A Bucket List Trip
Part 1. Northern Yellowstone.
I have lost count of how many times I have been to Yellowstone National Park. I have been there in the spring, summer, fall, and once a cursory drive by in very late winter, but it has long been on my bucket list to make a trip to the interior of the park in winter. This winter I was able to be part of a week long, small group photography tour of the park. Our group was composed of two professional photographer guides and six tour guests. We spent seven days exploring the park – four in the Mammoth and Lamar Valley areas and three full days in the interior of the park. The road between Gardiner and Cooke City remains open to vehicular travel all winter, but visitation to the interior is limited requiring snow coaches or snow mobiles operated by park approved concessionaires.
Let me take you through my camera to see some of this amazing winter wonderland.
This post will cover the part of the park that is accessible to automobiles during the winter months (purple highlighted area on map). Clicking on photos will enlarge them.
Our tour began with everyone meeting at Bozeman International Airport. From there we headed for two days based out of Gardiner. On the way, we stopped for a few photo ops such as this view of the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley, and then we visited the Cinnabar Basin which I had never explored before. Here we found bighorn sheep ewes, elk, pronghorns, and a herd of horses.
Pronghorns are not well suited for survival in harsh winter environments and leave the interior of the park for the warmer basin area.
During the winter months, the horses of outfitters are turned loose to roam the meadows of the basin.
The Road From Gardiner to Cooke City
Four of our tour days were spent scouring the 56 miles between Gardiner and Cooke City along Hwy 212 (purple highlighted area on map) for wildlife and any scenic photo ops that might appear.
As you enter the park from Gardiner, you drive through the Mammoth Hot Spring area. We spent a little time there late one afternoon exploring its travertine terraces.
As is true in other seasons, the Lamar Valley is home to many bison. Bison are uniquely built for surviving in harsh winter environments. Their heavy heads serve as snowplows. The hump on the back of the neck results from a neck and shoulder structure that allows the bison to swing its head from side to side plowing snow away exposing vegetation on which to graze. Thick coats keep them warm even when standing in water such as this youngster is doing.
Bighorn sheep live in social groups, however, except for during mating season, these are not mixed sex groups. Rams live in bachelor groups, and ewes live in herds along with lambs. Male lambs leave to join bachelor groups between 2 and 4 years of age while females remain in the herd for life. We came upon a group of rams in the Specimen Ridge area of the Lamar Valley. They picked their way uphill through the snow to this open area.
Elk are the most abundant large animals in Yellowstone. This is one of a group of three bachelor elk that we saw several times near the west entrance of the Lamar Valley. The growth of antlers is triggered by a drop in testosterone and lengthening of daylight. Bull elk typically lose their antlers as spring approaches in March or April. The antlers on this bull are last year’s growth.
Although I have not seen moose in Yellowstone during the warm summer months, we saw several in the Lamar Valley. All of them had already lost their antlers. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the pedicules on the head above the eye where the antlers will regrow in the spring. Shedding of heavy antlers helps moose conserve energy for winter survival. Since adult moose need to consume 10-12 pounds of food each day during winter, they migrate to the river valley were willow stems are available to eat.
There are three canine species in Yellowstone – red fox, coyote and wolf. The heirarchy among these canids is foxes are hunted by coyotes and coyotes by wolves. We did see one red fox in the interior, but I did not get a good photo of it.
We saw a number of very healthy looking coyotes prowling the Lamar Valley. We tracked this one running through the snow, and I was able to get a vantage point where it would run by for a good shot.
The one species that seems to always be high on everyone’s Yellowstone animal viewing list is the wolf, and it was high on the lists of the members of our tour. Unfortunately, wolf sightings are not that common. One late afternoon, we saw people with spotting scopes on top of a hill. After climbing through knee deep snow to the top of the hill and looking about half a mile across the valley below, this photo is what we could see in the distance through binoculars. These lumps are wolves taking their afternoon siesta in the snow. The 15 degree temperature did not seem to bother them at all. This photo was taken at 600 mm and severely cropped to magnify the lumps in the snow. If you count carefully, there appear to be 12 wolves in this photo. There was another that was lost in the cropping of the photo to accomplish the magnification. If you click on the photo, you can see them highlighted.
We thought we were very lucky to be able to check the wolf off our wish lists, even if they were far away and sleeping.
Late one afternoon in the Lamar Valley, we didn’t pay much attention to another coyote wandering past..until we realized that it was not a coyote, but rather, a lone wolf. It was amazing to see a wolf at such a relatively close range, only a few hundred yards away.
Although we spent most of our efforts in the Lamar Valley region looking for wildlife, we did take the opportunity to record some of the winter landscape.
When it is very cold, the moisture in the air can freeze on the branches of trees giving them a crystal effect. This photo was taken at sunrise when the temperature was -26 degrees Fahrenheit! Despite the extreme cold, it was a magical scene.
Stay tuned for a winter tour of the Yellowstone interior.
| Tour Information: Two professional photographer guides (Juan Pons and David Swindler) with six guests split into two 4WD vehicles. Four nights in Gardiner and three nights in West Yellowstone. Contacts (click links): Juan Pons Photo Tours Action Photo Tours |