The next morning we decided to get a nice big breakfast. We’d been getting breakfast there most mornings with the group but had some issues a few days with bad pancakes and oatmeal. I should say Dale had issues, we mostly had issues with getting butter with our pancakes – is that weird – does no one else use butter???  Anyways so we got our waiter Cody yet again – by that point he thought we were employees haha! But this time the breakfast was one of the best we’d had ever! Dale wouldn’t have believed it, but the pancakes were fabulous.  Thanks again to the VE crew as we used our gift card for that AND to help pay for the room.

We headed north to Chico Hot Springs for our next night’s stay and day’s activities.  We opted for a 2 hour dog sledding trip which was really great fun. Bela got the uphill portion and did have to help out a bit. We ended up going along a closed road along Mill Creek near Chico – it was quite pretty.  We shared our sled with the Musher Brent (or Brett?) for our first time out, which we were just fine with. We had 10 dogs pulling our sled and many of them cracked us up. They were a bit crazy and howled a lot once they were out of the truck and our group just wanted to play. There were 2 other folks going out with us and their group of dogs just wanted to run and run (video of us mushing). I got to mush on the way back with no major incidents – they loved the downhill and so did I – we got going pretty quick ! Bela was a bit jealous that i got the easy end of the trip – maybe next time I’ll take the uphill.

We returned to the resort and ended up enjoying the hot springs – which they pipe into a swimming pool. It was nice but we both agreed that the boiling river was a bit more fun – less kids and more natural feeling. After a nice nap, we then went off to our mud wraps and massages followed by another yummy dinner to make a nice end to our vacation. On a side note to any of our doggie friends, this place was super dog friendly and it has little cabins and such and we’d recommend it if you are traveling with your furry companions.

We woke up early and got on our way. We drove and drove and eventually arrived home early on Tuesday. We had a really great trip, but as always its always nice to get home. We enjoyed a nice quiet couple of hours of sleep before the cats woke us up. Aghh it’s good to be home!

So Saturday morning we went out for 1 last round of looking for wolves and photo ops.  We did see a group of at least 5 (i thought i saw a 6th) chasing bison for a little bit at Tower junction. They moved on fairly quickly and we didn’t really get any super photo ops of the wolves, but you can at least see them behind the bison.

We also have been noticing some issues with mange in the park. This set had at least 2 wolves that clearly had mange and i guess its pretty easy to spread along to other animals. It is also the mating season which means a lot of the males are out wandering looking for females. One in particular that morning looked an awful lot like a poodle, poor thing! We heard that the rangers actually introduced mange into the coyote population years and years ago in hopes that it would kill them off back when the wild dogs were considering a bad thing in the park. It seems that the coyote population is smaller now but all that we saw seemed very healthy so maybe it just needs to run its course and it will help produce healthier animals down the road.

After the wolves ran off we did a bit more trolling but had to head back to town since we had to check out late morning. We lucked out yet again and saw a “Sun Dog” – another phenomena with the snow crystals. We also saw the 3 bull elk we’d seen another morning back in the lakes area. They did some cool sparring and eventually crossed the road giving us some great photo ops to end our tour.

We checked out, and the rest of the group went on their way – either back to home in WY or on to the aiport to fly east. We wanted to say a big Thanks! to Dale and Mike as well as Rich and Art. Our week of photos with the group was an amazing one. It was a bit quieter without my photo gals, but super productive with what i’d consider to be some great photos and some fun video to boot.

On to the rest of the weekend!  We headed back into the park to go snowshoeing. We stopped to check out Wraith Falls which was just a short trail. We also decided to try just hiking a bit near Tower to get a bit more trail under our boots. Most of the trails were well groomed and we really didn’t need our snowshoes so we left them on the 2nd outing. We were a bit tired and turned around at a little lake that had some bison at it. As we turned around we took a close look at one of the skiers and we recognized our snowcoach driver from thursday, Zach an IL transport.  We found it kind of funny that will all the visitors to the park and with so many trails that we ran into him – a small world, small park!

