Spring in Wyoming

It has been a while since I last posted so to make up for my absence, I am going to post a bunch of "awwww" today! 

Ken had meetings in Red Lodge for two days last week which meant I had a rare opportunity to explore the Beartooths and a little bit of Lamar Valley on my own schedule. The first day was absolutely beautiful with perfect temperatures and lots of sunshine. The next day was winter all over again as I inched my way over mountain passes in four wheel drive buffeted by a mixture of blowing snow and hail. Even so, I managed to find a few special moments to capture.

I hope you enjoy seeing these images as much as I enjoyed taking them!

 This little pine marten was definitely curious about what I was doing climbing around in his rocks.

 I loved witnessing this tender moment between a mama pronghorn and her newborn baby.

 A rare moment of sun breaking through the clouds on day 2. The roads were icy in the morning and snow covered when I came back through in the afternoon. Today the pass is closed because of additional snow.

 This pair of pronghorn was definitely spooked by something much scarier than me. They came flying over the hill and ran beside my car, never stopping until they were well out of sight. I don't think any of the eight feet in this image are touching the ground!

 One of my favorite things about the Beartooths this time of year is finding the mountain goats playing on the cliffs. This young fellow was part of a group of three youngsters that seemed oblivious to my presence.

The cliff swallows have taken up residence on the back side of Soda Butte.

Another sweet moment as a young bison tried to shelter from the blowing snow by tucking behind its mother.

Branding 2014

 However you may feel about the process, branding is a way of life on the ranches of the west. Many modern operations use squeeze chutes which tend to be more efficient and less labor intensive. There are still quite a few spreads however, that do things the old fashioned way. And cowboys on horseback roping calves certainly make for better photographs.






I missed the big event at Buster's place earlier this year. But I was lucky enough to be invited to take some shots at the follow up branding last week.

 I ended up with about 3 dozen photographs that I will turn into a DVD for those who helped out. These are just a few of my favorites.

Kelseya

May has not only been an incredibly busy month, it has been a study in photographic diversity! Since the beginning of the month I have, among other things:

- Moved in as a partner to Open Range Images gallery in Cody, Wyoming

- Shot an old fashioned branding

-Led two all-day photo workshops in the Beartooth Mountains

-Vended my images at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West 

- Traveled to Columbus, Ohio to shoot photos of a quilt exhibit for publication

Yesterday, Ken and I decided to take a break - in our particular style of doing so. We gathered our gear and set out to photograph one of my favorite wildflowers, kelseya, before the spring blooming season came to an end. The good news about this relatively unknown flower is that it is not hard to find. The bad news is that it grows only at high altitude on limestone cliffs. I have never found an easy way to reach it but that is part of the adventure! 

We started out at 8am and reached our destination, 4 miles and 3000 feet higher than our starting point, at around 11am. The kelseya was as I remembered. We did not see any of the plant until the last 300 feet or so of our journey at around 8000'. In this first shot you can see dozens of them surrounding and clinging to the extremely rough limestone rocks.

It is such a strange looking plant. It appears to be part bonsai and part moss. In reality it is - surprisingly - a member of the rose family. The flowers are less than 1/4"in size and each flower is surrounded by a "cup" of many miniature leaves. There are hundreds (thousands?) of flowers on each plant.

The plants flow around the rocks like a floral waterfall.

The trees at this elevation are miniature as well; a desperate protection against gale force winds that blow more often than not.

The other advantage of climbing above the floor of the plains was that we got to experience early spring all over again as we rose in altitude. The shooting stars that had already been and gone at lower elevations were evident by the hundreds in the high meadows.

Ken was just as excited as I to capture their colorful beauty.

Another favorite evident in droves of newly bloomed perfection was the pasque flower.

One of the biggest surprises of the day, florally speaking, was the discovery of a field of wild Missouri Iris near the bottom of our hike. This is the only native iris to grow in this part of the west.

Besides the many floral wonders of the day, the view from near the top of our hike made it well worth the effort to get there!

The East Gate is Open!

It really seems that over the last few years the number of photographers traveling Yellowstone Park has increased dramatically. Most are respectful of both wildlife and their fellow visitors but there are some who seem to think the Park is their private shooting gallery and everybody else should stay away.

I will admit it sometimes make me more determined to try and capture those amazing locations and special moments in areas outside the park boundaries.

Be that as it may, it is tough to ignore opening weekend of the East Gate - the entrance nearest Cody - in this incredible place. I was unable to attend either of the first two days; the ones when all my friends and fellow photographers captured unbelievable shots of grizzlies, fresh out of their dens, fighting over carcasses left from winter hardships. But I did have a chance to go in on Sunday with wonderful friends in the group "Shoot like a Woman"

 While we saw moose, bighorn sheep, elk and lots of mule deer along the Northfork, our sightings inside the park were of the smaller variety of creatures. I am always happy when I can photograph birds  and there was no shortage of those. The sandhill cranes in the first and last photos were along Yellowstone Lake. The pintail, below, was in a small lake in Hayden Valley. The coyote was near Gibbon Meadows and he was determined to track down a meal under the snow even though he was constantly plunging through the soft spring cover.

