Snow Lodge

As far as Ken and I could figure out, I think this was our twelfth, or so, visit to Old Faithful during the winter. It may be more. The first time we stayed there during the snowy season was before 1995 because that was when the new Snow Lodge was built. 

For anyone who hasn't had the experience, it is hard to describe how different it is from the summer months. It is not just the lack of people - the entire attitude of everyone there from guests to workers has a more intense feel to it. After all, when the average temperature hovers around zero degrees Fahrenheit as it did this year, it takes a hearty and dedicated soul to really enjoy getting out and exploring each day. 

 Ken and I take our back-country cross-country skis with us when we go and we have our favorite ski trails all planned out in advance. Some years, like this one, are a little more challenging because of the need to break trail through pretty deep snow but we always come back with a renewed appreciation for the incredible environment that makes up Yellowstone in the winter.

The first photo, above, shows the bobby sock trees at first light.

 This tree, covered in rime frost, was barely visible through the fog at Fountain Paint Pots.

 The next two images are also from Fountain Paint Pots. The fog gave a mystical feel to the morning.

The bison were looking especially frosty this year. They always have the right of way on the roads, above.

I captured a shot of this collared bison, left, very early one morning.

 This bighorn ram almost looks fake with the amazing sky as a backdrop. This shot was taken between Gardiner and Mammoth on our way into the Park. I have seen lots of rams with broken horns before but never one like this where there is a big chunk broken off the very top. That must have been quite a battle!

 Ken skiing on the boardwalk near Castle Geyser. Usually we hike the boardwalks because the trails are so icy but the amount of new snow this year convinced us to don the skis for a loop around. Note the three bison grazing on the far river bank.

This coyote was passing through as we made our way back to Mammoth at the end of our stay.

Three Good Terns

We had the pleasure of observing three different varieties of Terns during our last visit to Florida. The largest of the group are the Caspian Terns, seen here in the first image. Besides their size, they can be distinguished from other terns by the mottled dark forehead. 

The Common Tern is much smaller and less colorful in its non-breeding months when its bill is black instead of red. 

In between the other two, size-wise, is the Royal Tern. They always seem to have a very modern hairdo!

The Bark

Just one quick shot today. I am fascinated by White-Tail Deer since Mulies are much more common on our land. The white-tails always appear more delicate to my eye. These two were being very sweet to each other with the one on the right nuzzling the one on the left as I drove by. They didn't seem concerned when I stopped to take a shot but just as I clicked, a dog barked somewhere in the distance and they both went on full alert. A second later they were over the hill and out of sight.

The Dark Side

I am not sure why but my favorite images from the latest visit to Florida were all taken under low light conditions and have a feeling of the spotlight about them. Almost all were shot underexposed - in a couple cases, dramatically so. 

 This Brown Pelican, above, flew into the first light just at sunrise. The extreme low tide adds to the feeling of darkness. These birds seem prehistoric to me at the best of times but especially so in this image!

 I was thrilled to capture this group of preening White Pelicans just after day break. Underexposing for the brightness of their feathers left the background moody and dark.

 This Great Blue Heron stood stoically as a flock of Dunlin flew by him. The smaller birds can't seem to sit still and kept swirling around the calmer, large bird.

I managed to capture several frames of this White Pelican coming in for a landing. The water almost looks like ice as he gets ready to touch down.

Leaping Lizards!

Happy New Year! Here we go again for another trip round the sun. If 2017 is anything like 2016, it will be a wonderful year. I am including a couple of fun photos from our brief trip to Florida over Christmas. 

 I don't know how many shots I took of this particular lizard, above, as he spent hours at a time sitting on the head of the concrete rabbit. I'm sure he just thought of it as a nice, stone perch but I found it endlessly amusing!

I have tried a number of times in the past to capture a shot of a Brown Anole with his throat pouch extended, to no avail. I discovered the secret this time around - start shooting and hope it happens!

Winter Weather

For only the third time in almost 25 years, we find ourselves snowed in on our property. This time around is not as bad as two years ago when we had about twice as much snow and Ken was traveling, leaving me to fend for myself and the llamas alone. But we did get much colder temps with this storm and it is not over yet. 

 The hardest part is watching the wild animals trying to cope. For about 24 hours everything was locked in place as the storm raged but even once the snow stopped, life did not get much easier for animals trying to scrounge up enough to eat under a couple feet of fresh powder.

The bobcat, above, did his best to travel along the sandstone cliffs but he was eventually forced to push through the drifts to make his way forward. In this photo he is keeping an eye on the coyotes that passed by just a few minutes earlier (see below).

The pinyon jays and rosy-finches are lucky enough to have a stocked bird feeder and fresh water at their disposal.

The cottontails are having to work especially hard to make paths through snow that is about twice as high as they are. Most of their trails are tunnels they have dug under the snow's surface.

 The coyotes in the image below are two of a pack of four that have been hanging around for more than a year. They are easy to recognize because one of the animals (a female, I believe) only has three legs. She is the lead animal in this image. Although there is no way of knowing for sure, I suspect her injury is a result of a trapping incident. She is truly an amazing creature and I don't know how she continues to survive and even to thrive in such adverse conditions!

