Old Faithful

 I have so many images from our recent trip to Old Faithful!

Ken and I make it a habit to visit Snow Lodge at least once every winter. This year we were accompanied by four long-time friends from Cincinnati who went in with us once before a couple years ago. The last time however, we were experiencing warmer-than-normal, spring like conditions. Not so this year! Lucky for us we had lots of warning that we would be facing record cold temps so we were all able to prepare both physically and mentally.

The photo to the left shows Tim and Dee on snowshoes and Ken on skis on our way to Black Sand Pool on our last day at Old Faithful. This was actually our warmest day of the visit with a high of 0 degrees.

Winter wildlife is generally easy to spot in the Park. For a few minutes this coyote and I were the only two creatures on the Old Faithful Boardwalk. He did not seem the least bit interested in me. 

One of the treats of traveling in on the snow coach from Mammoth is the chance to see Trumpeter Swans in the Firehole River.

There are many cross country ski trails right out of the lodge but if you want to do a longer trek it is possible to get a jumpstart with a Bombardier shuttle to a drop off point. On this morning Ken and I left the hotel at 8:30 am to ski to Lone Star. At -22 degrees, we were the only ones on the shuttle. As it turned out the next day was even colder!

Our timing was amazing. We arrived at Lone Star with seconds to spare before the geyser erupted. We had a private viewing of the performance. Barry, Karen and Dee caught the 10:30 shuttle and snow-shoed in to meet us for lunch by the river. It turned into a beautiful day. 

The following day Ken and I decided to attempt one of the most difficult trails at Old Faithful, Mallard Creek. Everyone from our breakfast waiter to the shuttle driver tried to talk us out of it, for good reason. The trail had only been skied twice before us this winter so there really was no trail and the terrain is pretty difficult at the best of times. We have done it numerous times and knew we could again but the problem was that any small difficulty could spell disaster at 36 degrees below zero. As it turned out it was truly one of the toughest cross country skis I have done. We had to break through approx 2' of snow the entire way  until we reached Mallard Lake Trail at about 5 miles in and we discovered we couldn't stop for more than 2 minutes without our fingers and feet going numb from the cold. We slept well that night.

A shot of the run off from Daisy Geyser.

Swan Lake Flats early one frosty morning. 

Pinyons

I am so thankful for the pinyon jays each winter. Without them the bird life would be less colorful in the cold months!

Photographing Snow

 I just returned from a four day snow, sun and stars photography workshop in Yellowstone Park. Several people, including my husband, asked me why I was taking a workshop in something that I do all the time. In this case there were two main reasons: the location and the subject matter.

It is pretty hard to pass up any opportunity to be in the Park in winter. It is truly a magical time of year. Not only are there far fewer people, the landscape just seems to come alive when it is covered by snow.

I actually did not know the work of the two instructors before the class. But I have to say that Terry Donnelly and Tom Kirkendall are not only amazing photographers, they are two of the most generous teachers I have ever met. They gave of their time and information without any restrictions. They must have both been exhausted by the end of the workshop but I never heard either one of them turn down a request for help or advice from a student.

 I ended up with a couple dozen shots I really love out of the four days. We were incredibly lucky to have clear skies on the day we wanted to shoot Mammoth Hotsprings and snowy conditions much of the rest of the time.

A Helping Hand?

In my role as a photo-journalist, my goal is usually to record the moment while having no affect on it. I sometimes find that hard to do when I am dealing with the natural world and facing a situation where an animal is being hurt. This particular situation is probably well across that murky line and well into interference in places where humans should not be but we will see what happens when spring arrives. 

Here is the situation: Three and one half years ago a pair of young ravens moved into our valley. They tried to build a nest on eagle rock - not the smartest choice. Not only were they constantly being harassed by the local pair of golden eagles, they were also facing directly into the wind and the nest blew down twice before they stopped to re-think their dilemma. Their solution was, surprisingly, to move up to the rock next to our house and build their nest there. They seemed to put up with our coming and going and we were delighted to have a front row view to the unfolding drama of new life. 

