02.13.09
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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Posted in photo, travel, vacation, yellowstone at 12:11 am by heidihoho7
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 !
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02.10.09
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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