Stay on the Trail (1/10/2015)

This little adventure was in the middle of our walk on the Upper Geyser Basin Trail. We're just hiking along, enjoying the scenery, when Rodney looks at some footprints in the snow. He looks to see where they lead and suddenly, notices what had made the tracks. Do you see it?

Look a little closer.

That's a 2,000 pound bison less than 100 feet from us. They can tell the humans to stay on the trail, but the bison can go wherever they want. It's just sitting quietly in the snow, chewing its cud, going nowhere and saving energy. Yep. We are definitely in Yellowstone.

Geysers and Geezers (1/10/2015)

The day we arrived, we knew we needed to change our plans. Ride 4 hours, do stars at night, do an 8-hour photography tour the next day, the next day do another long ride to leave. Too much, too fast, and too much time in a bombardier. So after dinner the first night, we extended our visit by one day. So today is our "bonus" day. 24 hours of not being in a bomb and time to soak it all in. I started my day with a Belgian hot chocolate, made with cream, butter, and Belgian chocolate. Oh my, oh my!! Oh, there was a yummy breakfast that went with it.

Our photography friends said their plan for today was to take "The Geysers and Geezers Tour." So we decided to do that, too. We walked the 2+ mile loop through the Upper Geyser Basin to Morning Glory Pool.

  

Giant Geyser is currently pretty inactive (last eruption January 2005), but when it blows, it's giant! 200-250 feet, expelling over a million gallons of water over a 1 to 1.5 hour period. I was fascinated with the fact that the "large sinter shroud surrounding Giant Geyser's vent may be an indication of the geyser's great age. The slow accumulation of mineral (1 to 2 inches every 100 years) indicates that Giant could be thousands of years old."

Morning Glory pool, which isn't as glorious as it once was. Humans throw things into the pool which change the thermal dynamics and cause the water temperature to drop, which changes which organisms can live in the pool and where and it's the organisms that give the pools their color. It's still pretty amazing.

Riverside Geyser erupted for about 15 minutes while we were there. And guess who else was there... the Geezers! We walked the rest of the trail back to Old Faithful with them. It was a delightful end to our walk.

The Photo Safari Comes to an End (1/9/2015)

There are two hatches on the top of the bombardier. Sometimes when we stopped, we were so close that if we had gotten out of the bomb, we would've disturbed the animals, so we would take turns standing up and taking our pics out the roof of the bombardier. Here Lisa (our guide and teacher) and Rodney happen to represent the spirit of the day: photography and phun.

We ended up staying too long (too many great stops) and so had to hurry home. This is the area that was covered in fog at our first stop just a few short hours ago. There really is a lot of geothermal activity in this park!

We shared the road most of the day with caravans of snowmobilers.

Sunset and steam.

Old Faithful (1/9/2015)

What's a trip to Yellowstone without a visit to Old Faithful. We met up with our friends from the photo safari...the four of them know each other from days of yore in Pennsylvania; the one couple has since moved to Idaho. What a fun way to get back together with old friends! There's a group shot of the six of us that one of them is going to send to us. Actually, Cindy is going to create a DropBox account we can all use to share our pics with each other. Anyway, this was a great way to end a great day, followed by a yummy dinner with a great waitress and some delicious wine. Now this is a vacation.

Lunch and then Wildlife (1/9/2015)

There was a "warming hut" set up at one of the parking lots. It was just a trailer with a big heater, some benches, and a little concession stand. We had all purchased sack lunches the night before and Lisa picked them up for us. We sat on the benches in the warming hut and ate lunch. A little bonus action was that the engine in a different kind of snow coach had caught fire and the driver pulled into this parking lot to let out his passengers and extinguish the fire. It was all out by the time we arrived, but the stories were good and we got to see Yellowstone firefighters in action (they came to double check that all was well). There were no injuries or loss of material goods.

Pretty close up on a bison.

Same bison, different angle. In the background, the three formations on the side of the hill are called "The Three Brothers." This is actually a shot that Lisa described as a good landscape picture with good composition...she didn't know I'd already taken this shot when she was telling others it would be an interesting composition. Yay me for having composed a good shot. As Rodney says, "Even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes."

Eagle!! This shot was taken out the hatch on the bombardier. He would land for just a few minutes, then move on down river a hundred feet or so and perch for a few more minutes. Not bad for iPhone zoom.

