photo safari

It was -26 when the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. yesterday. We were booked on the park's photo safari tour, which left at 8 a.m. We missed the first photo op when we failed to take a picture of my frozen eyelashes.

The photo safari is a guided snowcoach tour with a professional photographer; if you ever come to Yellowstone in the winter, I highly recommend this trip. The tour travels north through the geyser basin, and swings left along the Madison River, headed out towards West. Unlike the other park tours, since there's no final destination in mind you can stop and take photographs of just about whatever strikes your fancy, including wildlife.

Lisa, our guide, also taught the group about exposures, settings, and helped all of us navigate our own cameras. She was even able to give Steve tips for our little point-and-shoot (I was hogging the 35mm).

Despite the cold, it was a beautiful day with sun and blue skies and lots of steam. We saw a herd of bison, 5 bald eagles, 4 coyotes, a small herd of elk, and more trumpeter swans than we could count. There was a fresh elk carcass just off the road along the Madison River (about two miles west of the Madison junction), and we watched a couple of coyotes, 2 bald eagles, and several ravens feed on it throughout the afternoon.

When we got back to Old Faithful we heard that the Gibbon wolf pack has moved into the area. Cross your fingers that they stick around for a bit and we get a chance to see them, or at least their tracks.

Steve's photos:







Wendie's photos:

Landscapes

Bison

Coyotes

Eagles

snow machines!!

Snowmobiles are controversial in Yellowstone. This year 318 are allowed in, but you must be with a guide; you can't just show up at the gate and drive in on your own machine. Environmentalist want to limit their impact on the air and the wildlife; on the other side are people that point out that park is "for the people," not just the people that can afford a guide.

In the park, the snowmobile tours won't go if it's -20 or below. Walking to breakfast at 7 a.m., the temp hovered around -20. My eyelashes froze on the way to the lodge and kept sticking together. By 8 a.m. it had warmed to -15 so we were good to go. It was so cold that our helmets kept freezing over, not that I could see anyway with my frozen eyelashes--good thing Steve was driving.

Our first stop was at the West Thumb warming hut, and we all crowded around the wood stove and shoved extra warmers in our boots. Guests have seen otters here recently, so Steve went off to look for them (though sadly, he didn't find them.) Our guide told us that as we passed over the Continental Divide it was -20, -50 with the windchill.


The sun came up as we made our way to Lake Yellowstone. What a difference a week makes--the lake is now completely frozen over.


And Mr. and Mrs. Marshmellow posed for a picture


The outfit works better when you're actually on the machine


The sun was out and the sky was blue and we zipped through the forest


before coming out onto the frozen Hayden Valley.


There was a large herd (200+) of bison grazing in the valley


Before we stopped for lunch we made a detour to the Lower Falls. Last week it was so overcast we couldn't see much, but today the falls and the canyon were clear



We stopped at the Canyon warming hut for lunch, and then traveled West towards Madison

As we rounded the final stretch towards home, we stopped to watch the bison that were still making Biscuit Basin their home (and the small coyote that was running around behind them.)