Had a really nice long night sleep in the Killpack’s camper trailer but woke up feeling sore and sorry with my torn hamstring. Everybody was up early and excited for our trip to Yellowstone and our long da in the park. We wanted to get away early but had to drop Kauden off at a vacation ranch so he could work for the day.
We then headed off the hours drive up to Yellowstone. We got to the park early entering through West Yellowstone, a unique period type town that still resembles what America would have looked like in the frontier years.
When you first enter the park for about ten miles the trees are only about 5 to 6 feet tall, this is because in 1988 there was a massive bush fire, which destroyed nearly 1/3 of the park. These trees are now growing back. Whilst driving along the traffic suddenly backed up, not sure what was happening, or if someone was pulling over to look at wildlife, I stuck my head out the window and looked about 5, 6 cars ahead to see a giant Buffalo walking right down the middle of the road down the double yellow lines. He walked right passed our car no more than 2 or 3 feet from my window. Some of the kids were asleep in the car and mum woke Tamzyn and Courtney woke Genna who immediately upon waking up were confronted with the head of this huge Buffalo 12inches from their window. After their initial shock they thought it was pretty cool and we all laughed.
We then drove to look and photograph the world famous Gibbon Waterfall on the Gibbon River. The car park is located above the falls and once again I lugged all the gear, tripod, filters and camera some 600feet to the best vantage point to photograph. Walking downhill is not so bad with my injury, but walking uphill is a killer. Thankfully, Thomas, Jodie and the girls all helped and offered to carry my equipment. Drew was also a big help. We then jumped in our cars to drive to the Norris Geyser area; we couldn’t find a parking spot so crowded is the park so we decided to move on.
A short time later there was a lot of cars pulled off to the side of the road and easily 100 people standing in the field. Drew came back to our car and said, “there some be some Bull Elk up there for so many people to be stopped and looking.” So we rushed forward found a park on the opposite side of the road and looked across to see three magnificent, mature Bull Elk in the field across the stream. Two were grazing and one was sitting in the shade looking at all these people taking pictures. We all walked across to the very edge of the stream and took a few initial shots.
Fortunately I had my 70-200 photo lens on and my 2x tele-converter, this basically means I had a 400 ml lens on the front of my camera which enabled me to zoom in really close. I bought the kids Nikon compact digital cameras and on downloading Thomas’ pictures later I was surprised by how great some of the shots he and they took with their little cameras. We then decided to follow the stream around the bend to get closer to the Elk as they were moving away from us. That is when we saw this beautiful big Bull Elk sitting in the shade chewing on his cud. He would’ve been no more than 50feet from where we were standing on the opposite side on the stream. All three of these Elk had sensationally large antlers, which you will see in the photos below. While Jodie and the kids stayed by the stream, I dodgy hamstring and all, decided to climb over some fallen trees and follow the other two Elk into a thicket of trees.
I lost one of them so I just concentrated on photographing the one I could see as it razed and eventually made it’s way into another small stream. When to my surprise while looking at the back of my camera to check exposure, I saw out of the side of my eye some movement. I turned around to see the other Bull Elk no more than 20feet away from me. Looking at me intently through the trees. He then stood there as if fully cognizant of what I was doing, seemingly posing for my pictures. It’s hard to describe the emotion I was feeling, observing and shooting one of God’s magnificent creations in its natural habitat. It is kind of planted in me a desire to do more wildlife photography.
It then suddenly occurred to me that if this Bull Elk decided to dislike my presence and charge me, I wouldn’t stand a chance because with my gammy hammy, there is no way I would’ve been able to side step, avoid or run away from him.
We would have spent 30-45mins in this environment, just observing nature at its best. Back over where Jodie and the kids were, Courtney with her terrific Canon was taking some great shots of her own and took a lovely shot of mum in front of the stream with the Bull Elk sitting in the shade on the opposite side. Tamzyn came and found me and with a whispered yell told me the other Elk that was previously sitting in the shade was now on his feet and in the open sunlight. I walked back and it was as if all the elements had aligned, he was easily the largest of the three Elk with the larger antler rack.
The sunlight was falling on him perfectly and I’m pleased to say some of the best photos I’ve ever taken were the ones I’ve taken of this magnificent creature (some of these pics are included below.) Yellowstone is an incredible place.
We then drove to a place known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a magnificent Yellow and sandstone colored Canyon carved out by the river. From its vantage point you could look straight up the river to a magnificent set of waterfalls. Once again I had my tripod and all me gear and lenses and had set up and was photography away when a nice young man from China came and asked if he could use my lens, filters and tripod and attach his camera body to take pictures of the falls. I found myself giving him a photography lesson, his mother and grandmother were with him and they kept talking to me in Chinese like I knew what they were saying, and I could tell by there finger pointing and gesturing, they were telling me the best way to photography the falls. He took down my e-mail address and sent me later on in the afternoon a really nice e-mail, thanking me for teaching him.