Around 2pm we decided to see if we could check into the Mammoth Hotel we were staying in on Sat night. On our way to the hotel i noticed a lone black wolf watching us as we drove over the bridge just out side of mammoth. We pulled over to see if we could still see him just a bit past the bridge but we didn’t find him again. We just found it a bit funny that we’d be looking for wolves all morning and then midday we see 1 fairly close, not a 1/2 mile outside of mammoth where we’d be staying for the night!

We were able to check in and thought we’d check out the “boiling river” – an area where the spring from mammoth hot springs flows into the Gardiner River. It’s a really cool spot and has a bunch of terraces where the toasty water cascades over into the cold river. They have part of the river sectioned off and once you get into the warm cascading water its really quite nice, you can sit right at the base of a cascade and it flows right over you. You just have to be careful not to get too far into the cold water, in Feb it’s quite cold!  The only downside to our little outing was 1. that there were 2 buses so it was a bit crowded and 2. that in my rush to get dressed and get out of there i accidentally lost one of my most favorite hats. Still a but bummed about that but Bela was nice enough to buy me a very cute one from the gift shop.

We ended up enjoying Valentine’s Day Night with a few drinks from the bar and ordering our dinner to go (too late for reservations) which we enjoyed back in our room. We have to thank Beth, Oliver and Ty  at VE for our yummy dinner, they gave us a gift card to use in the park and we used it well – Bison meatloaf and idaho trout. It was REALLY good.  We were also were celebrating our 10th year of being together so it really made for a great gift.  We had no tv in our room (its a very old building) so we ended up playing cards out in the main hall which also made for a nice change as well.  Though if you are a light sleeper you might want to think about staying somewhere else – i slept ok but i guess the pipes were noisy and the walls are super thin- those old building designers knew nothing of sound suppression!

So friday was the last full day of the tour with Dale and after 5 full days of “photo-ing” bela decided that he’d like a day off, not that i blame him he was quite the trooper! Occasionally i’d pull the “give me that lens right off your camera” in the chaos of seeing cool animals so I commend him for lasting that long   So he enjoyed a down day of working on his book and i imagine a lot of vegging and tv time.   He was also quite smart as it was one of the coldest days we had in the park.

As we left Gardiner it was around 5 degrees dropping a few degrees as we drove through the park. Now the one good thing about the freezing cold in a wintry place is that there is some cool snow crystals that float around in the air and sometimes create cool phenomena – this morning it was a sun beam. So we made a stop as we saw some elk in a valley and thought it might make a cool elkscape.

Our first stop wasn’t our coldest either- that was probably only -5 or so, not so bad actually! We continued our way through Little America and saw some cool frosty bison. We’d been hoping for wolves but they seemed pretty quiet.

We continued on to Lamar Valley and with no wolves coming out to play we decided to take advantage of some really cool frosty trees along a little creek. This ended up being one of my favorite spots for landscapes for the day and I just kept shooting the steamy creek.  Unfortunately it was also the coldest spot we hit getting down to -17. I ended up having to break out foot and hand warmers which helped immensely.

We eventually moved on doing a couple of trips up and down the main road in hopes of more fun animals, we had a few sheep spottings far up a hill but nothing that called us so we decided to just do landscapes until something caught our eyes. And honestly after the previous day’s “catches” it’d be hard to follow so it was kind of fitting.  So we made a few more stops along the way to Cooke City – after which the road is closed – and took advantage of the blue skies and pretty vistas.

We had our lunch in Cooke City where it actually warmed up to 17 degrees- a 34 degree jump – heat wave! We saw a moose on the way off in the willows – not a photo op but cool to see yet another animal. On our way back the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep finally had worked their way down the hill so we were able to get a few shots of them eating their grass.

