Yellowstone National Park

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
I did a trip to Jellystone last June, but only just got round to uploading photos.

We spent a week there, with a day side trip to Grand Tatton NP, which joins it's southern border. It was late spring/early summer so the weather was nice and there were lots of young animals around as well. Although we technically went in low season there were huge numbers of people around, especially at the major attractions and all the campsites were either booked up or full by around 7am if they were first come first serve!

We did around 3000km in total (just in both parks) but covered a lot of ground, going to several places more than once to get some photos and the best chance of seeing various animals. Definitely worth a visit.

Anyway, some photos. First the animals.

1. Just a cheeky Chipmonk

2. And a Richardson's Ground Squirrel



3. And a couple of Mountain Bluebirds - I love these things and always try and get photos of them when I see them. I wish I could persuade some to come and stay in my garden!


4.


5. And a beaver - They may look familiar. It's because these guys are on the Yellowstone program the BBC just showed. There was actually a guy filming when we got there. I have no idea if he was with the BBC or another outfit though.


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8. A pronghorn - weird looking things, and all over Southern Alberta and Montana. We saw loads on the drive down as well as in the park


9. Mum Coyote and Pups - These were only a few weeks old and wonderful to watch. One of my favourite photos of the week.


10. An Elk and calf, at the southern end of Yellowstone Lake


11. And a male elk having a dip in the lake at sunset


12. A male Moose enjoying the new growth


But all of that is obviously not the reason you go to Yellowstone...

13. This is one of the reasons you go... Grizzly mum and cub digging out the roots of plants to eat. This was a stunning encounter down one of the back roads at the Northern end of Grand Teton. There were about 20 others there but almost all were pro/experienced togs so were calm and followed the rangers orders, meaning the bears completely ignored us and can very close.


14.


15. There were many other encounters (we saw about 10 bears in total)


16. This Black Bear had two cubs that were even smaller than the ones in the previous photo. Unfortunately it was pretty dark so the cubs didn't turn out well, but I got an ok photo of mum.


17. And obviously the other (wildlife) reason you go are for the Bison. Yellowstone is one of the few places in North America where they still roam free. One of the other place is Wood Buffalo NP in northern Alberta, somewhere I plan on going in the future. The Bison there are significantly larger than their plains cousins.


18. This guy was having a dust bath as we came across him


19. And this guy is enjoying the new grass near one of the geysers. This is one of the photos I wanted to get before going so I'm fairly happy with it.


20. And that leads me on to the thermals...


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24. And subsequently some more landscapes - This one facing north in the lamar valley


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30. And just a couple more photos from the trip home. Montana is a stunning state and definitely worth a visit if you have time.


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33. And we stopped of at Glacier/Waterton NP for the evening and got a sunset over the lake


A few more photos can be found here...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildaboutlife/albums/72157677153982971
 
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Quartz said:
I'm going there in August. What do you recommend for basic camera gear?
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as much reach as possible plus somethubg that goes to at least 24mm Ff (16mm APS-C). poarizer filter and a stack of batteries and cards.



dont forget warm clothes (inckuding hat & gloves), common to be below freezing in the early hours even in mid-summer,but it may hit30*F in the afternoon

if you plan to walk more than1mi!efrom trailhead carry bear spray.
 
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nice set, my favourite photos are 9, 13 and 14. that must have some close bear encounters! bears are noe top of my todo list, sll my photos of thrm they are very far away. And thry are certainly not an animal that you can approach like a moose


out of curiosity i checked one of the eikdlife tour operators in jacosn. a private photography tour of yellowstine is $1600 a day, plus gratuity. i tgink i know my early retirement career! evrn just ferrying toruidts around ins minivan gets you $300-350 per person per day, and you can have 4-12 people in a group! while i was out therr photographing u would just looj for the stopoed minivans and oulk up, low and behokd a moose or elk etc. They all seemed really busy even in winter.


you sghouuld make a dedicated trip to Glacier NP, i orefer it to Yellowstone actually. I also orfer GTNP to Yellowstone, more wildlife and stubbing mountains. Yellowstone is very unique and a stunning location in itself
 
Great photos; love that last one of the river in the canyon.