 Three coyotes.

 One of the coyotes got nice and close.

Lady elk.

Video would've been better. These ducks were pretty fun to watch as they simultaneously dove underwater and then would emerge as a group in a different location.

Photographer's Haven--Firehole Falls (1/9/2015)

There was a lot to learn about a special technique for photographing waterfalls. It involved the largest F-Stop possible (smallest aperture), plus a low ISO and a long shutter opening...or some such combination like that. The light and shadows kept changing which made it all very interesting. I was too busy just soaking it all in.  Turns out, there was some good people watching at this location as well. At least 5 other tour groups in bombs stopped by and probably 5 or 6 snowmobile caravans. Somehow, they all managed to get out, get the shot, and get going again. But we stayed and learned and enjoyed.

Some photographers will go to great lengths (or in this case, great depths) to get just the right photo.

We got our photography teacher to take our photo. :-)
Note that I'm wearing a headband/ear warmers and a hoodie and my new extra warm coat with a hood. Layers will save you when the day starts at 8 below.

Photo Safari Rest Stop (1/9/2015)

Nature's beauty is everywhere, including these trees right in the rest stop.

 Hmmmm. Weather doesn't look too good right now. This is the road ahead of us.

 We did spot this lone bison on the plain. The real photographers got some great shots.

Photo Safari Journey (1/9/2015)

I got to ride shotgun in the bombardier today so I got the great road shots. You can see the sun came out and the skies got bluer, yet the snow stayed white and pristine and beautiful...on the trees and on the ground.

 A stop by a big rock.

Photo Safari Begins (1/9/2015)

When we called back in September to set up all our arrangements, we asked, "How would a photographer get around the park to take photos?" and the woman on the phone talked about the photo safari. So we signed up for it! 

It was a foggy and VERY cold morning. When we met in the lobby at 7:45, Rodney and I were the first there. As others gathered, someone mentioned it was 8 degrees below zero...at that moment! No wind chill calculated in. Rodney and I looked at each other and looked at our colleagues for the day and said, "We are going back to our cabin to add layers. We'll be back!"

Fortunately, Rodney had already met Laura, a photographer, teacher, and our guide for the day. She had an exhibit of her work in the lobby of the lodge the night before and he had introduced himself and had a great conversation with her. We returned just a few minutes before 8:00, which was departure time. Laura was introducing herself and the focus of the day to the group when we got back, but Rodney had already heard most of that the night before.

We piled into another bombardier with two women from Germany, and a group of 4 traveling together: two women from Pennsylvania and their good friends, a couple from Idaho who used to live in Pennsylvania. We had as much fun getting to know them as we did taking photos. Lisa explained that this day was for everyone, no matter what their photography skills, to learn something new about photography and to get into nature photography which involves a lot of patience and luck and time just "being" in nature. I wasn't really going to get into the photography (I only use my iPhone anymore) but I knew I would enjoy the time just being in nature.

Our first stop was at a hilltop plateau that had a variety of natural environments to peruse...a river, a grove of non-coniferous trees, a grove of pine trees, animal tracks, a runoff creek,... and the sun is starting to burn through the fog.

Steam, Stars, and Winter Soundscapes (1/8/2015)

We signed up for a "tour" through Xanterra (we made all our arrangements through them). It's called Steam, Stars, and Winter Soundscapes. It was 2 hours....we drove in the bombardiers to three different spots and did a little night hike at each one and spent some time listening to our surroundings. It's so quiet here in winter, it was pretty cool. Too bad there weren't any stars out tonight. But we did get plenty of steam and sound. Our first stop was Keller Cascade, listening to a water fall. Then we went to Black Sands and hiked about a quarter of a mile out to a geyser. We waited in silence (no talking) and listened to the bubbles escaping the geyser. Pretty soon we heard thumping and could feel a slight vibration in the ground. Then the bubbling sound got faster. It was pretty cool to listen to. There are only two geysers in the park that do the thumping thing like that. Our last stop was Biscuit Basin. Most of the biscuit formations disappeared in (forgive me, I forgot the seismic details) some natural event a couple of decades ago, but there's one biscuit left and we saw it by flashlight on our last little hike. When we got back to the bomb, our guide, Berlin, had hot chocolate for us in souvenir insulated mugs with the logo for "Steam, Stars, & Winter Soundscapes."