 Ken and I have cross country skied out our drive for the last three days in a row. Yesterday we did the six mile round trip ski to our mailbox and back -  an exercise in futility since we discovered once we got there that the county road hasn't seen a plow since the storm started so the mailman has not been anywhere near our box. But it did allow me to capture a sunny photo of our home in the snow on the way back.

Since this is my first post in almost two years, I should probably explain. I have been experimenting with different web site formats for my photography and hoped to tie my blog into the site. I finally settled on a web host and am in the process of building my site. It turns out that with the host I chose, sticking to my existing blog is the best option so I am firing up this site once again.

It is amazing to look back on the last two years and see what all has occurred. Not only have I made a second trip to South Africa since last I posted but I have also visited Zambia and spent 10 days in Morocco with the photo students from Northwest College. I am now in my second year of teaching photography at that particular institution and finding out everyday that the more I teach, the more I learn. So many other things have taken place in my life and in the world and I am sorry that I let myself get so far away from the opportunity to discuss things in this format!

A Tale of Two Winters

There is nothing quite like Yellowstone in the winter. Ken and I spend more time in the Park in the cold months than in the regular tourist season of summer. But conditions can be very different depending on the year. Last year at this same time we spent five days at Old Faithful during a period of record cold temperatures. The high while we were there last year was -30 degrees. We were warned by everyone not to ski because of the frigid conditions. But we know our capabilities and so we went ahead and enjoyed day after day of cross country ski adventures where we had the backcountry all to ourselves. 

This year is a marked contrast. The road in by snow coach from Mammoth was bumpy because of lack of snow in so many areas. The temperatures were at record highs with averages in the mid 40's each day and night temps barely making it to freezing. Again we were warned to stay off the ski trails, this time because of incredibly icy conditions caused by the daily freeze-thaw cycle. Even walking the boardwalks was a challenge because of the ice. And again we ignored the naysayers and enjoyed the incredible peace and beauty of near empty trails. 

 We saw very little wildlife on our trip into Snow Lodge. Even the swans on the Firehole River seemed to be in hiding. One exception was a pair of healthy looking coyotes who were hunting rodents along the river's edge.

Once we arrived at Old Faithful we threw our stuff in our room and headed out on a hike around the boardwalk. This Hairy Woodpecker entertained us for a while as he searched for bugs in a downed log.

 There was a small herd of bison hanging around the Upper Basin for most of the time we were there. I know they must have been enjoying the chance to get at the winter vegetation without having to push through inches or even feet of snow.








Our big plan for our time at the lodge was to try and get a winter shot of Grand Prismatic - no easy feat in a normal year but definitely possible this year with the incredible stability of the snow making the avalanche danger much smaller.

On our first morning back at OF I ventured out alone with my camera before sunrise in the hopes of capturing some special light on one of the features in the basin. As it turned out the light was extremely flat and nothing very exciting was happening with the thermal features. I wandered around for about an hour, enjoying the amazing opportunity to "own" the boardwalk with not another person in sight. About 7:30 am I found myself back in front of Old Faithful debating whether or not to return to the inn and join Ken for breakfast when I saw my first fellow humans of the day. As social creatures are wont to do they approached me and began making small talk. It turned out they were a very nice couple from Atlanta, Georgia; newlyweds despite being about my age. After we exchanged a few pleasantries, I heard the woman ask a question that I have only heard before as a punchline.

Her: So what time do they turn Old Faithful on?
I laughed politely then turned to see her indignant expression and realized she was dead serious.  Her husband, to his credit, was looking decidedly embarrassed.
Me: Ummm…they don't turn it on. It is a natural phenomenon.
Her: Well then, how did they turn it off during the sequestration last year?
Me: They didn't. That was a joke.
Her: They certainly did! I read that they shut it off to save water while the Park was closed.
Me: They didn't. It was a joke.
Her: I DON'T THINK SO!
At this point her husband, embarrassed for her, interrupted in an obvious effort to save face.
Him: What is that can you're carrying on your belt?
Me: (relieved at the change of subject) That is bear spray. With the warm weather we have been having, a few grizzlies are already leaving their dens.
Him, to his wife: Honey, I should get you some bear spray since you like to hike so much.
Her, obviously still upset: Why on earth would I need bear spray? The only bears in Georgia are black bears and they don't hurt people.
Me: (Bite your tongue, bite your tongue, damn…can't do it) Ummm…actually black bears are just as dangerous as grizzlies. Any wild animal is dangerous if it feels threatened.
Her: Well you obviously have a different kind of black bear here than we do in Georgia because OURS DON'T HURT PEOPLE!

At that point I decided the safest thing to do was to go have breakfast. I walked away feeling depressed. This was not a stupid woman. She was just incredibly ignorant of the natural world. How does nature stand a chance when humans are so blind to the world around them??

Once Ken and I started out on our mission of ski touring/climbing above Grand Prismatic, my depression quickly evaporated. It was a perfect day in so many ways. We managed to climb to the top of the ridge above the hot springs and I captured a five shot panorama of the area with no people and no vehicles, just pure white snow and glorious sunshine. On our 7 mile ski back to the lodge we crossed fresh wolf prints followed a short time later by fresh grizzly prints. As we entered the Upper Basin we encountered a charming woman from California who was absolutely overjoyed that she had just witnessed the eruption of Riverside Geyser. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

All in all we did about 12 miles of skiing on our first day and loved every minute of it!