Yellowstone 7/10

[stingrey]

Not sure if you guys can check out the pics without having FB or not, but if you can (or if you have Facebook), feel free to have a look... Story will be composed later, for now just trying to put the pics up:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27522&id=124123460932334&ref=nf

If that link doesn't work, have a look using this link:

http://mothernatureframed.com/Mother_Nature_Framed%21/Yellowstone_07_10.html

If neither link works, that's just the way it is going to be for now since I'm heading to bed in a bit!



Please feel free to share the links... Especially the facebook one... I am trying to drum up some support on the "fan" page and can use all the help I can get!

Btw, it is WAY hotter here in San Antonio than it was in YS. Mid 60's to mowing the yard in the mid 90's. I think I lost 3lbs today alone after just mowing the yard!

[Al]

Not sure if you guys can check out the pics without having FB or not, but if you can (or if you have Facebook), feel free to have a look... Story will be composed later, for now just trying to put the pics up:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27522&id=124123460932334&ref=nf

If that link doesn't work, have a look using this link:

http://mothernatureframed.com/Mother_Nature_Framed%21/Yellowstone_07_10.html

If neither link works, that's just the way it is going to be for now since I'm heading to bed in a bit!



Please feel free to share the links... Especially the facebook one... I am trying to drum up some support on the "fan" page and can use all the help I can get!

Btw, it is WAY hotter here in San Antonio than it was in YS. Mid 60's to mowing the yard in the mid 90's. I think I lost 3lbs today alone after just mowing the yard!

Both links work and I am not a member of Facebook. Absolutely beautiful pictures!  Please tell us more about the trip.

Al

[stingrey]

Al, thanks for the heads-up... And here's a report! Some of the dates/times may be sketchy, but this is how I remember it at the moment:

This year's outing to Yellowstone was a complete blast! Kim and I flew into Salt Lake City where our journey would begin and set out late at night on 7/9. Turns out there was a good deal of construction that kept us from leaving the immediate area in a quick and efficient manner, so we stayed somewhere in SLC for the night. We got off to an early start, though, and managed to hit Jackson Hole at about lunch time to have waffles at the top of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Tramway.

After having our fill and then riding around on the ski lifts for a bit, we headed off to our next leg of the journey... Yellowstone... That included a pass-through of Grand Teton National Park. On the way in, we saw an elevated platform made for nesting birds. An osprey was tending to the nest and made my first shot using the big daddy lens for this outing. The second time I drew the lens did not yield the same results. A HUGE bull moose was walking through the trees at an intersection in the park, but it was in dense cover.

We drove on thinking *maybe* we'd see another moose. Big mistake. As big as they are, moose seem be the least noticeable creatures on my list. All of the sightings I've had of moose have been fleeting back ends or halves masked by dense cover. In hindsight, even though it would've added to the travel time I probably should have taken a bit longer to circle around and see if that big fella would have come back out to play for a bit.

(I think) We entered YS on the West Thumb side. Not looking at a map, but that sounds about right. On the way in we passed by a good deal of bison and made our first stop at the sulphur cauldron area. Killdeer posed nicely while I admired them for standing in the hot water without incident. From what I remember, we pretty much drove on through the afternoon to make the hotel by nightfall stopping time and again for bison crossing and elk traffic jams.

The next morning (7/11) we went out to the Slough Creek area to see what was going on. Aside from nothing, I noticed a prairie dog standing up chirping in the direction behind where we were facing. I looked back and sure enough there was something going on. A coyote! I love seeing those guys. They always seem to be on a mission when they are on the move. He wasn't having much luck finding a meal with all of the attention being given by the prairie dogs.

After leaving the Slough Creek area, we ran into another traffic jam... A bison was walking right down the road on the right side, at least... Cars coming from the other direction were a bit in awe. I managed to snap a quick picture of a Prius coming from the opposite direction while the buffalo lumbered down the road at their own pace. We pretty much just drove around the rest of the day (and the rest of our stay for that matter) stopping wherever we felt like and walking a trail here and there.

Marmots were out in full force. I didn't spot any pika this time around. The weather was AWESOME. I'm from San Antonio to those who don't know, and it was a big change going from approximate 70something highs to mowing the yard yesterday in mid 90 temps. The nights were chilly, but I wanted to wear my jacket when I could anyway since the mosquitoes were really bad in some areas.

While crossing the Tower area somewhere we ran into a sow and two cubs a few times, though she was always a good way off or causing problems for the rangers/traffic. I figured our time would come so I didn't really spend a whole lot of time waiting on the far away grizzly family. We woke up on 7/12 to take a semi-early morning drive and got to watch an American Kestrel hover and hunt for a good while, then we were off to Tower.

Just around the corner we came upon a Texas-sized black bear. In THIS case, Texas-sized bears are usually not very large... So by that I mean a nice reasonable sized bear who posed quite nicely for me. We saw an osprey nest with three babies, some waterfalls, more geothermal features, and then some elk running and then swimming across the water. Turns out we couldn't see it, but a wolf or two were the triggers that caused this event. We were getting close!

