Winter in Yellowstone!

Well, once again, it has been quite some time since I've blogged. It took a friend on Flickr telling me that he read my blog to make me start thinking about it again. I actually love writing, but really need an allotted time to do it. I get so busy with life (especially work) that I just don't make time for it. Anyway, I find myself at a hotel in Lompoc, California with absolutely nothing to do (don't ask!), so here I am!

My trip to Yellowstone was so INCREDIBLE! Everyone in the group was just great (well, except for one guy, but once we pointed out where he was going awry, he backed off :)), and he ended up being a hoot! Our photography guide, Zack Clothier, was really wonderful! He is a great teacher and a lot of fun to be around too! He is a slave-driver though as far as spending as much time as possible out in the field :)....up EARLY and back LATE!  I still have not finished going through all my photos, but someday I will.

Anyway, our first four days were spent in a snow coach in the interior of the park. Saw some amazing wildlife and the most beautiful snowscapes imaginable! I may not get all of this in order, but you probably don't care anyway :)!  Our first stop was at Norris Geyser Basin, which was so incredible with the colors and the steam from the geysers.

After we got our fill of Norris, we moved onto Hayden Valley (mainly looking for wildlife today, but we will return to photograph this magical place another day), and then we came upon some wildlife action along the Gibbon River. First, I (yes, I) spotted a bald eagle down by the river eating a fish...so we all set up shop and watched her/him for awhile. While we were there, some trumpeter swans decided to swim by and then we spotted a raccoon in a tree right in front of us that we didn't even notice because we were so focused on that eagle.

On our second day, I know we headed over to Fishing Bridge area, but don't recall where else exactly. I remember it was lightly snowing and I loved it! We ran across a few elk foraging through the snow for grass by the river. The first shot below was actually one of my favorites from the trip. I loved the look on this elks face and loved the snow falling all around her. After the elk encounter, we found a small herd of bison with a coyote just milling around between them. We watched that action for awhile, until one of the bison seemed to have had enough and chased the coyote away.

Day three was probably my favorite day! We started out early (of course) along the Madison River. This was the coldest temp reading during the trip...-41 degrees! We first stopped to photograph these cool trees. The geyser steam with the cold temps froze the steam all over the branches, making for some interesting shapes!  Next, we ran across some bison in the mist with the sun coming up and everything was golden! Finally, we headed back to Hayden Valley, our final destination. The whole valley looked so otherworldly...everything looked like a black and white photograph, except for that RED fox that we stopped to photograph on one of the hills. A very cool moment when that fox looked right at me and my camera shutter clicked!

Probably my favorite moment of the whole trip....

On the fourth day, we headed out to the Old Faithful area and Midway Geyser Basin. Had a really interesting encounter with some bison. Walked down the road a bit away from the group and the snow coach and all of a sudden found myself surrounded by bison (gulp). Thankfully, Zack helped me out and got me back to the group unharmed. They were rather ghostly in all that steam. I haven't really gone through these photos yet, so I will add them later when I do! We also left our snow coach on this day and were ready to head up to Lamar Valley for our final days.

Upon entering Lamar Valley area on our fifth day, we ran into a little fox and coyote drama. We stopped to photograph a sleeping red fox (along with quite a few other photographers, I might add), when all of a sudden a coyote crossed the road and started to go up the hill behind the fox. The fox was very sleepy and seemed oblivious to it all...and at a few points even got up to stretch and lay back down while the coyote was up on top of the hill looking down. In the third photo, if you look closely, you can see the fox curled up asleep on the hillside while the coyote was at the top. Another coyote also started moving in from the opposite direction, so we thought foxy was a goner...luckily the fox finally seemed to clue in and started looking alert. We were all relieved...UNTIL, the fox started moving up the hill toward where the coyote had been (he/she had disappeared behind the hill at this point), curled back up and went back to sleep. We waited for quite awhile to see if anything was going to happen, but we were standing in ankle deep snow and our cold feet finally won out. I am happy to report, however, that we stopped in this same spot (the fox had a den here in the rocks) the following morning and foxy was happily curled up asleep again! Whew!

After the fox and coyote drama, we ran into a herd of big-horned sheep. All the rams were very close to the road, while the females and youngsters were higher up on the hill. I took a lot of photos of these rams, but still haven't gone through them all yet. I did manage to process this one with the most magnificent horns! So majestic!

Continuing with our fifth day in the park as we were heading back toward Gardiner, we stopped to see if the fox was anywhere to be seen and as I was walking back to the car, I saw a herd of bison starting to cross the bridge coming towards me. I thought I could make it to the car in time, so I hurried up and got there just in time to "shield" myself behind the car, but was right next to them as they passed by. A couple in our party (I'm looking at you Bill and Zack) didn't quite make it across the bridge in time and almost had to scale down the embankment to avoid them. So, while their lives were in danger smile emoticon, Nicole (another member of our photo group), and I were busy taking lots of bison photos!

I haven't processed too many photos from the sixth and seventh days yet, but we did run into a few wolves and lots more bison.  Here are a few shots from those days...I promise to post more soon!

On our last morning (so sad to leave this crazy magical place!), we got up super early and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs for sunrise. It was a beautiful way to end an incredible trip.

Well, thought I should post this while I had the time....and it took a long time too :)! I have a few more trips to post in the coming weeks...one to Yosemite and one to the beautiful Canadian Rockies. Oh, I'm headed to Churchill, Manitoba in 2-1/2 weeks for a photography tour...hope to see lots of polar bears, arctic foxes and snowy owls!