Year one they had three hatchlings. Two died within a couple weeks and the third passed away shortly after that. Year two they again hatched three young. Again two died quite early on but the third actually managed to fledge. He entertained us with his antics for two days and then disappeared, not to be seen again. Year three, last summer, three hatchlings popped up and all three seemed determined to make it to fledgling stage. The photo here show mama feeding them at about one month of age. By the time they were around 3 months old, the nest was seeming too small for the trio and one baby fell - or was knocked - out to the ground. He survived the 20' - 30' fall and mama continued to feed him as well as his nest mates until he was killed in a violent wind storm about two weeks after the event. The other two chicks both fledged although one disappeared a couple days after leaving the nest. 

So that brings us to now. Every year we have discussed the fact that the nest seems precarious at best. We have looked at it every which way and decided that it would be a relatively easy feat to add a "guard rail" in the front. Finally, we decided to do it. The first set-back was when we realized that even our tallest extension ladder would not get us anywhere near the nest ledge. I thought that might be the end of the project, but by now Ken was locked. So we climbed up the rock on the other side and set up a rappel down to the nest. I belayed Ken down and then used ropes to lower down a 4' long, 6" round branch from a cedar tree that had blown down. Other ropes were used to lower tools to his location. The operation took much longer than expected and involved a number of unexpected twists and turns. I am sure anyone watching us would have concluded we were both insane for risking our lives on such a project. Especially since we don't know if this will indeed be an improvement for the ravens or if they will come to the conclusion that it is some kind of trap and move away, never to return.  

Only time will tell. Updates to come in the spring.

Moose

It has been a long while since I have posted. I have been torn about whether to get started again or not. Between Facebook and Google+ it seems like I am constantly posting photos so the question of whether or not a blog adds anything is one that is hard to answer. But I admit to missing the writing part. Even if no one but me ever reads the words, there is something cathartic about typing them in. And even if a picture is worth a thousand words, it sometimes tells a slightly different story, especially in the age of photoshop. So I will try to get started again and continue adding images and stories of my adventures in the outdoors of NW Wyoming. I hope you will join me occasionally.

I have not seen a moose in more than a year so it was a thrill to see two of them just off the cross-country ski trail at Pahaska (near Yellowstone's East Entrance) last weekend. The real treat was in realizing that the big male in front is actually a baby. Even though he is almost as big as his mother, there are several telltale signs. For one thing, it would be pretty unusual to see a bull and cow hanging out together like these two were. For another, the antlers on the bull are tiny compared to "normal" and last but not least, an adult bull would have shed his antlers by this time of the winter. Young bull calves often retain their antlers during their first winter.

In just a few short months this fellow will be chased off by his mom and made to fend for himself as she brings another calf into the world.

Spring Break

Spring is definitely in the air! Last week was spring break and we headed to Canada to do a little skiing. As so often happens this time of year, many things changed during the short time we were in the mountains.

This prairie dog on the left was standing tall to look around his home.

 

The horned larks are back as are the bluebirds. Every day just feels a little more like spring!

Hare and There

 Wow! How long has it been since I posted on this blog? Way too long, I know. My excuse is the usual one - my classes are taking up just about every waking moment these days. But I have to say the other excuse is one I would not have expected to make a couple years ago - With Facebook and Google+ being such easy and quick outlets for photos these days, it is always tempting to stick a shot there instead of taking the time to write a post like I do here.

Anyway...yesterday morning I had to go down the road a ways to photograph a fire fighter at the local fire hall. On my way home I was suddenly forced to brake when this giant white-tailed jackrabbit sprinted across the road in front of me and ducked under the nearby fence. It was truly a rare opportunity to photograph a magnificent creature that is almost always glimpsed at night time. I don't know why he was out in mid-day - or why he was willing to sit still while I took numerous shots of him. I wish I had something in the shot to show perspective. These animals are really huge. He would be at least 2' high, two to three times the size of my rather large cat. I actually love the shot above even though it shows, as my first year photo prof would say, the north end of a south bound jackrabbit!