Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone, WY

The south entrance to Yellowstone was open the day before we were due to drive through, but it only stayed open for three hours. So when we got to it the next morning it was still closed which meant we would have to take the long way round. After going back through Jackson Hole, route 22 had a warning saying “no trailers”, so we had to find another alternative. We ran into a few blizzards along the way and texted friends to see if they knew what the roads were like – they had seen people sliding off the roads the day before! We also rang the road conditions number for Yellowstone: most of the roads were still closed and they were recommending snow tires or chains. As we got to the western entrance the sky seemed to clear up and Lindsay decided to ask the rangers what the roads were like: a bit icy, but he decided that it looked clear and the number of cars around would have cleared the roads. He was right. We made it through to Mammoth campground which is near the northern entrance.

The campground is not reservable and although it looked quite busy there were still a number of sites left. We have driven past this campsite a number of times before and thought it looked horrible, but it’s actually really nice. The sites are large (we can park our truck at either end of our trailer) and there is a water tap for every two sites. The rest rooms are close to our site but not too close, have large cubicles, soap and hand dryers and are heated! – which is not the norm. The nearest dump site is 10 miles away, so we use their restrooms during daylight hours.

Only a few minutes old - bison calf 

The first day into the park was mother’s day and we saw a bison calf being born which was pretty special. We got pictures of it but they are a bit graphic so we probably won’t keep them. Unlike the Grand Tetons, there are quite a number of bison calves in Yellowstone. I have never seen so many herds of bison on our previous trips; they are everywhere. Into Lamar Valley we spot Scarface on the plains but he is quite a fair way away. He is a 24-year old grizzly who has seen his fair share of fights hence his nickname and is losing his teeth! As he would come along the valley in line with us, we would get in our truck and move down the valley as he was covering a lot of ground. Eventually he came up to the road and crossed in front of all the cars and went up the other hill.

Grizzly in Hayden Valley 

Grizzly in Hayden Valley 

Each day we see a number of bears, this is definitely the time to visit. Today a cinnamon black bear was sitting on a log with his hind legs dangling on the ground, then he leaned forward as if he was tired. In another location a large grizzly ran over the snow (boy they run fast), caught sight of another grizzly who must have been older, stopped and ran in another direction. Every day has been different, with something new that we haven’t seen before.

Cinnamon (black) bear on the road to Norris

One of the problems in shooting landscape and wildlife is that there are about six settings you need to change on the camera. Some people get around this by having two cameras but we’ve just realized that we can program three custom settings on my camera so all that I have to do is change the dial. That easy!

Seeing the wildlife is often just luck, and perseverance - looking and waiting. On one particular day when we saw hardly anything we heard that different people had seen a black bear sow and a trio of cubs and in another spot a quad grizzly mum – both were on the side of a pond where they were drinking and friends got amazing shots. Sometimes you can be totally oblivious to something really exciting half a mile away.

There is a black bear sow with three cubs that we have been watching and photographing for about a week. You really get to know their personalities, there is one cub that is the dominant one, he suckles on mum as often as he can, and wrestles with his siblings and is always clowning around. If another bear is nearby the sow will tell her cubs to go up a tree and sometimes she will go up too to be a barrier between the cubs and the intruder. Other bears will kill the cubs so that she goes back on heat.

Mum and cubs near Tower 

Sometimes we stay in one place and talk to the people around us as we wait in hope for the bears to appear. So many people come year after year. some as many as the last thirty years! As we are getting to know people better we are being told of more wildlife sightings, it’s not that we are necessarily missing out on these sightings more than other years, but finding out what we are missing!

I'm not moving, I'll eat the fine if you give me one! 

We have been here a few weeks now and the maximum nights you can camp in the park during a one year period July to June is 30 nights, so it will be time to move on soon.



Late yesterday afternoon we went hiking with a friend who wanted to look for some big horn sheep he saw a few nights ago. We were up on one of the hiking trails, something we don’t normally do as the thought of carrying our camera gear all that way is too grueling. The first section was pretty much vertical which really tested my heart and Lindsay’s lungs. We found the marmots but they weren’t as relaxed as they had been when he had photographed them the night before. There was a group of four big horn sheep off in the distance but no sign of the 16 male ones he was looking for. We did have a herd of pronghorn who got used to us and we got some great shots around 7pm, so the light is just gorgeous.

It’s time to leave Yellowstone. When we got here there was snow almost everywhere, then when the snow melted, the grass below was brown. It didn’t take long before the sun turned the grass bright green and the yellow, blue and white wildflowers started to appear. We will be back, hopefully earlier than this year as when there is snow the animals have limited places to go and are therefore easier to find. Yellowstone is huge and when summer comes, they retreat into the backcountry, far from the roads.