Wildlife Expedition
Today was the first day of the Memorial Day Weekend, so we wanted to be as far away from the main attractions as possible. We decided that we'd hit the two main wildlife areas in the park: Hayden Valley and La Mar Valley. They certainly didn't disappoint us.
Although we've shot lots of bison, our first stop was to shoot a group of bison feeding in a meadow near the Yellowstone River with billowing steam from a geyser as a background. We compared photography notes with a couple from Pomona before we continued north to photograph a golden eagle feasting on its breakfast.
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The first bearjam of the day was between Hayden Valley and Dunraven Pass. A huge black bear was on a hillside digging for bulbs, corms, roots or something. She was probably a 100 yards away and moved back and forth across the hillside to dig up her food. She drew quite a crowd and kept us entertained for an hour.
As we neared Calcite Spring near Tower Falls, we saw a couple of bighorn sheep on a ridge above the highway.
As soon as we parked, they disappeared. We grabbed our cameras and hiked down the highway until we could climb the ridge. In a little pocket just
over the ridge was a herd of bighorn sheep ewes. They all seemed relatively young and small. They were very tame and continued to walk toward us
as they fed on the grasses. We had to move back as they
continued to approach. The only problem was that they were in a very ugly area filled with downed trees. It was nearly impossible to get an image
of a bighorn without another sheep, tree trunk, or dead tree limbs
in the picture. It was a great experience to be that close to the bighorn sheep and watch them, but it was very tough photographically.
People driving by saw us photographing up on the ridge, and we soon had a small group photographing with us. They told us about a bear with cubs just down the road, so we walked back to Ruby to get our tripods and then walked down the road to the bears. The first bear with cubs moved up the hill and into the forest as soon as we arrived. We got a few fleeting glimpses of a second mother bear and her two cubs, but they were in such a thick stand of bushes and trees, that we couldn't get any clear shots.
After lunch, we continued to the La Mar Valley. We saw huge herds of bison throughout the La Mar Valley, but we'd already shot bison much closer to the road. Pronghorn antelope were also scattered across the valley floor. We normally see pronghorn in small herds, but today we saw individual pronghorn moving up and down the valley. There are more majestic and more powerful animals in Yellowstone, but the distinct markings on the pronghorn make them one of my favorite animals to photograph. And when they run, they are one of the most graceful and fluid-looking animals you'll ever see.
We drove east as far as Trout Creek. We are planning to hike up to Trout Lake to see if we can find the otters, but today the sky was completely overcast. We'll have to try again when the conditions are better.
We photographed an osprey nest on the way back to camp. The osprey nest was huge and has probably been used for multiple generations. It was impressive.
We even made it back to camp before dark.
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