The Best Seat in the House

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone

I've been counting down days to this weekend for three weeks now! Of course, that was just the countdown to the specific date ~ I have been pestering Dan about a snowcoach ride in Yellowstone for much longer than that.

We were picked up at our motel on Friday morning. As our guide, Pierre, walked us out to the snowcoach, he commented that ours was a small group, and it certainly was ~ just four of us! Pierre said that one of us could ride in the front passenger seat, and since I am prone to motion-sickness, Dan promptly put me up there. I truly had a front-row seat for all the action now. 

We were hardly through the gate to the park before we made our first stop. It was "just" a buffalo, but it really was pretty in the sun, as were the surrounding mountains. The road soon crossed the river and we stopped again for swans and ducks. The next stop for ducks (at my request) held a surprise for us. As I was photographing the beautiful mallards, Pierre pointed out a great blue heron. Well, then... shift of focus. As we watched the heron, it suddenly snatched a fish! It held the fish in its beak for several moments before swallowing it down. 

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

The whole point of taking the Canyon Tour was waterfalls, and our first was Gibbon Falls. I don't think we have ever before had this point all to ourselves! After spending some time there, we traveled on to the Canyon Village Visitor Center, where we ate our lunch. Then we made our way to the Upper Falls (of the Yellowstone) Overlook. Then, finally, we arrived at the Lower Falls Overlook. This was the shot that Dan had been waiting all day to get! The falls, surrounded by ice and snow, were gorgeous, but the wind was cold, so I headed back to the van. Eventually, I was joined by the others, and we began our return journey. We were given one more photo opportunity when someone spotted an elk in the river. 

Seeing pictures like this online finally got Dan
to agree to the trip. He needed his own! 

Saturday morning dawned cloudy and much cooler than Friday. (Oh well, if I was only going to get one sunny day, I am glad that it was the day in the park!) We packed up, and over breakfast, we debated on which way to go to get home. Breakfast finished, we hit the road. Within a few minutes, we were in Idaho. Dan spied a coyote (or maybe it was a wolf?), but by the time we got turned around, it was disappearing over the hill. A few minutes later, we were stopped to photograph a moose resting under a tree. Then an old building, then three more moose. The cameras were definitely put to good use on this trip!

Gibbon Falls

On My Own

So I did something today that I almost never do... I went out picture-taking all by myself. Dan had to work (boo!), so I dropped him off and finished up the errands in town. By the time I got home, I was hungry. So I popped a dvd into the player and settled into the recliner with my lunch. 

But the mild temperature and sunny skies kept calling me to come and play outside. So I gave in, grabbed the tripod and camera bag, and headed for South Pond. I was hoping for ducks, but the pond was completely frozen over. I took some pictures along the shore, but the park is a pretty small piece of acreage. I needed another spot.

I thought the inside of this milkweed pod was interesting. 

So I got back in the car and took back roads towards Park City. I tried a fishing access, but the puddles were pretty deep. (Remembering that I had left Dan at work without a vehicle, I figured I'd better not get myself stuck.) 

Daylight was running out on me, so I made a bee-line for one more recreational area. I got a few fire rainbow shots and a few setting sun shots, but neither was spectacular. 

All in all, I enjoyed the peace and quiet of being out in nature. But I definitely missed my photo buddy. Maybe tomorrow...

I don't usually consider geese to be "photo worthy,"
but I liked this silhouette.

Bridging the Gap

Yes, we DID drive 300 miles to photograph a bridge!

A couple of years ago, we took a hike in Yellowstone. Not far up the Beaver Ponds Trail out of Mammoth, we came to a little footbridge. I was smitten with this rustic-looking structure nestled in the bright green foliage surrounding it. Not long afterward, I photographed the same bridge, garbed in autumn's attire. Now, I just needed a winter picture. 

Yesterday, after too long a wait, was finally the day. Despite a few places where snow had drifted across the interstate, we made it to Gardiner without incident. After a quick photo shoot with an unconcerned big horn ram, we headed straight to our destination ~ the hot springs and the start of the Beaver Ponds Trail. As we commenced our hike, we startled a small herd of elk. They weren't in any hurry to get away from us, though. One awakened from a nap, pried open an eyelid, then apparently concluded that we were not threatening enough to be worth disturbing herself. I gave her as wide a berth as possible and proceeded up the trail. I got my bridge pictures and we returned to the parking lot. 

I found this "sap fall" fascinating. 

Now what? While we might be crazy enough to drive that far for a picture, we certainly weren't crazy enough to turn around and leave immediately just because we had achieved the goal!

