Fall Getaway

This summer has been busy beyond believe with many obligations taking us to lots of different places. This past week we decided to get away again, just for fun, by heading into Yellowstone for a few days of beautiful fall weather. On the way out our drive we came across mama golden eagle sitting on a rock with her youngster just off in the distance. The sun was hitting her in a way that truly showed off her golden crown, making it obvious why the species is named as it is.

 Our first day was spent just outside the northeast entrance of Yellowstone near Cooke City. We have enjoyed quite a bit of time in the mountains to the north in the winter but really have never penetrated that exact area in the warmer months. We rented an ATV to get us back the 10 miles of jeep track to the Forest wilderness line and then hiked into Goose Lake from there. The photo above was taken after we left the ATV and were hiking toward the lake. The large mountain sticking up in the background is Wolf Mountain.

 In the photo above I was standing in the middle of Goose Creek shooting back to the west.

 The next morning we got up early and headed into the park under overcast skies.

The fog was hanging in the valleys as we crossed the Lamar River and began climbing to get a panoramic view of Lamar Valley once the sun broke through.

The small dots in the foreground in the image below are bison.

 This rough-legged hawk chased a red-tailed hawk out of the tree before landing. He then sat quietly while I snapped a half dozen shots of him.

 The third day we moved on to Mammoth for a hike up Sepulcher Mountain. It is one of our favorite hikes in the Park at a distance of 13 miles and 4000' vertical. We didn't see a soul the whole time although the Park still seems to be full of visitors on the roads. The elk are just beginning to move down into the Mammoth area but we saw lots of bulls with their harems up high, like this one near the top of Sepulcher, above.

 When we popped over the top of the last ridge we found ourselves eye-to-eye with a herd of mountain goats. I actually missed most of the shots because I was too close with my 100mm - 400mm lens! This fellow was the last one over the edge and he stopped to take a look back at us - to make sure we weren't following, perhaps.

Then, a minute after they had disappeared out of sight, this little head, below, peeked back over the ledge for one last look.

 On our way back to Mammoth we spotted a dark creature moving through the grass toward us. We immediately stopped and so did he. We started up again, trying our best to move away from the black bear but he followed right along, paralleling our tracks. We stopped again and he stood on his hind legs to get a better view of us. Finally he came down lower and crossed the path some distance in front of us before heading up the other side and out of sight.