We then went to spot some wolves. Turns out that although we saw a white or gray wolf in the Lamar Valley area, they were a considerable distance, so even though it was exciting to see the pronghorn flee for their lives when a wolf gave chase, it was only very faint glimpses of color flashing through the sage that we were treated to... Even with binoculars and a spotting scope.

On the way from this area to the hotel we saw TWO badgers not more than 5 miles apart. They sure do disappear quick, so I wasn't able to pull off a worthy picture of the critters. The same day was spent in and around Lamar where we were treated to a grizzly giving chase to a bison herd. Turns out that the grizzly found itself in the midst of a much larger contender than it thought when the whole herd surrounded him and chased him off! That was great. Got some fun long distance photos, but almost wish I had been filming that instead. The range would've made for a grainy video though.

7/13 was spent packing up the room and heading towards the snow lodge (Old Faithful) area. Before we left we took one more drive through the upper Mammoth area where the cave-like formations are. This is where one of the most unexpected sightings occurred. A bull snake! It was approximately 4 foot long from what I could tell if it would've been straightened out from end to end. He was at one of the more attractive formations that I wanted to spend time at, and only for a few minutes, so I completely lucked out on this sighting.

The snake seemed to want to get warm, and the water was helping it do that, but as it approached the top of the geyser the water got too hot and the snake recoiled and quickly retreated to another side of the feature where it couldn't be seen anymore. THAT was the thrill of the day for me. We headed out of the park on the west side and went to the grizzly and wolf center outside of the park. That place is pretty fun. We got there right at 1pm and they had a birds of prey presentation where we got to check out a couple of owls, then we headed back to the park and stopped at the snow lodge and an Old Faithful display. She was running a few minutes late, but it was still a nice show.

Later that afternoon we drove up the road where firehole river is (or whatever the hot spring river is called) and spotted a family of 8 raccoons walking down the river where mom led the group. THAT was fun! On the way home, we saw fish jumping out of the water. They were picking off low flying bugs that were flying over the river. That was pretty fun as well. Really everything that we saw was pretty cool.

7/14 we headed to the overlook to catch Grand Prismatic from above. I had my camera ready for osprey 'cause I had a feeling. Sure enough one flew over and I got a nice shot of one of those in flight. It is probably my nicest in-flight shot so far. Then we made it to the overlook trails. We went left instead of right and I broke a tree on my knee. Aside from the small gash, it didn't really mess me up that bad. And like I said, I broke the tree. Kim and I both heard the thick branch stem that was protruding crack when my knee ran into that thing. Small price to pay for seeing Grand Prismatic from above. That place is awesome!

Took plenty of pics there  and then headed back. On the way back we saw a sage grouse that must've been the size of a chicken (maybe it wasn't a grouse, it was HUGE) crossing the road at the Tower area. By the time we were finishing up the day it was nighttime. Saw a fox running down the road with some prey and somehow pulled off a picture of that guy, though it took some steering assistance and a complete absence of traffic coming from either direction. Thankfully people tend to avoid being on the roads at night, so that wasn't a problem on the long straight stretch of road where we were.

The next day (7/15) was up in the air. I wanted to see an identifiable wolf, but Lamar didn't seem to cut it distance-wise. So we went to Hayden Valley to check out that overlook for a while. Almost exactly after we parked, a dark spot emerged from the sage in an area where nobody was looking at first. A wolf! The black wolf crossed from left to right starting far enough to the left where I could set up and practice some long range shots with and without the extender. In the end I think that my pics with the extender were comparable to the ones without, so I may just sell that thing. Not sure. Either way we got to watch something that was unmistakable. A wolf on the prowl... For a good long time.

We ended up heading to the east exit and back after that. Took some pics, bought some souvenirs, spotted some birds of prey, an eagle, a hawk with something in its talons, and then started to head back for the final night. Momma griz was on the prowl with her two cubs again! Got some poor pictures of her in bad light (wish I knew what I was doing with a camera) and called it an early night.

We left the next morning pretty early to make it to Salt Lake City's Timpanogos Cave and made the last cave tour of the day. That cave is NOT Texas-sized. At over 6 ft tall, walking through that thing was very tedious for me. I felt like I could stand upright at any moment and break off millions of years worth of growth... So I walked crouched down for most of the trek. My legs are still sore from that hike even today a full three days later! :)

[bjbriggs]

Thanks, You got some good photo's.  We were in Yellowstone July 4 and my daughter in law got a photo of that bull snake at Mammoth Hot Springs also.  Neat......

[Sotol Vista]

excellent shots Rey!!!! you had a lot of good critter sitings...

James

[CactusFlower]

Great pictures, I particularly like the one with the buffalo drinking at the bend in the river. 

[randell]

As usual - you are a wildlife magnet.  I'll be the first in line to buy a bottle of your wildlife-attractant when you start selling it.  Freakin' awesome pics!   They need captions. 

[stingrey]

Haha! :) When I figure out how I do it, I PROMISE I'll share my insight! I will work on the captions shortly... If you noticed, there were no people in the pics. I have another round of action shots with people in 'em along with some other just flat out wildlife-free pics that I need to post as well.

I've been tied up getting squared away from the return, but I promise that I WILL add some captions to all of the pics shortly! Hopefully by week's end.