Each winter I am excited to see what my group will get to see in Yellowstone. The great thing about wildlife, is that you never know, and that brings excitement along with it. I had some returners from last year, and that always makes the trip enjoyable!

For the interior part of the trip, we had some really great bison encounters! On the 2nd morning of the trip, we were out early and found a couple of large bison in the thermal areas, and they were hanging out in a steamy area. It was awesome when the sun came out and ignited that steam in a golden hue! It was fun photographing those bulls as we were off the road and by ourselves. Those types of moments are my favorite!

We then found a herd of bison that were quite frosty. The fog came in and out, and they slowly moved our direction. It was a great setting as they were near a river and that gave us some great background opportunities. Also, the sun was getting higher, and we played more with black and white situations, which was fun for the group to try new techniques out. The next morning, we found a bison in a different steamy area as the sun was coming up, and it was great because he was walking our way in the beautiful light! We also found a coyote eating on a frozen stashed swan, which was interesting.

When we got to the northern range, we were not in the park long when we found a red fox. Everyone enjoys photographing a red fox, and I was excited to find one after not seeing any the first few days. We hiked some trying to find it again, but we went back to the car, and as we got back to the car, we found him again! We were then able to watch and photograph him for a good while as he searched the snow for food. We saw some nice deer and bull elk later that day too.

We were up early the next morning looking for moose, and it paid off getting up so early. We found some moose as the sun came up, and not long after they bedded. But we were able to get some good shots before they bedded. Later we went and looked for a nice bull elk we had seen the evening before, and were able to find him. He was up a hill, so some of us trekked up to try to get shots of him. In the end our persistence and patience paid off with some nice shots!

The next morning, we saw otters and a weasel, but they were too quick and left before we could get any photos. It is always neat to see them, but photos are nice too. We ended up spending time with a group of bighorn sheep, and one of the males was really nice. The only thing missing was wolves, and on the very last morning we took a quick trip into the park, and there they were! Well not quite like that, because it was so dark at first you could barely see them, but we could hear them howling! As the sun came up we were able to get some photos and it made for a great way to end the trip!

It’s always good to be heading back to Yellowstone in the winter! It’s normally been a couple of months since I’ve photographed by the time I go to Yellowstone, and I don’t like going that long between shoots. With winter weather you never know what you will get either, and that is exciting to me.

Pick up day went smooth, and I could tell it was going to be a fun group! The first few days we spend it on a private snowcoach in the interior of the park, which is always fun. In the morning we didn’t find much, but were on the trail of a wolf. We ended up seeing it, but only briefly and never got a photo opportunity. Around lunch time we found a pine marten! Weasels are always fun to photograph, because you don’t see them very often. This marten really put on a show for us and bounced around the trees in front of us and stayed in photographable range for a long time! It was a real treat!

On our 2nd day we found some nice frosty bison! Frosty bison are iconic to Yellowstone, but the conditions have to be just right for the bison to get frosty. We managed to find a couple different groups of bison that were frosty, and that made my clients happy. We spent a long time with them, and in the afternoon, we went looking for anything we could find. We just missed a bobcat sighting, but a little while later we got to see it! Seeing a wild cat is always a treat, and this bobcat was on the move. It was moving along the hillside across the river from us, but it went into a couple of openings and gave us an opportunity to get a clean shot of it! Pine martens, frosty bison, and a bobcat!! A truly great start!

Day 3 was slow until there was an ornery bison. We came upon a photo group with a couple of bison and all seemed normal. Out of nowhere, this other bison came running along and decided he didn’t like the people. I felt so bad for the people because the bison truly came from nowhere and charged right at them. I had never seen a photo group move so fast before, but I would have been moving just as fast. Thankfully the bison stopped before hitting anyone, but it was a wild scene. My group was very thankful we were in the coach and not outside.

We went to the northern range after being in the interior and had a great first shoot! We found some bighorn sheep, and one was a very large ram. They were near the river and in no hurry to go anywhere. It started snowing while we were there and had so many great photo opportunities with the sheep! We did see a large wolf pack later in the day, but they were very far away.

A highlight from the next couple of days was finding some bison in a white out. They were hard to see, and difficult to photograph, but the setting was very neat and it kept changing as the clouds moved in and out. On the last full day, it was snowing very hard. And it snowed hard all day. That was unfortunate, as in the morning the large wolf pack was not that far away, but because it was snowing so hard it was hard to see them and we couldn’t get any good photos. But seeing them not that far away, and hearing them howl, was fun. We didn’t find much else due to the heavy snow.

When we left the park, I drove down a side road, and all of a sudden there were hundreds of bison and elk in the valley! It was an amazing sight to see that many animals at one time! The drive back to Bozeman was absolutely horrendous due to icy roads and wind blowing sideways across the road strongly. It was a slow go, but we got to Bozeman and said goodbye until the next trip. Another fun and great Yellowstone tour was finished, and I am already looking forward to next years!