 20-40% chance of rain
most every day.
After a shave and breakfast I headed to the Hayden Valley,
arriving around 8. The morning fog was so thick I couldn’t see a darn thing,
but I could hear an elk bugling in the distance. By the time the fog lifted,
around 9:30, the elk was nowhere to be seen. I hung around till noon, seeing a
few bison and a bald eagle but both were too far off to get a decent picture. I
did get a good shot of the two ravens who decided to join my vigil and posed
nicely 10 feet away. At noon I headed back to the camper for lunch and planned
on returning to the valley around 4 to see if I had better luck.
Well, the trip back was worth it. I got some nice shots of a
coyote hunting. The elk wandered out of the woods across the valley around 7pm
but were too far to get any good pictures. On the drive back I passed a bison
so close that I could have rolled down the window and grabbed his horns.
I was told that a grizzly came through the valley around 130
PM, while I was eating lunch of course.
Too late for a movie tonight.
Wednesday was full day for me.
I decided to try my luck in
Lamar Valley and headed out at 0630. I figured an hour’s drive but it took over
2 hours to get there. There is big time road construction between Tower Falls
and Tower Junction, and of course the usual Bison backups to contend with. But
on the way I did get a shot of a Pronghorn.
Not much doing in Lamar Valley except for the people with
spotter scopes watching the wolves from a bluff at the entrance to Slough
Creek; the wolves were way too far off to photograph. So I drove into Slough
Creek Campground and did some hiking. I saw a group on horseback headed out for
some backcountry camping and got a picture of Slough Creek.
Made another stop at Pebble Creek campground where a buffalo
was roaming between the campsites. Took a snap shot of that one and chatted a
bit with the campground host. Both
Slough Creek and Pebble Creek have some sites in full sun and one could do well
there with solar and the right site (just a hand pump for water and vault
toilets in these more remote campgrounds). I then backtracked to Tower Junction,
seeing a lot of bison in Lamar Valley.
Wanting to avoid the road construction between Canyon and
Tower Junction I decided to continue west to Mammoth and on to Gardiner, just
outside the north entrance. Filled up with gas in Gardiner and grabbed a bite
to eat. On way back I tried to keep an eye on the cliffs between Gardiner and
Mammoth, hoping to spot a bighorn sheep but no luck. I did hit it lucky when
crossing Gardiner Creek and got some shots of a bull Elk. I thought about
returning to those cliffs before I leave the park.
Drove from Mammoth to Norris and then east to Canyon
Village, completing the 70 mile north loop. On the way back to Fishing Bridge I
stopped at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and took some landscape shots. After
leaving there I pulled over on the banks of the Yellowstone to take a break and
photographed a fly fisherman.
Didn’t get back to Fishing Bridge till almost 430 PM and was
beat. So I treated myself to a pulled pork sandwich at the Yellowstone General
Store and headed back to the camper for a hot shower and an early bedtime.
Think I’ll take tomorrow off, sleep in and catch up on emails and photo editing.
Tonight’s movie is Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936)
Thursday:
Woke up to a rainy, cold day so I guess it was a good
decision to take the day off. But the dawn sky was just beautiful and I
couldn’t resist taking a quick shot between the raindrops.
I spent the morning and afternoon tidying up the camper,
editing photos and catching up on emails. The rain stopped around 430 so I
decided to take a drive through Hayden Valley. Happened on some bison swimming
across the Yellowstone River and snapped some pics. On the way home I was
driving along the Yellowstone River and got some sunset landscapes.
Friday: Another try for bighorn sheep.
I was up at 0520 and drove the 1 hour 45 minutes to Mammoth,
arriving around 0730. The place was loaded with elk, eating the grass on the
lawns and strolling through the town. But I want bighorns not elk.
I drove out of town, headed toward the north entrance of the
park and found a pullover that gave me a good view of the high cliffs. I waited
4 hours; nothing, nada, zilch.
Decided to go into Gardner for lunch and a bit of grocery
shopping and returned to the cliff area around 130 pm. This time I parked at
the pullover just south of where I parked the first time. I waited another hour
and a half and my patience paid off. A
small group of bighorn ran along the top ridge of the cliff, then across the
face, up over the top and were gone. They couldn’t have been in sight for more
than 3 or 4 minutes. I rattled off around 70 frames, hoping for at least one
good picture. The sheep were way up there and I was using my 100-400 with a 1.4
extender, which means no auto focus and shooting freehand with a very heavy lens.
I call it spray and pray shooting. LOL
The ram was younger, no big, fully curved horns, but hey,
bighorns are bighorns right?
Tonight’s movie is Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937).
2 comments:
Dave,
You have some fantastic pictures of the beauty of Yellowstone and its wildlife. I especially liked the Coyote sequence.
giandlj on NROA
some fantastic pictures! thanks for sharing with us your continued travels.
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