This is going to be our last report from Yellowstone as we will be heading towards Seattle tomorrow morning and then fly back home on Saturday. It was another wonderful journey the park took us along this past 12 days. We made new encounters to animals we have not seen before, we experienced -23°F (-31°C) and beautiful winter scenery in Lamar. Again we met nice and friendly people: photographers, tourists, scientists and rangers. Some of them we hope to stay in contact in the future.
Yesterday started with a nice sunrise just outside the park from where we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs to take pictures of the terraces.
While I forgot my gloves, Eva walked around the terraces and got some nice shots displaying this thermal feature still with some snow left. I was driving back to Gardiner to pick my stuff I left in the hotel.
We met the guys from Natur & Foto ( a Norwegian magazine) and they were shooting with lots of passion along this beautiful place.
- Norwegian Photomagazine
They were taking pictures of a cottontail rabbit with a Canon 1D Mark IV along with the Canon 400mm 2.8 L IS II. I took my 1D Mark III with the Canon 500mm 4.0 L IS II und got in the same position. This is how the world looks from a rabbit’s point of view:
After a while he decided to chase us off and approached us with his fierce look…
Shortly after that we moved on towards Cooke City, saw the Bighorn Sheep at their usual place hanging around and watching tourists passing by.
Our decision to have lunch in Cooke City paid off. Just shortly before Cooke City I spotted two moose in the woods. One was lying in the shade and the other decided to look at us for some time and then disappeared into the forest. The relaxed one stayed even after we finished lunch.
We met Mark and his buddy again, showed him the moose and we made the decision to try getting a little closer. Mark put on his snowshoes and I tried to follow him and I could tell you my heart was beating like a machine gun, my blood was boiling and walking through waist deep snow was really breathtaking.
Nonetheless, it was worth it and I got this nice portrait of the moose that was little alerted but still calm.
Shortly after that he decided to move on and slowly disappeared into the forest. With the sun setting and less light in the canyon we finally got this beautiful shot of a flowing river.
Yesterday ended with a mating pair of coyotes in the Lamar Valley and dinner at “Subways”.
Our last day started with mild temperatures everywhere and grey skies with occasional snow flakes and some rain drops. That little guy escorted for a while and then luckily stepped aside and let us pass him.
Lamar Valley brought us today wolf 681M as close as we have not seen other wolves during our two week trip. Still too far away for a nice close up but at least moving and he was moving with a good speed. This one was taken near the area where the otters were seen the past couple of days:
Half an hour later he passed the bighorn sheep near the Confluence disappearing deeper into the valley.
We decided to give the red fox at Pebble Creek another chance to show up (no luck with that) but we were rewarded with a mousing coyote:
That pretty much was the end of this journey, many stories to tell, many pictures to share and many people we met along the way. Now we packed most of our gear together and will slowly drive west tomorrow morning. See you along the net or in person the next time we are in the park.
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