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!
