Yellowstone in February

 With the spring-like weather, we decided to drive over to Gardiner, Montana, on Friday and do a day trip into Yellowstone yesterday. It is always a treat to enter the Park this time of year as the crowds are a small fraction of their summer size and everything looks different with snowy highlights.

In the top photo you will see an interesting collection of Goldeneye. Yellowstone is one of the few places where you are almost certain to see Barrow's instead of Common. The interesting thing about this small group is that not only are there male and female Barrow's, I am pretty sure the duck in the lead is a female Common. The one that is third in line and to the front is an immature and may be either a Barrow's or a Common. I need someone with more knowledge and experience to confirm.

The next two shots show why it is always nice to have two camera bodies on hand; one with a long lens and one with a wider angle of view. Both shots are of the same Bighorn Sheep. In the first shot the landscape becomes the subject with the large ram merely a point of interest within the frame. In the second shot, it is all about the animal and we get to see the evidence of his many battles in the detail of the horns.

 This coyote was all alone when we spotted him crossing a snowy field in Lamar Valley. But as we rolled down the windows to take a shot he raised his head to howl and was immediately answered by other song dogs both to the west and then to the east. I can never get enough of their voices raised in chorus!

 After Lamar we backtracked to Tower Junction and set out on cross country skis on the groomed trail up the hill toward Mt Washburn. Along the way we stopped for a quick view of Tower Falls encased in ice.


Below is a shot from our Friday afternoon hike above Gardiner. In the center near the bottom of the image you can see the Roosevelt Arch with Yellowstone stretching off into the distance behind it.