Each winter I look forward to going to Yellowstone. I’ve been going to Yellowstone every winter since 2010, and each year I know something different will happen than what I have seen or photographed before. Twila and I went a few days before my photo tour started to shoot on our own, and on our first day we found a wolf! It doesn’t get much better than that! We were the only ones that knew it was around for 45 minutes, before it finally moved close enough to take photos. It decided to parallel the road for a while and gave us a chance to get some photos! What a start! We found other animals over those couple of days, but that was the highlight for sure.
On the first day of the photo tour, it got off to a great start! It was cold, but not super cold, but there was an inversion layer of fog that blanketed areas of the park. We found a bison resting in a thermal area, and waited on him to get up. It was worth it as he was heavily covered in frost and in a beautiful area! He even eventually came our way and gave us some close-up opportunities. We were finishing up with him when we got word wolves were seen, so we hurried to where they were. We got there in time to see the wolves chasing a herd of bison! So cool to see that happen! We were then in position to photograph the wolves as they moved around the herd. The rest of the day was slow, but the morning was incredible!
We were on the search for wolves on our 2nd morning, but after not finding them, we saw a group of bison potentially heading to a geyser basin. We headed to the basin and waited. We waited quite a while, and then it happened! I had wanted for years to photograph a bison walking through the orange thermophiles in a geyser basin, but hadn’t had the chance. Once the lead bison went, the entire herd followed and walked across the orange thermophiles! It was awesome! Later in that day we even got to photograph a pine marten! Another terrific day!
Our last day on the snow-coach we were again looking for wolves first thing, but didn’t see them again. It was foggy again, and we found a bison in a nice area and waited for him to move to the spot we wanted him to be. The scene of the area created some neat shots. We photographed more of the geyser basins and saw old faithful erupt. Our three days on the snow-coach were very productive!
The last few days of the tour we were on the northern range. We encountered moose, coyotes, bighorn sheep, bison, and distant wolves. It was neat to see a larger pack of wolves this time, but they were a long way away. The moose didn’t fully cooperate, even though we saw them numerous times, but the sheep did and gave us a couple of different good shoots. It was another very successful photo tour to Yellowstone! The past couple of years have been very good, and am already looking forward to next winter!