One of my favorite moments of the day was watching the standoff between a pair of Canada Geese and some cranes. The geese finally got frustrated and flew at the bigger birds who seemed unperturbed by the noisy twosome.

May Day

 I have been really busy the last few weeks moving into Open Range Images Gallery in downtown Cody as well as preparing for the photography workshop I will be leading for Spring into Yellowstone in a couple weeks.

On May 1st we decided to take a working holiday by hiking the trail on Bald Ridge where the workshop will take place. The area is closed all winter for wildlife and reopens to the public the first of May so we knew we would be some of the first humans through in several months. What we hadn't counted on was the fact that the deep snow still blanketing the mountains meant that all the horn hunters were looking for low elevation territory. We were shocked to pull into the parking lot at 7:30 am and find a dozen vehicles already parked. While that may not seem like many for those used to populated trailheads, it is probably the most vehicles I have ever seen in that lot. According to one fellow we ran into, the serious hunters had arrived at midnight!
Even so, we saw a total of two people on the trail and caught sight of a couple horsemen far off in the distance so their presence had little effect on us.

The bird-life was impressive, as hoped. In the first photo above you can see a flock of avocets getting ready to land on Luce Lake. I have taken dozens of shots of these birds over the years but never have I seen a flock like this one. At first I thought they were snow geese.

The landscape shot above is from my favorite perch on the ridge. It is what I think of when I dream of hiking lower Bald Ridge in the middle of winter.

This kestrel was one of several battling for territory.  

We didn't see any rattlesnakes on this trip through but we did find some extremely fresh grizzly tracks.

 I love this upthrust rock on the north end of the trail. I probably should have had Ken pose beside it to show the scale. It stands approximately 30 feet high and provides a wonderful shady spot for a lunch break.

One of the things that makes this hike so ideal for a landscape photographer is the variety of incredible red rock formations.

I feel as if I could do this hike everyday and come up with a unique image each time!

Beartooth Falls

I have always wanted to hike down to Beartooth Falls in the winter. There is no actual trail and few people even attempt the trek in the summer despite the fact that thousands of visitors drive by and marvel at the sight off the Beartooth Highway.

I don't know of anyone who has hiked to the falls in the winter. Really it is not surprising considering that the only way to get there is to drive for several hours over the snow packed Chief Joseph Highway to a dead end at the closed  highway 212. From there it is necessary to switch to snow machines for a ten mile ride to a spot where you can park the machines and strap on snowshoes for the steep hike down to the falls.

 On Monday, with fresh new snow in the mountains and a bluebird looking day, we decided to give it a try. We were a little concerned about the winds, visible on Red Ridge in the first photo, but they had abated by the time we unloaded our machines. Despite the fact that spring has arrived on the plains, the snow load in the mountains is amazing to see. In Ken's photo of me, above, you can just see the tops of the guardrail along the road. Not much protection against going over the steep cliff to the side!

 Once we got to a spot where we felt we could get down to the falls we put on the snowshoes and took turns hiking to a safe spot to wait for the other person. The snowpack is finally extremely stable but there is no use taking undue risks. One of the surprises of the trip was the discovery that the hike down to the falls off the bridge is actually easier right now than it usually is in the summer months. The snow is firm and with 10' on top of the large boulders the going is pretty smooth.

Once we reached the bottom of the cliff we were in a world of giant snow pillows.

We hiked on top of the frozen river, taking care to avoid the open areas caused by fast moving water. As we rounded the cliff the frozen falls came into view.

It really is a spectacular sight at any time of year. In reality the photographs would probably have been better with a little more cloud cover but the complexity of shapes and textures made up for some of the high contrast between snow and shadows.

We decided to exit the falls by hiking up and following the river out. Ken took this shot of me as I was climbing from the bottom.

The river at the top was alive with dippers but we saw no other tracks of any kind in that part of our journey.

On the way back we stopped the snow machines to look over a bridge about a mile from the car. There we found evidence of otters who had been through within a day of our visit.

All in all an amazing day on which to end the winter of 2014!

Snow Birds

 I had to go into Cody today so I was not happy when I awoke to 6" of new snow! The drive in was terrible and I wondered more than once if I should just turn around and go home. But it is April and by mid-day the snow was melting and temperatures were warming.

I decided to take a quick trip up to Beck Lake before I left town just to see if any birds were migrating through. As soon as I stopped the car I could see and hear several hundred Bohemian Waxwings making the most of the russian olive fruit. What an amazing sight they are with their rusty colored butts and the bright yellow and red wing trim!

There were also dozens of robins in the snowy trees. No doubt they are wondering, as I am, if spring is ever going to arrive this year!