When you got some time, mind sharing some info about your trip - itinerary, accomodation, planning? Sounds like a good combined holiday + photography opportunity.
 
Thanks for the kind words, and comments on favourite photos. It's always good to see which others find best, not just your own opinion!:p

gary996 said:
Lovely photos.
What gear were you using?
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Quartz said:
I'm going there in August. What do you recommend for basic camera gear?
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I shoot with a D7000 and Sigma 120-300 with 1.4 and 2x TCs though most of the tele shots will be without TC, but the Coyotes were using the 1.4. I don't find I get many good shots, especially in lower light, with the 2x. Also using an 11-16 and 17-55.

As D.P. said - length... as long a lens as you can get. 300 is really the bare minimum for a lot of the wildlife there unless it's right beside the car (which the Bison regularly are - and sometimes Elk, like the on in the water above). Anything like Bears, Wolves and Coyotes you're going to want much longer. Something with 500-600 on the long end would be good! Otherwise a wide and standard zoom and the usual tripods, batteries etc.

I'd contradict D.P a little regarding bear spray. If you're walking somewhere not at one of the main tourist/high traffic locations I'd recommend having spray on you, just in case (even places like picnic spots if you're more than a quick sprint from the car). You can hire it in the park. We took our own as we carry it for pretty much any walk we do in the summer here.

D.P. said:
nice set, my favourite photos are 9, 13 and 14. that must have some close bear encounters! bears are noe top of my todo list, sll my photos of thrm they are very far away. And thry are certainly not an animal that you can approach like a moose


out of curiosity i checked one of the eikdlife tour operators in jacosn. a private photography tour of yellowstine is $1600 a day, plus gratuity. i tgink i know my early retirement career! evrn just ferrying toruidts around ins minivan gets you $300-350 per person per day, and you can have 4-12 people in a group! while i was out therr photographing u would just looj for the stopoed minivans and oulk up, low and behokd a moose or elk etc. They all seemed really busy even in winter.


you sghouuld make a dedicated trip to Glacier NP, i orefer it to Yellowstone actually. I also orfer GTNP to Yellowstone, more wildlife and stubbing mountains. Yellowstone is very unique and a stunning location in itself
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Yeah, she was close. We were very lucky and wouldn't have been able to get the shots like that, except for the small group and couple of rangers knowing that particular bear well and allowing us to get pretty close. At one point she actually walked through us, cub in tow, she was that uninterested in us. Too busy digging up the roots. Most of my other bear shots are just photos of something in the distance.:o

Those tours are stupid prices. I'd love to go on one but they are just too expensive. Maybe a lucrative retirement job as you say! :p

We did Glacier for a night to break up the journey back. Unfortunately the road to the sun wasn't open at that point either. It's only around 4 hours from us so the plan is to do it on a long weekend at some point.

I think the thing that got me about Yellowstone over GT was the shear scale. You can drive to the main sights in GT in a day (which is what we did), but YS takes a day to just do one crossing by car, let alone any hikes or wildlife watching. Those mountains in GT are stunning though and we will definitely be going back. I think we have a fair sized list of individual trips in the area now - kayaking round the lake/rivers, winter in the Lamar Valley, multi day hikes through the back country and a few day hikes as well.

Looking forward to seeing your winter photos. We had planned to go this winter, but now we're thinking somewhere warm, like Central America instead (as per the other thread)!
 
DB_SamX said:
Great photos; love that last one of the river in the canyon.

When you got some time, mind sharing some info about your trip - itinerary, accomodation, planning? Sounds like a good combined holiday + photography opportunity.
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Thanks. :)

We spent a week there, and drove down from Calgary, Alberta (Sat afternoon to Sat morning in the park) but there are a few places closer if you're flying in from the UK. IIRC you can fly direct to Salt Lake City and Denver so they may be the best options over Bozeman and Jackson (indirect) if you're looking at doing just the Greater Yellowstone area - we looked as we were thinking of having family fly in and meet up at the park.

