The Yellowstone Adventure
Yellowstone is indeed a national treasure — beautiful scenery and an abundance of wildlife making it a photographer’s paradise. I planned this trip many months ago as my first adventure with Backcountry Journeys and then I added on a few more days of solo travel throughout the park. The combination of a guided visit, with like-minded photographers and an amazing guide, and my self-paced adventure following some recommendations from Tiffany, our guide, was absolutely perfect.
The weather created both challenges and dynamic opportunities. There was snow. There was rain. There was sunny days. Mornings were chilly with a few days having a noticeable bite but then warming up nicely as the day went on. This certainly lent credence to the “dress in layers” mantra.
I had two “base camps” for this trip. The first in Gardiner, the small town built specifically to support Yellowstone. My solo adventures were based out of Mammoth Hot Springs. Essentially, everything started from the North entrance. I didn’t make it to more populated locations such as Old Faithful — the time required to be in the car to be crammed next to all the tourists to try to capture the geyser erupting against a while cloud background (read - it wouldn’t show anything) just didn’t appeal to me. So, I spent most of my time looking for, and finding, wildlife with some landscape and geological features that Yellowstone is famous from Lamar Valley to Hayden Valley and over Dunraven Pass.
I’ll probably blog about some specific animals or sightings in more detail. In a general sense, I got to photograph wildlife that I have never captured before. A black bear, coyote, wolves, pronghorn, and even pika. I also had several opportunities to capture grizzlies digging and getting ready for their soon to come slumber. Just an amazing feeling to be out amongst such incredible animals. There were also opportunities to capture the iconic Artist Point view and geological features such as the Roaring Mountain or Devil’s Thumb. I hope you come back to visit as I dive more deeply into some of the specific wildlife and describe the images in more detail. For now, enjoy these photos by clicking on one to open a lightbox to scroll through them.
