2017 Yellowstone NP, Hayden Valley

 

Friday May 26 I was up bright and early to drive from Mammoth Hot Springs campground down to Canyon Village campground. That was the day it opened for the season and I had no idea if there would be a long line of folks waiting or not. I had to take the road on the west side of the park  down to Norris then across to Canyon. It snowed a bit and I encountered a group of Bison with some calves making their way along the road. Eventually I got to the campground and was surprised to find I was one of the first to arrive and check in. Good thing they weren’t facing a rush of folks because their computers were not working right. The campground had obviously been plowed out and there were great piles of snow everywhere. When I first pulled in it was like backing the trailer into an icebox. As the days warmed up a bit the snow started to melt. I was assigned a nice site with good exposure for the solar panels which I set up promptly. This year I was pleased to see a few other trailers also had solar panels of one sort or another. It was extremely cold and snowed off and on the first couple of days I was there and I was amazed at the number of tenters. So glad I had the trailer even though the furnace was not working consistently. 

There were some Bison in Hayden Valley, along with lots of Elk. I stayed at Canyon for 9 nights and didn’t see any Elk calves until late in my stay. The Bison were often close to the road but the Elk tended to stay on the other side of the Yellowstone River, a long ways away, even with the telephoto lens I have.

One afternoon while hanging around at a pullout I saw a black Wolf. It it was by itself, sort of chasing some Elk. I lost sight of it quickly and moved to another pullout later on. Lo & behold I saw movement and realized it was the Wolf, directly across the river from me. Managed to get a few shots of it, what you see here are greatly cropped.

Late one day as I was headed back to the trailer I came up to what was a growing “bear jam”. There was a pullout with no cars in it so I swung in and grabbed my camera. Just had time to catch it as it ran across the road and across a small open area into the woods.

 

Bison do swim, not going to win any awards but they can get from one side of the river to the other, with some drifting in the current.

One afternoon I was surprised and dismayed to see some obviously foreign visitors using a drone. Drones are not allowed in the park and it is stated plainly in various info sheets handed out. These people, along with the make and registration of their vehicle,were reported to the Rangers. I really hope they were caught and that the drone was confiscated.

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2017 Yellowstone Nights

When I’m this far north I regularly check out a website that gives info about possible Aurora Borealis sightings. On May 23 when I was staying at Mammoth Hot Springs campground the possibility for seeing the aurora was good so I went out at about 10 pm. The ideal spot would be as high as I could get, but unfortunately the folks at MHS don’t see to understand about light pollution. The view from the parking on the Upper Terraces was compromised by the lights below so I found a better spot on a pullout just below there with trees to hide the lights. The yellow plume in the image is steam from one of the hot springs that is lit up by the lights.  Once I was satisfied with that image I turned more to the east and was able to get a nice image of the Milky Way.

Three days later I got a notice that the Aurora might again be visible. O10:15 pm on the 27th I left the Canyon Village campground and headed south to Hayden Valley. When I had parked and got out to check the view I could immediately see some lights high above, Bingo!  Quickly got the camera and tripod out. Wow! Had to put the 14 mm lens on to capture the sight. The vertical spectre was amazing and moved slowly from north to northwest then faded out. This phenomenon is called “Steve” in Aurora circles for lack of a better name.

After that I concentrated on the Aurora down near the  horizon and moved to different spots to get different views of it with the Yellowstone River in the foreground. In some of the images you can see a bit of the Milky Way, but the moon is waxing and it isn’t the best time for that.

I went out the next night but didn’t see any lingering color. Once the moon was down low I did manage to capture the Milky Way, though not as good as it would be with no moon.

 

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2017 Lamar Valley, Yellowstone

A good scratching post

A variety of animals can be found in or near Lamar Valley, From the large Bison  to the more delicate antelope, all are  fascinating to watch. This time of year a lot of them still have not shed out their winter coats so they tend to look a bit shaggy or moth eaten compared to later in the year.

On my last trip out I was able to watch a black bear with her

Black bear

cubs for a short time and then a grizzly with a yearling for a quick few minutes before she left. Click here for more images

Grizzly sow & cub (on the left)

2017 Lamar Valley, 1

Recently moved from the Tetons up to Yellowstone NP and was able to get a campsite at the Mammoth Hot Springs cg. This will work nicely as a base and  Gardiner, MT, is close by for supplies. I plan to head over to Lamar Valley at least once a day. It isn’t a whole lot warmer here than it was in the Tetons but at least the only snow (so far) is on the ground, not falling.