We then spent two nights at Bridge Bay (which is one of the few camp grounds you can actually book in advance) with the intention of moving to a campground around Tower. Those campgrounds are all first come first serve and full for the next night by around 7am, so we ended up spending the rest of the trip in Mammoth Campground.

Something to consider if you're planning on camping! We went the first week of June, which is early season, and were lucky to get a spot for the rest of the week after the first two days we pre booked. I'd hate to know what it's like in July/August. If you're not camping there is a fair amount of accommodation, but the stuff in the park books up quickly and stuff outside the park (camping or hotels) will mean you're going to be driving a lot longer.

Itinerary wise we basically just drove what made sense. We did one section of the figure of 8 (and related sights) each day essentially. We drove down from Bridge Bay (which was the closest campsite open) to GT on one of the days and did a day there, basically driving down to Jackson* on the main road (doing a few side roads) and then round the Moose Wilson road on the way back up. A day isn't really enough for GT TBH, but it will give you a good indication of what the park is like if you start early. I'd also definitely recommend driving all the way to Cooke City (east of Lamar Valley) as well. It's a nice drive and goes through the entire valley.

As I said earlier just be mindful that the park is HUGE. It's about half the size of Wales and the speed limit is 45mph max. Then factor in the hour stops to go and see the various hot springs/geysers and other attractions and the inevitable stops for wildlife.:o

*Cheapest fuel is found outside the park, in Gardner and Jackson. In Jackson the cheapest fuel is found in the southern part of the town - furthest from the main entrance to GT. You'll go past a couple of service stations when doing the loop round to the Moose Wilson road if you do something like that. I'm sure D.P. will be able to provide more info on this. There's plenty of fuel stations in the park too. Most of the main junctions will have a fuel station and shop.
 
I typically just fly in to Jackson when visiting. You can do SLC or Denver as Amp34 says, but look at the drive times. SLC to Jackson is an easy but relatively dull drive and you will basically loose a day driving.

I have a lot of experience of hotels and restaurants in Jackson if anyone is interested. Also camped in several campgrounds within the parks. Some campgrounds (colter Bay) have 3 sided wooden hut to rent as an in-between option. I can only re-iterate what Amp34 - camping get booked out and the first come first serve fill up by 7am.

Don't under estimate the size of Yellowstone, its like a small country. Don;t imagine driving around it in a day and seeing anything. You have to break it down in to sections. Staying outside the park is attractive, but you add a lot of drive time. Consider for best wildlife you want to be on location at sunrise, which might be 6am, driving 90 minutes in to the park then becomes less pleasant. Also when driving you get get terrible traffic if there is a wildlife sighting or bison crossing. It takes time for a whole herd of bison to cross the road, and then every driving will want to stop and take a photo with their ipad. A bear coyote or wolf near the road causes mayhem. You can eaisly loose an hour. Again, if you get yup and out early you can get the driving done before the main h9rdeds get out



typically day for me is:
Get up horribly early and drink coffee in the cold. Normally camping, often below freezing at 5:30am. Get in car with heaters on full blast driving slowly to destination hike, looking for wildlife all the way. Hopefully see some wildlife. get to hike trail head by mid-morning when temperatures are pleasant. Hike into the background for 4-6 hours avoiding the crowds. Get back to car and enjoy a cold brewski and feet in a cold stream. As the traffic and crowds calm down and the sun lowers and soften go back driving looking for wildlife.


That being said the park is so big, so spread out and due to pure statistics the most common wildlife sightings are in the middle of the day driving by the road somewhere. You can cover 200 miles in a car easily in the park, while maybe only 8-12 miles on a hike. You have about 90 minutes of sunrise and sunset each day vs 7-9 hours od strong sun and harsh shadows. Don't expect those perfect conditions for you widlife viewing in the summer.


In the winter it is a different story, the sun angle is much lower and its much weaker, twilight is longer. The animals don't hide in in the dappled shade, not least their are no leaves on the trees.
 
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