02.13.09

A 3 Dog Day, and much more!

Posted in photo, travel, vacation, yellowstone at 10:42 pm by heidihoho7

So yesterday was our 3rd trip to the interior of the park – the 2nd one specifically for photos. We started up the same road out of Mammoth but then headed over to Norris and then later to Fishing Bridge, actually in the center of the park, and on through Hayden Valley then following the same roads back to Mammoth.

We stopped in the flats to catch the moonset and sunrise. But we didn’t see too much else until we turned at Norris Junction. There was another snowcoach also doing a photo tour and they spotted a fox alongside a creek. We stopped to join them and oh am i glad we did!  The fox started “mousing” which is what fox (and coyotes) do to get food. They will sit on the snow, that is in this case at least a foot or two deep, and listen for mice scurrying around below the snow. Once they hear a mouse the fox starts to creep up on the mouse while listening intently and without giving away its plans. It is pretty cool, we saw the fox go back and forth across the snow and cock its head to the side a few times to listen more closely- it reminded of us what dogs do when they are confused  – the “huh?” look.  Then when it is ready, it leaps into the air and does a nose dive into the snow in hopes of catching the mouse off guard and having it for breakfast. Unfortunately our fox only got some grass, BUT i did get 2 shots- one right before and one mid jump! Such a cool sight!!

Soon after it ran off across the road and then back across the road yet again – bela caught this cool moment when the fox was coming down a hill to race down the road.

For those of you have seen Bela in the last few months you will know that he’s grown quite the mountain man goatee and ’stache. He’s decided to go a bit western and mix it up a bit – check out his new do!

We continued on to Artist Point where we saw the Lower Falls. They were pretty iced up and very steamy… Thanks to a suggestion i got this moody tree stump with the yellowstone river in the background.

We happened upon some more trumpeter swans on the yellowstone river and happened to catch a few groups of them spreading their wings.

We continued on through the Hayden Valley and stopped for the semi-famous lone tree shot.

We also stopped at Dragon’s Breath to find some really cool ghost trees where there was a cool view almost every direction we faced!

Somewhere in the day we stopped at Fishing Bridge Warming Hut to have lunch, nothing too exciting there except we were lucky enough to have the hut all to ourselves. We were going to check out Mary Bay to see if we could find any wolf action, and lo and behold we didn’t even make to the bay before we spotted 2 wolves off in the distance. We’re pretty sure it was the Molly Pack and ended up seeing 6 wolves. The best part is that we saw the aggressive gray start to chase after a pack of bison.  He gave it a couple tries with only 1 wolf coming to help. Eventually the bison got freaked out enough that they ran off into the woods nearby.

We gave up waiting for them to come back and started working our way back to Norris. We ran into a Bison Jam on the way home- we think they could possibly have been the same herd that we just saw the wolves chasing off the ice & snow. It took a at least 15 minutes for us to be able to pass them – here’s a view from inside the snowcoach at the slowpokes.

As we were heading back we happened on yet more coyotes so we hopped out to try to grab a few photos. It looked like it was going to head down to the river down a small hill toward some of the swans and ducks but it ended up coming back up the hill to give us the perfect chance to capture some cool shots.

Overall this was an amazing day of photography – a “3 dog day” with a fox, wolves, and few coyotes. Add in the swans and amazing scenics and it truly is a hard day to top!  The 3rd time was a charm

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