Bison & coyotes in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone NP

Went over to Lamar Valley and got a few shots of some of the critters, most are quite a ways away, near or across the river.

One afternoon on my return trip to the valley I came

Black bear boar, resting and stretching

across a typical “bear jam”, but I was able to park at a turnout right near the action. Not much action for a long time since the black bear was lounging behind a tree. He got up and moved about 20′ then laid flat out, with one foot braced against a tree trunk. Once in a while he’d stretch a foreleg up.

Since I had a prime parking spot and nothing planned I

Coyote came along to keep the crowd interested

decided to hang out there and see what the bear would do next. He rested for about an hour but a coyote came along so it wasn’t totally dull.

Hmm, what’s he going to do?

Finally the bear got up and wonder of wonders he moved towards the little pond, nearer the road, not off into the woods. I guess the water was appealing or maybe it looked easier to swim by the rock scree than to climb over it to get to the other side of it. He did swim the pond then got out a did a great job of shaking the water off.  This was a nice way to spend a few hours.

Since then on my trips to Lamar I’ve seen two more black bears, many elk cows, a few bull elk, a moose, some bighorn sheep ewes, antelope and lots more bison. As is often the case, the opportunity to take photographs was severely limited or impossible to do safely but I’ll keep trying.

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Grand Teton NP 2016, Moose

Heading back to the trailer after some shopping in town I saw folks hanging around a campsite…..naturally I slowed down to see what the attraction was. There in the shade was a bull moose and close by was a cow, also taking her ease. Since I had my camera in the truck I pulled into an empty campsite and got my gear out. The people who had the campsite were not there so I walked to the back of their trailer and used it as a blind.

I had nothing planned and figured I could wait them out. Eventually she got up and after a bit he did, too. He was definitely interested in her and slowly tried to work it out with her. For us bystanders it appeared to be a very slow and rather indecisive process but so very interesting to see the interaction. We can only assume they decided an audience wasn’t what they wanted. They moved a short way across the field and then laid down again. All told I think I watched them over 4 hours before I gave up and went back to the trailer to feed the dogs. They’re probably still around somewhere close by so maybe I’ll see them again.

 

Grand Teton NP 2016, 3

Sunset over the Tetons

A colorful sunset over the Tetons is always a delight. After spending a long time at the riverside hoping to see some moose I gave up, threw the camera gear in the truck and headed out since it looked like there might be a good sunset. Turns out the gamble paid off!

I was up very early the next morning and caught the sunrise lighting up the Tetons and then happened on some bison that were still frosty from the cold night. While driving around or
being stopped I’ve also seen two foxes and two coyotes.

The night of the full moon it was very clear so I headed out to see what a couple of places

Full moon light on the barn on Mormon Row with the Tetons and Big Dipper

looked like in the moonlight. First stop was the iconic barn on Mormon Row with the Tetons behind it.

After that I went to another spot on a hunch. On a good day the

Full moon light at Schwabacher’s Landing with Tetons and Big Dipper

Tetons are reflected in the river and I thought if things came together right the moonlit Tetons would be reflected in the river. Sure enough, they were!

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Yellowstone, Geysers 2016

Yellowstone geyser area has many interesting features which attract thousands of visitors. Fortunately there are some that are off the beaten path and less crowded. The colors in the hot springs are beautiful.

Great Fountain Geyser goes off every 9 to 16 hours, making it a hard one to see. I didn’t catch it during the day but one night it was supposed to go off at between 8 pm and 1 am so I arrived plenty early. Needless to say it took its time and erupted at about 9:30 pm, in total darkness. A factor hard to figure into it was the amount of steam produced by the hot water and cold air. That made it very hard to photograph any water being sent up. The eruption lasts a pretty long time and by the end of it there were some stars visible so I capture a bit of steam lit by a light I had and the Big Dipper.

One of my favorite geysers is White Dome Geyser since it goes of frequently (every 20-30 minutes) and is usually pretty free of spectators. The first evening I was at Madison campground I went over and got a nice sunset image of it.

 

 

Then I went back that night to see if I could get the Milky Way above it. I did, though there were clouds and smoke so the images weren’t as clear as in the past. The difference this year was the forest fires in the park, they reflected on the clouds and made the images very unique.

 

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