Yellowstone Trip #1 - Winter Wildlife Wonderland
If the title or banner did not give it away the first adventure we will be taking together is to Yellowstone National Park. I was able to visit Yellowstone three times in March before the park closed on the 23rd due to Covid-19. In fact this entire adventure was made possible by Covid-19 and my office transitioning to work from home. Seeing the writing on the wall I had already fled Seattle to my parents house in Idaho. I decided though that if I can work remotely from home I can work remotely from anywhere. So I packed up my laptop and camera and decided to head over to Montana to stay with in-laws. Basing out of Bozeman I was within striking distance of Yellowstone on the weekends while still being able to work during the week.
During my first trip in to Yellowstone on March 14th winter was still in full swing. Being this early in the season 90% of the park was closed. The only road that was open though was the only road I was interested in, Grand Loop Road. I entered the park through the Gardiner entrance which took me in through Mammoth, WY. I did drive the Grand Loop Road and North East Entrance Road nearly all the way to Silver Gate. Though I quickly realized that all of the wildlife action was clustered before Tower Junction. Specifically I found the vast majority of my wild encounters isolated to the valley near Blacktail Deer Creek.
To I am sure no ones surprise the animal I saw the most of was our bovine friends Bison. Buffalo were everywhere and with the deep snow still in the fields and the sparse traffic on the roads they have clearly came to the conclusion that the roads were built for them. At least a dozen times I found myself stopped, waiting patiently for the Buffalo to cross or even sitting still as they passed by me in the other lane. On a few occasions while I was waiting and enjoying watching them a less patient Park Ranger would come to the rescue and chase them back off the road.
I also got a chance to see a pair of coyotes in the valley. I think I saw a small pack of wolves but sadly I am not 100% sure since they were really really far away. From clear across the valley even with my 100-400mm and my 1.4x tc they were still quite small. Digitally even when cropped they didn't have the detail needed for me to say wolf or coyote. The main thing that makes me say wolves is it was a pack of four/five of them and I do not believe coyotes travel in more than mated pairs of two.
Wolves (maybe) and Coyotes are cool but they did not hold a candle to the main event for the day. I was lucky enough to encounter a freshly awoken Grizzly Bear!! But not only did I get to see a Grizzly Bear, but the Grizzly Bear I did see decided to treat me dinner. He had found a carcass that was submerged and frozen in Blacktail Pond and was kind enough to eat it for me on camera!! To top it all off after the Bear had had is fill one of the Coyotes wandered over to enjoy some of the leftovers itself.
The Wildlife from this trip was amazing, but unfortunately the photography was well, it was frustrating. Snowfall and heavy snowfall at that made for very difficult and limited photography. I was able to make it work with some photos, Bear in Blizzard. But I found that overall Videography worked better because the falling snowflakes were less of an obstruction. With still photos the frozen in place snowflakes in front of the animals stood out more. I did learn my first hard lesson about Videography though on this trip. When filming 4K make sure the write speed of your SD Card is up to the task. I learned that mine it turns out is not and my videos would drop, often at the worst times. This cost me a handful of really neat clips, but I learned a lesson that day. Though I do think that I did manage to still get a lot of good footage despite it.
Overall despite the full onslaught of Jack Frost experiencing Yellowstone as a winter wonderland was a great experience. The best part being that animals are much easier to spot against a snowy background! Though maybe a little less falling snow next time, but I did not mind it on the ground.
Keep an eye on my Instagram for photos from Yellowstone. See you all next Monday for my Yellowstone Week #2 report! ;)