Panos

Moose, if you are reading this, rest easy. No more than 6 pictures were taken for any of these (I think 5 was the average)

Wednesday: Wile E. Coyote and Porky Pine

Now all we needed to see was the RoadRunner to have a looney tunes trifecta today!

This Coyote has been fed so many times by passers by, that he has lost most of his fear of people and simple works the roads/parking lots between Madison and Norris for free hand-outs. Once we figured this out, coaxing him in by making throwing motions and rustling plastic wrappers was of no problem.


On the way out of the park this morning, we were tipped off to this little critter by a visitor who had pulled over to get a picture of him. He was very shy and didn't give us a lot to work with, but man, they are way more green over here than in the U.P. for some reason...




However, I cannot post about today without mentioning the great sunrise we had to greet us. This is the steam coming off of the madison river, however Moose captured the sunrise the best (from what I've seen)

Tuesday: Moose Sightings!

Sorry for not posting last night, but the internet went down here at the hotel.

We had a full day today (yesterday, whatever...)

The day started off amazing with a bald eagle perching just above where we parked to take out our equipment. We drove through a small herd of elk cows and shot from the car, headed to Lower Yellowstone Falls to do some landscape work, Stopped on the road to shoot a Blue Grouse (I bet the people driving by were really confused...), continued on to West Thumb and shot endangered Trumpeter Swans in the Yellowstone River.


[I take in a deep breath...]

Then when we got to West Thumb we played around in the West Thumb sub-caldera-esque area, drove through a herd of bison on the way back to the west entrance, then - the icing on the cake - saw a relative of Moose's - an actual Moose! Moose in Yellowstone have become more and more rare since the reintroduction of wolves in 1995. I don't know about you, but I definitely see the resemblance.

Monday

here are some pictures from today:


The first shots of the morning - steam from vents between Madison and Norris. Captured with Nikon D300 and Nikkor 200-400mm hand held (10 shot pano)


It was a bit cold in the morning, the bison didn't mind much, and we all learned a very valuable lesson that will not soon be forgotten. Captured with Nikon D300, Nikkor 200-400mm with TC1.4E


The afternoon session wasn't so successful, back-lit bison was about all to be found until we saw some other park visitors (and a ranger) gathered on the side of Firehole Drive - A grizzly was munching on the remains of a roadkill bison. Because of the number of tourists, we didn't take tripods - captured with Nikon D300, Nikkor 200-400mm, Hand held.

Now how about some more shots from Yesterday!


HDR of the Hot Springs at Mammoth



River (Madison?) that flows past the Sheepeater Cliffs



The Top of the Mammoth Hot Springs


Bison just off the road (near Norris, I think... I'll have to get the GPS data from Steve)

The First 1630

Steve, Scott, and I went into the park this morning to get our week off to a good start, and boy did we!

we started at old faithful geyser for sunrise, then went all over the northwest corner of the park to Sheepeater Cliffs, Mammuth Hot Springs, Artistic Paint Pots, and a few other places. We got shot some stunning landscapes, and of course stopped for the wildlife!

the list thus far (seen at Yellowstone)
Bison
Coyote
Elk
Yellow Bellied Marmut
Trumpeter Swan

here are a few shots, I've got 1628 more too, so don't worry - plenty of visual stimulation to follow for the next week!



Captured by Nikon D300, 14-24mm Nikkor lens



Captured by Nikon D300, 200-400mm Nikkor lens + Nikkor TC1.4E

The Time is Nigh!

I woke up this morning at 3:45 to catch my flight from Indy. The plane was one of those small jets that holds like 50 people max and we had to walk out onto the tarmac. Watching the sunrise over Indianapolis from 10,000 feet was quite beautiful, I only wish I had brought my camera with me (our "carry on" was stowed in the cargo hold because of the limited space in the plane itself).

When I got to Cincy, there was (and at this point still is) no gate info for my flight to Minneapolis, so I found where the rest of the delta flights to Minneapolis were leaving from, hopped the shuttle to another terminal (this place is huge) and lo and behold there is the gate all set up for my flight. Well, I hope my luck keeps up through the rest of the day/week.

**Update**
I'm now sitting in my hotel room at the West Yellowstone Holiday Inn local time 8:07. let me run you through the rest of my trip.

While waiting for the plane in cinci, we had a delay - not a mechanical problem - the pilot was missing, so we got set back half an hour. after that we got to Minneapolis where I had a whopping 25 minutes until my next flight left and let me tell you - huffing it across MSP with 30lbs of photo stuff on my back and another 15 in my shoulder bag is no easy task (it felt like I was being red carded again!). I made it to the flight just fine. Finally a break in my luck - the first two planes were small connecting flights that sat only about 50 people - we had to hand stow our carryons under the plane. this flight was your standard 737-esque plane so none of that (thankfully). I was sitting in a row of three chairs and no one sat in the middle (so basically a free upgrade!). I had the window seat, the view was beautiful, and i even managed a 10 minute power nap.

I waited for my ride (Steve and Scott) to arrive by demolishing a bacon cheeseburger in the Bozeman airport restaurant. Once they got there, we loaded up the fan, fiddled with the GPS, and struck out for West Yellowstone. The ride was amazing! we saw a few birds, but no big game, on the way. After checking in, we hit up the local grocery store for some supplies, and hit one of the only two restaurants that are still open this time of year.

I'm tired now and Steve, Scott, and I are heading out tomorrow morning for sunrise with Old Faithful then a trip to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Ta-Ta for now, I'm gonna play with my new (rented) toys before I'm off to bed.