Travelogues
2017 Summer Trip

Friday, May 26

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

The weather forecast called for rain today from 9:00 a.m. until noon. That was not good news, because today we moved to Fishing Bridge RV Park. We got up early and got Ruby hooked up to the motorhome before 9:00, when it was predicted to start raining. We reached Fishing Bridge just before 11:00, which was the earliest check-in time. We just finished getting everything set up in our campsite when it started snowing. It snowed for four hours, but because it was 37 degrees, the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground. The fir trees next to the motorhome got a light frosting of snow, and the roof of the Explorer even had a small buildup. Even though it melted almost immediately, the huge snowflakes floating down brought back great memories of our snow trips to Sequoia.

By 5:00, the sun was peeking through, so we decided to drive to Gull Point to shoot across Yellowstone Lake at the snow-covered mountains. The lake was choppy and clouds lingered over the mountains, so we'll have to return to this area and re-shoot it with better light.

We continued our explorations by driving north to Hayden Valley. This has always been a great area for wildlife. Our first stop was to shoot reflections in a glass lake in the bottom of the valley. There is so much water in the rivers and streams that they are overflowing everywhere. These overflow ponds are shallow and create nearly perfect reflections. We hiked down to the pond from the parking area and gingerly crossed a swampy area to reach the pond. Clouds still floated across most of the sky and were reflected in the water.

We only had to drive a short distance up the road before we saw a group looking across the valley with their spotting scopes. That's a pretty sure sign that there are wolves in the area. With some help from the other photographers, we found the wolf and photographed him for nearly an hour. He was a LONG way away, but he was very active. We first saw him on the hillside on the east side of the Yellowstone River. He crossed the river and moved west to check out a small herd of elk, carefully bypassed a group of bison, and hunted for ground squirrels. After he checked out the area, he turned around, re-crossed the river, and climbed the hillside to a new area for hunting. This time his hunting was more successful, and those with the serious spotting scopes told us he was enjoying his meal.

Black Wolf Black Wolf, Elk, & Bison
Black Wolf Black Wolf, Bison, and Elk

A group of white pelicans and their encounter with a great blue heron also drew our attention while shooting the wolf. The great blue heron had a backwater channel of the Yellowstone River all to itself and was hunting for fish. But then a group of six white pelicans decided to join him. There was an initial standoff, but the heron eventually gave in and flew off. He was clearly outnumbered. The pelicans swam in formation to fish, first by driving the fish into an area and then forming a circle to surround them and grab them. Their teamwork was impressive.

White Pelicans Canadian Geese

We drove a little farther north in Hayden Valley to another reflecting area created by a stream that had flooded. It had beautiful reflections of the clouds when we drove by. But by the time we hiked back from the pullout, a giant cloud filled most of the sky and the magical lighting was gone. This is another area I want to re-shoot in better light.

We got back to camp after 10:00, and we had another very late dinner. By the time we downloaded images, we were wiped out. In 8 nights so far on the trip, we've only watched a movie one night.