Vacations Are Supposed to be Relaxing

Most people plan their vacations with lots of "down time" figured in: maybe on a beach or at a resort. A little down time is always good, but it really wouldn't take long for Dan and me to get quite bored with that! 

Morning light is so pretty! 

Our trip started in a very popular vacation destination -- Yellowstone National Park -- but we quickly parted ways with the typical Yellowstone tourists. No lazy sleeping in for us. We were actually up much earlier than our usual evening-shift normal life allows. (We were in bed much, much earlier than usual, too!) Many people include hiking in their Yellowstone vacation, too, but not like we do. No boardwalk strolls or even trail walks for us. We had a destination (or three), a compass, a GPS, and bear spray. We wandered up and down steep hillsides and through new-growth lodge pole pines so thick that it was tough to squeeze between them. (I have the scrapes and bruises to prove it!) 





So what is the pay-off for pushing ourselves like that? Solitude! Yes, solitude in Yellowstone National Park. There is nothing better than sitting on a log with one you love, eating lunch surrounded by God's beautiful creation while elk bugle all around you. We "discovered" a waterfall that was new to us and watched elk behave like they behave when no human eyes are around to observe. (The wind was blowing our scent away from them, and they truly had no idea that we were there.) We smiled at a chipmunk munching his way through a stem of grass while a sage grouse trilled softly from a nearby perch. 


These are the feelings that we hope to capture in our photography. Yes, we could have taken pictures of a magnificent bull elk on the courthouse lawn in Mammoth without ever getting out of the car. But what fun would that be? 

We had this bull, for this moment anyway, all to ourselves.

In Pursuit of Pikas

Every once in a while, I get "hung up" on getting photos of a certain species. Lately, I have been obsessed with pikas. I was looking for them a few weeks ago when we were up on the Chief Joseph Highway, even though I knew that we really weren't high enough. I climbed around in the rocks at Blue Lake while the guys fished last weekend, but despite what appeared to be perfect habitat, there was not one pika in sight. 

So this weekend, we decided to quit messing around and just go where we know that we will find them: the Beartooth Pass. The Pass was actually closed earlier in the week (yes, we really did get that much snow in August!), but on Saturday morning, we awoke to sunshine. By 10 am, we were starting up the Beartooth Pass. Nearing the summit, we pulled off to take pictures on the road's namesake: a jagged outcropping of rock known as the Bear's Tooth. As I walked away from the car past a pile of rocks, a squeak stopped me in my tracks! Lo and behold, a pika was scurrying among the rocks. I promptly forgot about that ol' rock peak and settled in to wait for my furry little friend to reappear. I didn't have to wait long at all before he resumed his frenzied gathering of roots and grasses.

Dan didn't forget the Bear's Tooth. 

Eventually, we left him to his work and returned to the car. Now what? It was barely past noon, way too early to just turn around and go home! Dan suggested Yellowstone, and there was no need to say it twice. 

One of our favorite drives in Yellowstone, Blacktail Plateau Road, is open for only a short time each year, so it was the logical choice for our next adventure. We parked the car alongside the one-way gravel road and set off on foot. Cresting the top of a knoll, Dan spotted an antelope at a watering hole below us. Suddenly, a cow elk and her calf came running around the hill less than 50 yards away from us. Just as we expected, a bull was right on her heels! She never stopped running, but whether winded or just bored with the chase, the bull slowed to a walk before making his way around the next hill and out of sight. All I could say was, "How cool was that!?" (Even if we didn't get any good pictures...) 

By now, we were getting hungry, so we hiked back to the car and turned toward Gardiner. But our day's adventures weren't quite over yet. Another road that has intrigued Dan for quite a while now is the old Gardiner-Mammoth Road. But it is open even less frequently than Blacktail. In fact, we have never yet actually seen it open... until yesterday. We didn't see any animals, but it was still an enjoyable, quiet byway. It was the perfect way to conclude our outing. 

***Bonus Pics***

because he's just so stinkin' cute!

I did take a couple of pictures of the Bear's Tooth
when the pika was out of sight.