We then stopped for out lunch and had another Bull Elk walk through our picnic area and proceed across the road through traffic and into the forest on the other side. These animals seem completely at ease amongst cars, people and technology. We then left lunch and were going to drive to Mammoth Springs, Brian and Nicole, Drew’s sister and husband left first just a couple of minutes before Drew and us. AS we were driving up the road we saw Brian pull off to the side of the road, this was the beginning of an absolutely sensational experience and the highlight of our visit to Yelowstone.
As we both pulled in behind Brian, Drew came back to my window and mentioned that there was a Black Bear seated behind a tree up on the hill approx.. 80-100 feet up the hill from the side of the road. We were standing there with just a few other people when we were confronted by the park ranger in his truck, yelling on his P.A for us to return to our vehicles, he was also telling other traffic, “DO NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!” He then spoke out his window to Drew, myself and Thomas and told us that we were within 100feet of the Bear and to return to our vehicles. Jodie jumped in the driver seat and I sat in the passenger seat with my long lens and tried to take photos. This was extremely difficult because of the angle. Courtney then came up with the great idea, and yelled out, “Dad, why don’t you take pictures from the sunroof?” which was a fantastic tip. So I was kneeling on the front seat with my head out of the sunroof clicking away when we noticed the Bear had two cubs with her.
Then, as Jodie was reversing up very slowly, I was kneeling on my seat looking out the sunroof towards the back of the car, when the park ranger pulled up along side and through his P.A, yelled at me to put my seatbelt on. Needless to say, I was getting pretty annoyed by this stage, when to out combined delight the bear stood up and walked out from behind the tree. Of course her cubs followed her and we managed to get some fantastic shots (see below.) It was really and exhilarating experience as I guess it’s every ones dream to come to Yellowstone and see a Bear. So to see a mother and cubs was just phenomenal. Earlier, Drew came to the window and said, “Well, here’s your bear.” I had mentioned to him earlier that I wanted to see Elk, Moose and Bear, and I think the poor bloke felt a little bit of pressure to provide me with this experience.
We then drove down the road no more then two miles and saw another bear playing in the field. He was much further away, maybe up to 200fet, but you could tell that he was a good size. A ranger had parked nearby and I was talking to him about it, he felt that this Bear was part of a mating pair, quite possibly paired up with the Sow that we had just saw. Drew was so excited to come and talked to us and tell us that he had given us two bear experiences. All of us adults and kids, it’s fair to say, were equally excited. Then we just stood and observed this bear, before heading off to Mammoth Springs. Mammoth Springs was an interesting place, a small township within the heart of Yellowstone National Park. It had a large hotel and resort, visitors center, all heritage sandstone and rock buildings. Hundreds of Elk stroll through this settlement, grazing on the lush green lawns, and you can get as close to maybe 10 or 15feet of these creatures. There was an extremely high wind here and throughout the afternoon, which made walking and photography difficult.
The springs themselves were quite large and covered a large geographical area, in fact it would take 2hrs to walk along all the board walks to observe the whole area. The springs are caused by water, sulfur and calcium being pushed to the surface through volcanic pressure, cause the most unusual of formations when they reach the surface and cool down. Providing many interesting terrace formations and moon-like landscape.
We then decided we would head back over to Norris, view the geysers and as it was getting quite late in the day, we decided we would eat dinner in West Yellowstone in some authentic frontier town restaurant. It was approaching 8:00pm at night and the sun was still quite high in the sky, in fact what has been really unusual for us to get used to is just how bright t is so late at night. We found a restaurant called The Three Bears and it was like eating in a large log cabin. In the foyer area they had three stuffed bears to welcome guests (see pics below.) We then headed back to the campsite after dark, tired, yet blown away by a really great day.
We then headed off the hours drive up to Yellowstone. We got to the park early entering through West Yellowstone, a unique period type town that still resembles what America would have looked like in the frontier years.
When you first enter the park for about ten miles the trees are only about 5 to 6 feet tall, this is because in 1988 there was a massive bush fire, which destroyed nearly 1/3 of the park. These trees are now growing back. Whilst driving along the traffic suddenly backed up, not sure what was happening, or if someone was pulling over to look at wildlife, I stuck my head out the window and looked about 5, 6 cars ahead to see a giant Buffalo walking right down the middle of the road down the double yellow lines. He walked right passed our car no more than 2 or 3 feet from my window. Some of the kids were asleep in the car and mum woke Tamzyn and Courtney woke Genna who immediately upon waking up were confronted with the head of this huge Buffalo 12inches from their window. After their initial shock they thought it was pretty cool and we all laughed.
We then drove to look and photograph the world famous Gibbon Waterfall on the Gibbon River. The car park is located above the falls and once again I lugged all the gear, tripod, filters and camera some 600feet to the best vantage point to photograph. Walking downhill is not so bad with my injury, but walking uphill is a killer. Thankfully, Thomas, Jodie and the girls all helped and offered to carry my equipment. Drew was also a big help. We then jumped in our cars to drive to the Norris Geyser area; we couldn’t find a parking spot so crowded is the park so we decided to move on.
