02.10.09

A winter wonderland

Posted in photo, travel, vacation, yellowstone at 11:30 pm by heidihoho7

Today we went out on another snowcoach tour of the interior, again to Old Faithful but this time from the north side of the park so a bit more of a drive. It was during this drive that i got to thinking about just how amazing this park really is. I am now lucky enough to compare the park in 2 different extreme seasons- spring and winter.

In winter its a different place. There are so many more people in the park in the other seasons – we saw 4 vehicles for the first half of our trip once we left Mammoth. Yes four! In spring or summer that would have taken about 2 seconds – but with roads closed we enjoyed the solitude and were able to stop whenever something caught our eye. Eventually we caught up with all the “traffic” from West (which was us just a few days ago on the same kind of tours) but even that wasn’t crazy with just 20 or so groups of coaches or snowmobiles.

The wildlife is different in winter as well. The elk never seem to care (except i hear in fall) and can be seen just about everywhere.  We’re staying up at Mammoth at the end of this week and i can guarantee you that we’ll see them without having to leave the hotel, its like the happening spot of the park for them.

Bison are almost as prevalent throughout the park and can make fun photo subjects when covered in snow or when crossing a river. We’ve had fun trying to get “the” shot of them each day. Today we (i should say I!) forgot a bit about having to stay safe and i’m afraid we freaked out the driver a bit while taking some photos of a bull by the side of the river.

Coyotes seem to be out and about all over the park as well- although i hear the numbers have decreased dramatically since a few of them got a little feisty and got too close to us “visitors” and were taken care of – i don’t ask for details as its all a bit conspiratorial anyways But we did happen upon one today snacking on some leftovers and he ran right past us to give me a good chance to get some good shots.  The other day we had one of those moments that was quite memorable. We had been stalking the pair of coyotes most of the day and at one point it got very quiet. In the distance we heard yips and howls of other coyotes. It would last for a few seconds and be on and off but man was it neat to hear them. I know i used to hear them on our family farm in the pasture across the road as do many folks back home in IL but it was still pretty cool.

The wolves seem to have thwarted us so far, but it sounds like the odds go up greatly when visiting in winter. Its easier to track them with the snow and most of the animals they prey on congregate in locations that benefit the wolfies who watch them daily.

There are of course many other animals throughout the park, but ones I was surprised to see where the Trumpeter Swans.  I’m not sure how or where i thought they lived but they seem to like the cold weather and warm water.

Many of the rivers here never freeze. Some are fast moving whitewater, but many of them have hot spring tributaries that make the overall temperature too warm to freeze until it gets out of the park. This makes it ideal for animals like the swans, ducks or other water foul to survive during these cold winter months. It also helps the other mammals as well in staying warm by congregating near the springs and fumaroles where the air and land is warmer.  Many of the hot springs produce steam that sometimes creates these very cool looking trees that we refer to as “Ghost Trees”. We didn’t see too many so far, but found this very cool set today.

These warm spots are pretty neat in winter because they are so much more obvious.  There are many small springs, geysers, fumaroles, and just generally warm areas all over the park but in the warmer months you can’t really tell where they are, whereas in winter its very obvious. There are areas where there is at least 18″ of packed snow and you come up on a warm spot and all the snow is gone. Along some of the warmer rivers you see the same thing – a foot of snow throughout the whole valley but then spots in the meadows or hillsides or all along the riverside there will be sections that have no snow at all and are steaming.  It just makes you that much more aware of what you are driving around in when you see areas like that.

Today at Old Faithful we enjoyed our lunch in a yurt, which bela is enjoying below…On a sidenote, our snowcoach was slightly different today. This van had 4 sets of tracks instead of wheels and it really reminded me of Short Cirucuit- i felt like we had 4 Johnny 5’s under our van!   just another experience to remember on our week of wintery fun!

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