Back to Yellowstone

I'm heading back to Yellowstone for a week of winter wildlife, where I hope to photograph wolves because if your quest is not quixotic or impossible, is it really a quest? I have loved our first national park since I spent the summer here scooping ice cream in college. Buddy was a good horse on our trail ride in Montana. Are those two-tone jeans? Yes. Yes, they are. It was the 1990s.

I got into photography in high school where I learned how to shoot and process film. During my first trip to Yellowstone, I brought dozens of rolls with me for my Yashica camera. Most of my pics are pretty horrible from that trip, but I do like this little bighorn lamb on the rocks.

 I returned to Yellowstone while working in New Jersey and saw how the park had gotten considerably more crowded over the years. But the bison were still ornery as ever. This bull bison by the road ruled over Hayden Valley.

A bull elk was in peak condition at the start of the rut. I like the contrasting colors of the sagebrush and the lodgepole pine trees.

While working in Yellowstone, I spent a weekend with my roommate and two friends climbing Middle Teton. It was a fantastic time. Here the wind is ferocious at the saddle of the mountain overlooking one of the gemstone lakes in the valley floor. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings!

I returned to Yellowstone in 2017 after years of wildlife photography experience. I would like to think my pics reflect this maturing experience, but I still take horrible shots most of the time. But I like this silhouette of an elk in the pre-dawn gloom.

A lot of Yellowstone will probably be closed to traffic because of standing snow. But I hope to see pronghorn antelope in the Lamar Valley where I photographed these fellows. I likely will see bison, moose and coyotes here as well. 

I probably will not see many little animals like these prairie dogs, which will be holed up in hibernation for weeks to come. 

Coyotes were apex predators during my visit to the park before the wolf reintroduction. I spent a lot of time watching them hunt mice and voles.

I worked at Old Faithful Lodge where the ice-cream shop had a great view of the geyser. I must have seen it erupt a hundred times.

A big bull elk is framed by the mountains outside Mammoth.

I timed my last trip for the fall elk rut so I could hear elk bugle again. It's such a haunting sound. In the dorms, I would put the window down at night and listen to them calling across the geyser basin.

 

I got a close look at this resting bull bison while driving past atop a mountain road. Bison use the road to move from pasture to pasture. I like the garland of pine in his fur from when he was thrashing some poor tree. They have no sense of humor.