We again trolled for action, I think we may have heard some rumorings of wolves but no major sightings but i wasn’t complaining – i was looking forward to getting back at a decent time and getting some sleep

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

So Wednesday was another day of trolling for animals in the northern part of the park. We started off with our usual routine of getting breakfast up at Mammoth and then once the skies start brightening we start our driving. As we started out we noticed there were absolutely no cars on the way. This seemed quite odd considering we always would see at least a few “wolfies” with scopes and at least some tourists so it made us wonder. We heard a bit of chatter on the researcher’s channel on the radio so we soon understood that there was some action!

We made our way just past Tower Junction where there were a lot of vehicles.  We pulled into a sideroad pull off where just a few people were camped out.  It was a bit exciting from the start, we saw 2 wolves run down the hillside while stopping to howl back and forth to each other. They spent a little time howling then ran off down the valley. Another wolf followed but then got scared back into the trees where we believe at least 1 or 2 more wolves were hanging out as well due to the constant howling.  I think there may have been 1 or 2 MORE wolves off on another hillside but its hard to tell for sure as they were a bit far away and a few of them stayed out of sight.  I took some video (low quality video here!!!!) of a female howling and some answering howls. It was truly an amazing experience. I think we listened to the howling (and searching for the wolves) for quite some time but it never got old – so i can ALMOST understand why the wolfies hang out like they do Course i’d rather get pics haha!

We heard about a fresh carcass not far off the road and in plain sight if you hiked just a foot or two off the road. So we decided to wait to see if the wolves would come back to finish off their dinner. We waited for a bit by watching the ravens, magpies, and the occasional eagle fly around. Not long after a coyote decided to risk it and come in to steal some dinner.  We enjoyed watching him for a few minutes before he became too nervous and ran off.

Oddly watching the coyote tear at the carcass didn’t affect our appetites and it seemed quiet so we decided to go to town for lunch as well with the plan to return in the early afternoon in the hopes to catch some more action on the carcass. Bela decided to stay back to work on his book so i went out with the rest of the group for the afternoon.

We got to the hillside with the carcass after a small hike up the road from the “prime” pullout. Us midwesterners felt the altitude a bit and were a bit behind the others and not 2 seconds after we got to the hill someone whispers “wolf!” so I run up the hill to quickly set up my tripod and “big mama”. And there comes the Alpha Female, a beautiful white with black and gray, from the Agate Pack along with her new Alpha Male a cool black with awesome orangy eyes. The black decided to watch or guard her possibly, while she came in to have some dinner. They seemed a bit nervous, and i don’t blame them. When we first got there there only 2 other people and within a few minutes the hillside became peppered with more and more people.  A bus passed and we could see the pointing and excited faces. They all piled out of the bus and came down to view the wolves. They of course weren’t overly quiet and the wolves were scared off. We were very happy to have arrived when we did!  I also have some video of that as well – click here to see it – PG of course!

The rest of the late afternoon and evening were spent wolf watching at the carcass. We heard rumors of another wolf that had been chasing some elk just over the hilltop so we wandered over that way and saw the wolf and the elk cow that he’d been chasing. No cool action but wow he was a pretty wolf!

It was a crazy day and one that i’ll remember for some time – it was just amazing and i was so happy as i was secretly hoping for the exact situation – see wolves, hear howls and ultimately take photos! done, done and done!

On a random site note i wanted to mention the gear… we’ve had a few days now to figure out what we like and what we actually use. Right now I am loving my new D90 – having fun with the video as you will see when i finally get them uploaded. We’re also really enjoying the 80-400 VR lens i got recently. It is very handy to have in quick “grabshot” scenarios! So with that lens, my 18-200 that i’ve loved from the start (wide to med tele – awesome!!) and the 500mm rental we’re really able to capture all the park has to offer. So if you ever want to visit keep those lenses in mind as they are what i’d sugges.  (so Dear Santa, can i get a 500??!)

I need to get off to bed, i’m a day behind in blogging but i can’t wait to show you all the photos from today’s adventure to the interior once again – Canyon and Hayden valley this time with the Ultimate day of photography!!!!  Check back tomorrow for those pics !