As we enter a new year, I am in the old familiar situation of being behind on my blog again. The summer and fall months are so busy, I don’t take the time to post things. And then as winter settles in and things slow down, I finally have a chance to reflect. Overall I had a pretty good summer and fall seasons. I had trips to the Oregon coast, Glacier National Park, senior portrait sessions, the elk rut and a lot of smaller outings closer to home. I did have a bit of a health setback late in the summer/early fall that did slow me down for a while though. Photography wise, I was blessed this year with having several photos published in various publications, sold some prints and had multiple inquiries into leading tours and what not. I will post a few highlights for now, but I may do full length posts later from these trips depending on how the winter goes. If you are interested in more information about any of these, let me know.
You can select individual photos for a larger view.
I just returned from a quick trip to Yellowstone National Park with my wife, which is what kind of inspired me to get caught up again. I enjoy visiting Yellowstone in the winter, with the smaller crowds and slower pace it’s just a lot more fun. This winter has been a little strange with the warm temperatures and the lack of snow, but we still found plenty of wildlife in the park. We stayed two nights in Gardiner, MT that gave us plenty of time to get out and see what we wanted to see. The road between Gardiner and Cooke City remains open all winter, so you can visit this area (which includes the Lamar Valley) in your own personal vehicle. There are snow coaches that access other areas of the park, which are great choices too, but for this trip we decided to just access what we could on our own. We ended up staying at The Ridgeline Hotel, and with it being the off season we actually got a pretty good rate. The hotel had a pool, a hot tub and a couple of outdoor, but covered, seating areas that included an open fire. There was a restaurant (Yellowstone Mine and Rusty Rail Lounge) adjacent to the hotel as well, which was really convenient and we really enjoyed our meal there. We also ate at the Cowboy’s Lodge and Grill that was pretty good too.
The terraces at Mammoth Hot Spring in Yellowstone National Park.
On your way from Gardiner into the valley, of course you have to stop at Mammoth Hot Springs and look around. The hotel there is open in the winter, but it is more expensive and has more limited availability as compared to staying outside of the park. The dining room and the General Store were open as well, but many of the other shops were closed for the season. The visitor center was open though, and that is always worth a stop.
Please select individual image for full size viewing.
We had a pretty successful trip finding wildlife in the park. We found bison, coyotes, fox, wolves, pronghorn, elk, moose, deer, many bird species and other wildlife as well. Our favorite encounter may have been with a red fox.
Select individual images for full view.
Another favorite encounter was with two bull moose. One was a large mature bull moose and the other was a smaller younger bull. We saw an additional moose farther down the valley in the willows, but it never came out for any good photographs.
Select individual images for full view.
We saw a lot of coyotes on this trip. Our first encounter was with three on a dead bison. I am honestly not sure if this was a wolf kill, or from other causes. I am aware there was a bison hit on the road a couple of days before we got there, and the park had moved it off the road to not be a safety hazard, but I don’t know if that was this one or not. We also did see coyotes near a confirmed wolf kill of an elk on the far end of Lamar Valley. And we saw a few other coyotes along the way as well. I did not actually get a lot of good coyote photographs this trip, they were just not being very cooperative.
Select individual image for full view.
As I mentioned, we did find a wolf elk kill at the far end of the valley. We actually stopped in the morning, but there were no wolves at the kill site. We could hear them howling up in the hills behind the kill, which was haunting, but they were difficult to see. We left to find other opportunities, but came back later in the afternoon. When we came back there were 4 black wolves feeding, so that was awesome. They were pretty far away, so even with my big 600mm lens and a 1.4x teleconvetrer they were still pretty small in the frame. But I thought I would still share what I was able to capture.
Select individual image for full view.
And of course you cannot go to Yellowstone without seeing bison everywhere. I think because they are so prevalent, I never end up taking a lot of photos of them, but I probably should. We saw this one early in the morning while it was still kind of the blue hour in the snow, so I thought I would snap a photo. He was also slightly above me, and I liked how the angle was kind of exaggerating his hump.
A bison bull in the snow.
All in all we had a great trip. The only large animal we didn’t see, that I thought we would, was bighorn sheep. We were never able to find any. I saw images from other photographers before and after we were there, but for some reason we missed them. I am still hoping to someday spot an otter in the park, but so far they have eluded me.
For this trip, almost all of the image were taken with my Canon R5 II, with the Canon EF 600mm F4 version 2 lens. A few others were taken with my original Canon R5 with either the RF 100-500 L lens or the RF 24-105 L F4 lens. If you want anymore information about visiting Yellowstone in the winter, please reach out and let me know. Or you can also check out my blog post from a visit to Yellowstone in the winter of 2024 you can find here.