04-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 01
Yellowstone is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extends into both Idaho and Montana. It was established as a national park in 1872 and is the nation’s oldest national park.
05-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 02
Yellowstone attracts 3 million visitors annually. Its symbol is Old Faithful, a large cone geyser that erupts about every hour. It shoots steam and boiling water 150’ into the air. The park is filled with active thermal areas that include a collection of the world’s most extraordinary geysers, steam vents, boiling cauldrons of hot water and mud, and hot, cascading mineral laden water. These would be enough to satisfy every visitor, but there’s more.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 03
(Photo Note: This is the Hayden Valley. Like so many of the valleys in Yellowstone, there is a quality of looking back in time. It seems memorable Michener novels began with a line something like "It was a bright, sunny day, sixty-five million years ago, when the mastodon strolled across the valley...". There is a primeval feeling that speaks to the bones of one's spirit.)
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 04
Yellowstone offers spectacular scenery of snow capped mountains, broad valleys, rivers and streams with rushing clear water and close up views of elk, bison, grizzly and black bear, antelope and wolves. And there’s also the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and its waterfalls.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 05
We first visited Yellowstone National Park in 1968 when we moved from Michigan to California.
Many make Yellowstone their travel destination, but that has never been our plan. Because of our travel between California and Michigan, we’ve always driven through the park as we’ve traveled east or west. With a destination beyond the park, we’ve always limited our stay. About the time we find the rhythm of the park, it’s time to go. Staying longer without the need to get back on the road would be nice.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 07
(Photo note: If anyone doubts the interior of the earth is hot, visiting Yellowstone will clear up that misconception. I've never lost my fascination for seeing super heated water boiling in earthen pots like this one. What's missing here is the heavy sulphur smell that accompanies the steam.)
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 08
We’ve been satisfied behaving like typical tourists in Yellowstone. We visit the geyser basins and walk the steamy boardwalks. We drive around in search of wildlife hanging out near the roads. We’ve fished for the Yellowstone cutthroat trout on the park’s rivers and on Yellowstone Lake. And we’ve hiked across several of the broad, open valleys. Photography has dominated much of the time of our most recent visits.
05-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 10
Our relationship with Yellowstone changed dramatically five year ago. We were staying in the Pebble Creek campground in the Lamar Valley. It’s a small and still relatively unknown campground tucked away in the northeast corner of the park. A wolf pack that had established a den on nearby Druid Peak had become prominent. We went hoping, but not expecting, to see wolves.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 11
(Photo note: Most of the elk were still at higher elevations during our visit. Bison move around too with the weather. We missed seeing the large number of elk that we've seen before, but there were herds of bison grazing throughout the park to attract our attention.)
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(Photo note: Pronghorn antelope add to the wildlife adventure of Yellowstone.)
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Yellowstone Tour 15
(Photo note: White pelicans are commonly seen throughout the park.)
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Yellowstone Tour 16
Everyone was quick to share their scopes and knowledge. We began our education on the wolves of Yellowstone. We watched as the four adult wolves gorged themselves from the kill. While I was watching through a scope that had a nice close up of the carcass, a female entered the chest cavity and came out holding what must have been a 20 pound liver that glistened in the sun.
05-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 18
(Photo note: Not only were the elk moving to lower elevations, the fall rut was beginning. Alpha males would soon begin gathering as many females as could be found. Here are three females waiting for their dashing alpha male to arrive.)
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Yellowstone Tour 19
Within three minutes, she had disappeared from sight. A biologist explained that the wolf would take the delicacy directly to waiting pups in the den located on the hill behind us. And with that information, she pointed out the four wolves that sat on the hill watching us and the wolves on the kill.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 21
The watchers would take their turn eating when the first group had their fill. Kills close to the road are extremely rare. Biologists still referred to that kill on this visit. We were very lucky to witness it. What a thrill.
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Yellowstone Tour 23
(Photo note: Here's a young male with velvet still on its antlers. In a week or two, the velvet will begin to pull away from the bony antlers.)
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 24
We’ve seen wolves on each subsequent visit. And on this visit, the lead biologist declared that seeing wolves had become like Old Faithful – predictable. We saw wolves on each of our three days in the valley. We had three different sightings on the first day, two on the second and one on the third day.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 28
The second day included seeing nine wolves meeting at what was referred to as “the rendezvous” – the meeting place. Later on, we saw four wolves surround a lone bison. The wolves circled the bison for about an hour before they gave up and walked away.
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 32
Their departure was encouraged by two other lone bison that had walked from a considerable distance to provide support for the one picked out by the wolves. Biologists thought we might actually witness a bison kill that morning.
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Yellowstone Tour 35
(Photo note: Hot water exits thermal areas to ultimately join rivers. As the water moves away from the vent, it cools. Over the years, algae has adapted to living in various water temperatures. As the temperature changes, the algae that can survive there changes. Different algae are different colors. So, as one looks across water moving away from a hot spring, the algae can tell visitors the relative temperature of the water.)
03-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 39
Myths and generational hate for the wolf continues. It was recently removed from the endangered species list. This had to be only time that an animal was hunted the day after being removed from the list. Cattlemen were ready with their guns and during the first two months, were able to kill over 60 wolves.
05-SEP-2008
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(Photo note: Pure pleasure...)
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Yellowstone Tour 42
I listened to a native from Wyoming explain that wolves were misunderstood. They didn’t just kill the old and weak.
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(Photo note: Here's an alpha bull elk near Mammoth Hot Springs that had already gathered his harem and only had time to relax and enjoy the sun.)
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He said he frequently saw them chase and kill the alpha males in bison and elk herds. He also reported that wolves had pushed grizzly bears out of the northwest corner of the park. He supported the shooting of “wolves on sight” – with no license or limit.
04-SEP-2008
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(Photo note: Mammoth Hot Springs is a large area where mineral laden water has been venting for a long time. A large mound has been created with successive tiers of pools created by mineral walls. The effect of cascading minerals frozen in time is quite dramatic. Where hot water is still moving, the color of the algae adds to the magic of the setting.)
04-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 52
(Photo note: The dead trees are a signal that the water path changed and killed the trees as a result.)
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Yellowstone Tour 57
Seeing four wolves that were unwilling/unable to kill a lone bison certainly provided contradiction to his belief. Biologists also laughed when I told them the man’s story. Not only were grizzly bears not being pushed out of any of their territory, their population had grown. The bears had, in fact, found a new source of food with wolf kills.
04-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 60
(Photo note: Yellowstone is also home to bighorn sheep and mountain goats. Seeing these sheep near the northwest entrance to the park by Gardiner was unusual. They put on quite a show coming down a steep, rock hillside to get water from the river - at the bottom of the cliff.)
05-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 63
This attitude is reminiscent of our beloved President. He promotes “No Child Left Behind” and then disdains and rewrites everything that science tells us about our world.
(Photo note: The Lamar River...)
06-SEP-2008
Yellowstone Tour 66
The wolf is a noble animal and its social structure is quite remarkable. We’re glad that we have been able to see them first hand.