So we drove to the parking lot at the top of the terraces. We "just happened" to have the showshoes in the car, which was a good thing, since the groomed trail was open only to skis and snowshoes. It was a pleasant,sunny (albeit chilly) afternoon, and the formations were beautiful in the snow. It didn't take all that long to walk the mile and a half long loop. 

But remembering the blowing and drifting snow, Dan wanted to get home (or at least back through Columbus) before dark. We stopped briefly at the Visitor's Center, just because we never have. We perused the displays and chatted with the ranger about bears, cameras, and stupid tourists. (Not that HE could call them that!) Then we got back in the car and ended another fabulous visit in Yellowstone.  

This is the tree in the picture above. Make sure you check it out
in full screen. So intricate!

What an interesting horn! Did he knock that part out in a fight? 

Fly Like an Eagle

This morning, I posted to our Face Book page, "Off to work! I wish our day jobs were this much fun!" It was a little warmer today, with clear, sunny skies. So we loaded up the cameras and set out in search of willing subjects. 

We took the truck because we wanted to get out on back roads. Just past Columbus, we turned onto Country Man Road. We started seeing deer right away. While I do think the does are pretty, they do not appeal to the general public the way a big buck does. We stopped for a couple of shots of the Crazy Mountains (my favorite range), and again for the grain elevators in Reed Point. 

Then we drove our GPS crazy as she tried repeatedly to get us on I-90 back toward home. (Who asked you, GPS? Dan just turned it off!) Nope ~ we wanted Bridger Creek Road. More deer and more mountains, but the day was beginning to look like a bust from a photography point of view. We managed to get all the way across Bridger Creek (we weren't sure if it had been plowed) and turned toward Fishtail. Suddenly, Dan spotted a fox in the ravine below us. We did manage to get a few quick clicks in, but she wasn't hanging around for a full-on photo shoot. 

With our outlook refreshed, we took the road toward the East Rosebud Valley. Finally! We spotted an eagle! There was an unfortunate deer that had not gotten across the road safely, and a pair of eagles were keeping a close eye on it. A small group of magpies were taking advantage of the eagles' absence to take their turn at the carcass. I think magpies are pretty, so I took a few pictures of them before joining Dan in shooting the eagle. 

We don't usually see many eagles during the afternoon, but today was different. As we started toward home, we came across a stretch of road near Roscoe where we have frequently seen eagles. Sure enough, there was a pair hanging out in the branches above the river. As we followed the river back to Absorkee, we continued to see eagles, turkeys, and deer. But daylight was fading, so it was time to "clock out" and go home. 

Skidding around the Learning Curve

 ♫ I'm gettin' snowshoes for Christmas!♫

Finally, the weather and our schedules coincided! Weather and work have left me ready to throttle somebody! It was definitely time for me and my man to go play outside, and it just so happens that we had some new toys to break in - snowshoes! :) 

Out of the many places we could go, we chose the Souix Charley Lake Trail. I was a little disheartened when other people had the same idea! SIGH! Oh well... Since there wasn't much snow in the parking lot, we left the snowshoes in the car. However, we had barely started up the trail when we met one of the other couples coming back out. Then we quickly caught up with the other threesome struggling in the knee-deep snow. Dan went back to the the car for the snowshoes, and now we had the trail to ourselves. That's more like it! 

I think I was still buckling up my shoes when I realized that Dan was no longer upright. Ummmm... Snowshoes aren't much good on rocks. Learning curve! No harm done (okay, a scraped shin), so we continued on our merry way. (Even if we were a bit clumsy and slow.)

Even the pine cones were having fun
leaving tracks in the snow! 

The Souix Charley Trail is one of my favorites, but we didn't have time to go very far. Just as we were thinking about turning around, we saw a sign for the Gorge Bypass Trail. Fairly certain that it would take us back to the parking lot, we couldn't resist the lure of the unknown. After a short, steep climb, we were looking back down at the river far below us. The trail meandered along at a fairly level grade for a bit, then began to turn downward. It wasn't overly steep, but it was constantly descending. At one slightly steeper spot, my feet were suddenly no longer underneath me, and I was sitting in the snow... with snow up my shirt... and down my waistband... and in my jacket. (There's that learning curve again!) The part that Dan found most amusing (since he didn't see the actual fall) was the fact that I couldn't get up! He did take pity on me and extend a hand to pull me up. 

Safely back to the car, we agreed that the snowshoes were a worthwhile purchase that would most certainly be put to use again as soon as possible. 

~ Bonus~

We spotted a few eagles on the way to the trailhead. 

