Yellowstone in Winter - Part 19 - Farewell

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

Farewell to a unique place in geology, wildlife, and natural beauty.

The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel under a "super blue" moon -- the moon is somewhat closer to earth than usual, so it's somewhat larger, and it's the second full moon of the month.

Tomorrow we journey back to "real life".

Yellowstone in Winter - Part 18 - Landscapes & Snowshoes

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

In between a short snowshoe hike in the morning and a somewhat longer one in the late afternoon, we had an extended visit with wildlife photographers Dan and Cindy Hartman in Silver Gate/Cooke City. There's much more snow in the eastern parts of the park, and I'm not sure that I would like to deal with the challenges of living here in the winter!

The park road follows Soda Butte Creek to Cooke City (outside the park). The namesake of the creek is Soda Butte, the travertine cone of a long-gone hot spring.

I liked the red lichens in the travertine layers. The rock looks very similar to Liberty Cap in Mammoth (for good reasons!).

We had a short hike along Soda Butte Creek in the Barronette Peak area. Melissa and Megan are real fans of snow flops, and most of us joined in.

Lon making his "flop". I declined to join in because I had already made too many of my own unplanned flops, and I knew that getting up would be very difficult.

The aftermath of a flop.

Humans aren't the only things making "flops" in the snow. This crater was made by snow falling off a tree branch. I liked the classic crater with rim, center peak, and debris thrown off in a circular pattern.

We ignored the threat of snow and had a late afternoon snowshoe hike up to Trout Lake. It's a short, steep 300 ft climb from the road to the rim around the lake.

This was the largest tree I saw in Yellowstone -- very much bigger than the surrounding trees. (And clearly there is some snow on my lens!) Our experts said it was a Douglas-fir, but unfortunately, it's clearly dead.

Trout Lake

Along the shore of Trout Lake.

We finished our snowshoe hike shortly after sunset in the midst of a significant snowfall. The first third of the return to Mammoth Hot Springs was under near white-out conditions. We found out first-hand the importance of the snow-poles along the side of the road. The back of our Suburbans were completely snow-packed by the time we got back to the hotel.

Yellowstone in Winter - Part 17 - Wolves and Bison

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

On today's journey through the northern reaches of the park, we again saw the Eight Mile Pack from a much closer, but still long distance (roughly one mile).

Can you tell the wolves from the rocks in this photo?

Five wolves. The left one is a gray female, the others are black. They were more convincingly wolves through a spotting scope.

These photos show more clearly that they are indeed wolves, not rocks! The black male stood up (top), stretched (bottom right), then the gray and the black showed some interest in each other (bottom left).

We watched the gray female wander through this herd of bison - twice. The bison paid attention, but were not terribly concerned.

A bison near the road shoveling snow with its head to find the grass below.

Yellowstone in Winter - Part 16 - Landscapes and a Boiling River

Monday, 29 January 2018

More from our day in Yellowstone.

Specimen Ridge

Looking up the Lamar Valley. These are the willows where we saw the moose.

Cottonwood tree along the Lamar River.

Late in the afternoon, 5 of us (the x-c skiing crew) took an optional excursion to Boiling River. A half-mile very muddy trail leads from the parking lot to the only place in the park you can bathe in the hot water.

Boiling River is actually a very short creek that leads from a hot spring to the Gardner River. The hot inflow is about 165°F - dangerously hot. But when it mixes with the very cold Gardner River, you can (hopefully) find a sweet spot between being too hot and too cold.

We were able to find a reasonable spot that varied from slightly-too-hot to definitely-too-cold. The air temperature was in the high 30s (F) with a brisk breeze, but the experience was quite comfortable. Even getting out wet and having to walk about 5 minutes to our clothes wasn't that chilling.

Fogged glasses were a challenge.

I'm not sure if that's Dan's reaction to too hot or too cold!

Our tour guides, Megan and Melissa, enjoyed the dip.

Foot selfie.

Yellowstone in Winter - Part 15 - Wildlife

Monday, 29 January 2018

Today we went out with noted guide, MacNeil Lyons. The experts know both where the animals are and how to see them. We definitely saw more than we would have on our own. We had a "Three Dog Day" (coyote, wolf, and fox - the three winter canids in Yellowstone).

Our first animal of the day was a fox working on an elk carcass courtesy of a cougar (mountain lion). This photo was taken through a spotting scope with an iPhone.

Fox and carcass.

Looking around. The fox is a beautiful animal.

After a while the fox left the carcass, and was not shy as he crossed the road between our two vehicles.

We saw wolves from a very far distance - probably about 3 miles. In binoculars, they were merely black commas and dashes in the snow, but distinguishable as wolves in the spotting scopes. The closest we got to wolves were these very fresh tracks on the side of the road.

This bison kill (by wolves) was very close to the road, but when we went by, it was only ravens feasting on it. By the next morning only the ribs were visible.

One of two golden eagles sitting in a tree near the road. We saw them in this area every time we drove by (4 times in all over two days).

We'd been wanting to see moose, but hadn't spent enough time in the right habitat. We finally saw them near where Soda Butte Creek enters the Lamar River. They were enjoying eating the large stand of willows. The white ring with dark center is not this bull moose's eye, but the scar where his recently-shed antlers were.

This view shows the eye and the antler scar. The moose were dropping their antlers about a month earlier than usual.

We saw other moose, but they were usually well-hidden in the forest and difficult to photograph.

Mountain goats -- really! How anyone could see them from this distance astounds me, but they are about half-way up on the left side of the mountains.

Even with this magnification, they are nearly impossible to see. They are in the middle of the photo, between the trees and the cave.

Finally you can see the yellowish-white goats against the white snow. Mountain goats are not native to Yellowstone, they have been introduced from elsewhere in Montana.

Photography expeditions are a staple of Yellowstone tours. I've never seen so many mega-lenses (in camouflage, no less) in one place. When you see a scrum of tripods and lenses, you know some wildlife is nearby.

In this case, it was a family of three otters. In our guide's opinion, these photographers were getting too close to the otters. The park rule is at least 25 yards away from small animals (ones for which you are not prey) and 75 yards for large carnivores (ones which could eat you if they wanted to). At any distance, if you are influencing the wildlife's behavior, you're too close.

An otter leaving the water.

All three otters. They were fun to watch in the spotting scopes.

Three otters and a photographer.

Yellowstone in Winter - Part 14 - Wildlife & Landscapes

Sunday, 28 January 2018

The afternoon was spent traveling to and from the Lamar Valley to check on wildlife.

Sometimes the wildlife comes to you. This elk was about 10 feet from the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, between the hotel and the dining hall. Other days bison were equally close.

What do you do when you encounter bison on the road? Do your best to stay out of their way!

This coyote was sitting not too far off the road.

Bison aren't the only animals that find it convenient to use the roads. This coyote seemed unconcerned about vehicles.

It's a poor photo, but you can really see the colors in this coyote's fur: nearly fox-red nose, face, and legs, with dark brown tail tip and shoulder and hip stripes. Really striking.

We took a short snowshoe hike near Tower to view the confluence of the Lamar and Yellowstone Rivers. We had to detour off the trail to avoid this large bighorn sheep.

These trees were nurtured in their early years by the sheltering of the "nursery rocks" -- the boulders at the base of each tree.

This large boulder looks like it could be a snug cabin.

Fog in the Lamar Valley.

Sunset in the Lamar Valley.