Another early start. To get to one of the most promising areas for critter sightings, I needed to get myself over to Lamar Valley, but that was about 2 hours away from our campground... I couldn't quite bring myself to a 4am alarm, but I did get up at 5:30am, and turns out, that worked pretty well. A lot of animals were in position and ready for me by the time I arrived in the valley...! This was an early sighting, before it was really even light out - an elkling.
The other car and I weren't the only ones crossing over this Yellowstone River bridge!
It was funny watching this guy swing his head back and forth, with very exaggerated motions. Here, he wasn't really looking at me so much as I caught his head swing in my direction!
It was just a few minutes later that I (and a bunch of other people!) came across this herd of bison. You can see how some of them are still in transition to their summer coats.
Baby bison.
Nothing like a good roll! Kick up those heels and throw some dust around! Mmm, good!
The most impressive part of hanging out near the bison were the big potent males, trying their best to convince the ladies of their superiority. Huffing and puffing, swaggering, thrashing any trees who dared be in their way - as this one dared. Maybe it's just because I'm a female, but I was impressed!
One of the best parts of this morning was the patch of antelope I spotted in the sagebrush, very close to the road.
Most of them were laying down so no one else had discovered them yet.
A little head-butting practice...
Given the chance to see them more up-close, you might say they are a little funny-looking...
"Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play..."
It's a family thing...
At another stop, where there was a guy with a serious video camera (turns out he shoots for Nat. Geo.), I tried to see the wolf he had seen just before I got there. I never did see his wolf, but I did see this antelope crossing the river, who seemed to also be seeing the invisible wolf!
OK, here's the "dot picture." See that brown dot just above and to the right of the bushes? Well that's a griz! There were three or four of them out that morning, but this was as good a photo as any I got of them! Just too far away to pull in with my 400mm!
Nice backdrop though, eh?
Bison and Rock.
Bison and Tree.
The Yellowstone River.
Flowers on the way back, enroute to Dunraven Pass.
Up on Chittenden Rd to Washburn Mt.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Falls at the Grand Canyon.
"On the way" back, I went to the Fairy Falls parking area and took the trail to the hill where you can clamber up and get as close to an aerial view of the Grand Prismatic Springs as possible, lacking an airplane or helicopter.
Pretty cool look-out, yeah? That hill's a dusty, straight-up adventure. If you ask me, they should put in a formal trail as practically everyone knows about it and does it, but since there's no established path, they thrash the whole hill. But then, you didn't ask me (and neither did "they"), so...
Back at the campground, the lake was swarming with ospreys, busy fishing. The light was good (well, occasionally it was - between clouds!), and sometimes the ospreys got kind of close. So it was a good time to try a little bird photography. I need a lot more practice and a longer lens, but it was fun trying!
No comments:
Post a Comment