Still Searching for Sheep

**SIGH** My favorite holiday is history for another year. But why waste today wishing for yesterday? With Dan's brother Barry leaving to go home to Cheyenne, we left his sister Tamsen to enjoy some rare solo downtime and took our nephew Paul with us to the Bighorn Recreational Area. 

We were still on the hunt for big horn rams butting heads, and since we didn't find any sheep up on Syke's Ridge a couple of weeks ago, we decided to stay lower. We paid our entry fee and made our way to Devil's Overlook. This was Paul's first trip to the Bighorn Canyon, but not ours. So while Paul was photographing the river and cliffs, we were scanning the surrounding terrain with binoculars looking for sheep. We did not spot any sheep, but Dan did spy an arch that we have never noticed before. After a few pictures, we returned to the road and to the hunt. 

And finally...!! A mile or two down the road, the guys spotted a young ram with a little herd. Unfortunately, the other ram in the bunch was no match for him (probably too young, also), so there was no head-butting. But they were still fun to watch.

Family photo time. C'mon, Dad, look at the camera!

Then we were on to the next destination. We have visited the Ewing-Snell Ranch before (see Starting the New Year Off Right, Jan. 1, 2016), but on that day, we didn't have time to hike. The hike was, however, today's destination. We discovered before too long that we actually could have driven halfway, but if we had, we would have missed something really interesting. As we were walking, Paul stopped abruptly and said, "What was that noise?" Dan assured him that it was too cold for rattlers, but now we heard the noise, too. The sound was coming from a pin-size hole in a mostly-buried black plastic water pipe. The misty spray had created a miniature ice-sculpture garden. So pretty! 

We soon came to the point where we could have left the car. We forded a little creek and set off into a box canyon. Before too long, though, we decided to save the rest of the hike for another day and go back to sheep hunting. (Although if Dan would have turned on the GPS a little sooner, and we had realized that we were less than half a mile from the end of the trail, we probably would have finished it.)

We traveled on to another historic ranch in the area - the Lockhart Ranch. Again, this was a first for Paul and a return visit for us. Paul was taken enough with the old buildings to take pictures of his own, and we expanded upon our first visit. The buildings were unlocked this time, so we checked out the interiors. The weather was also nicer this time, so we wandered the grounds a bit more. 

Knowing that the daylight was going to run out on us, we started for home. We took a quick detour out to Barry's Landing and discovered another trailhead to another historic ranch. But that one will have to wait for another day. I guess it just gives us another reason to come back. 

This sunset would be even prettier if it were at
9:30 rather than 4:30!

Campers Last Stand

Forget politics... I'm going camping!

Knowing that this was going to be our last camping trip in 2016, I was especially eager to get out there! Therefore, we left Thursday night right after work (yes, that is 11 pm). 

Intriguing...

Friday morning could have come just a few short hours later when we were awakened by a four-wheeler being unloaded across the road from our camper. Fortunately, we went back to sleep, so it was late morning when we set off for Sykes Ridge. Our purpose was singular ~ we were after pictures of big horn sheep in rut. We didn't get very far up the road, though, before I got distracted. There was an opening in the rock and a true arch just begging to be explored. Yes, I was the one suggesting that we climb up to it. The ascent wasn't too bad, and it was worth the effort. We found a big nest of some sort, cool crevices in the rocks, and a track in a sandy spot that was left by either a large coyote or a young mountain lion.

Whatever calls this nest home was not there. 

We eventually returned to the machines and resumed our search for the sheep. We reached "sheep territory" but found not a one. We ate our lunch while scanning the surrounding meadows and cliffs hoping to spot them, but without success. Unfortunately, fall days are short, and long before we were ready, we turned back toward the camper. On the way down the mountain, we did find some photogenic horses.

We got off to a much earlier start on Saturday morning. We had an energetic route planned for the day. Our first wildlife spot of the day was a beautiful doe. As two other deer appeared, we concluded that they were probably her fawns from last spring. As we rode up Red Pryor Mountain Road, down the switchbacks, and across Dry Head Vista, we saw more does and a dozen or so horses. By late afternoon, we were back on Sykes Ridge Road. We have seen sheep here multiple times, but not today. Despite hiking out to points and walking ledges, peering hopefully down into the valleys, we saw no sheep.

No, he's not big... yet.
Of course, if he doesn't get a little smarter about staring
at humans wearing orange vests, well...

Again, daylight ran short and we had to go. We weren't too disappointed, though, as we had enjoyed another great ride and wrapped up another successful camping season. 

Growing up, I loved the book The Black Stallion.
Well, I found him!