A short time later there was a lot of cars pulled off to the side of the road and easily 100 people standing in the field. Drew came back to our car and said, “there some be some Bull Elk up there for so many people to be stopped and looking.” So we rushed forward found a park on the opposite side of the road and looked across to see three magnificent, mature Bull Elk in the field across the stream. Two were grazing and one was sitting in the shade looking at all these people taking pictures. We all walked across to the very edge of the stream and took a few initial shots.
Fortunately I had my 70-200 photo lens on and my 2x tele-converter, this basically means I had a 400 ml lens on the front of my camera which enabled me to zoom in really close. I bought the kids Nikon compact digital cameras and on downloading Thomas’ pictures later I was surprised by how great some of the shots he and they took with their little cameras. We then decided to follow the stream around the bend to get closer to the Elk as they were moving away from us. That is when we saw this beautiful big Bull Elk sitting in the shade chewing on his cud. He would’ve been no more than 50feet from where we were standing on the opposite side on the stream. All three of these Elk had sensationally large antlers, which you will see in the photos below. While Jodie and the kids stayed by the stream, I dodgy hamstring and all, decided to climb over some fallen trees and follow the other two Elk into a thicket of trees.
I lost one of them so I just concentrated on photographing the one I could see as it razed and eventually made it’s way into another small stream. When to my surprise while looking at the back of my camera to check exposure, I saw out of the side of my eye some movement. I turned around to see the other Bull Elk no more than 20feet away from me. Looking at me intently through the trees. He then stood there as if fully cognizant of what I was doing, seemingly posing for my pictures. It’s hard to describe the emotion I was feeling, observing and shooting one of God’s magnificent creations in its natural habitat. It is kind of planted in me a desire to do more wildlife photography.
It then suddenly occurred to me that if this Bull Elk decided to dislike my presence and charge me, I wouldn’t stand a chance because with my gammy hammy, there is no way I would’ve been able to side step, avoid or run away from him.
We would have spent 30-45mins in this environment, just observing nature at its best. Back over where Jodie and the kids were, Courtney with her terrific Canon was taking some great shots of her own and took a lovely shot of mum in front of the stream with the Bull Elk sitting in the shade on the opposite side. Tamzyn came and found me and with a whispered yell told me the other Elk that was previously sitting in the shade was now on his feet and in the open sunlight. I walked back and it was as if all the elements had aligned, he was easily the largest of the three Elk with the larger antler rack.
The sunlight was falling on him perfectly and I’m pleased to say some of the best photos I’ve ever taken were the ones I’ve taken of this magnificent creature (some of these pics are included below.) Yellowstone is an incredible place.
We then drove to a place known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a magnificent Yellow and sandstone colored Canyon carved out by the river. From its vantage point you could look straight up the river to a magnificent set of waterfalls. Once again I had my tripod and all me gear and lenses and had set up and was photography away when a nice young man from China came and asked if he could use my lens, filters and tripod and attach his camera body to take pictures of the falls. I found myself giving him a photography lesson, his mother and grandmother were with him and they kept talking to me in Chinese like I knew what they were saying, and I could tell by there finger pointing and gesturing, they were telling me the best way to photography the falls. He took down my e-mail address and sent me later on in the afternoon a really nice e-mail, thanking me for teaching him.
We then stopped for out lunch and had another Bull Elk walk through our picnic area and proceed across the road through traffic and into the forest on the other side. These animals seem completely at ease amongst cars, people and technology. We then left lunch and were going to drive to Mammoth Springs, Brian and Nicole, Drew’s sister and husband left first just a couple of minutes before Drew and us. AS we were driving up the road we saw Brian pull off to the side of the road, this was the beginning of an absolutely sensational experience and the highlight of our visit to Yelowstone.
As we both pulled in behind Brian, Drew came back to my window and mentioned that there was a Black Bear seated behind a tree up on the hill approx.. 80-100 feet up the hill from the side of the road. We were standing there with just a few other people when we were confronted by the park ranger in his truck, yelling on his P.A for us to return to our vehicles, he was also telling other traffic, “DO NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!” He then spoke out his window to Drew, myself and Thomas and told us that we were within 100feet of the Bear and to return to our vehicles. Jodie jumped in the driver seat and I sat in the passenger seat with my long lens and tried to take photos. This was extremely difficult because of the angle. Courtney then came up with the great idea, and yelled out, “Dad, why don’t you take pictures from the sunroof?” which was a fantastic tip. So I was kneeling on the front seat with my head out of the sunroof clicking away when we noticed the Bear had two cubs with her.
Then, as Jodie was reversing up very slowly, I was kneeling on my seat looking out the sunroof towards the back of the car, when the park ranger pulled up along side and through his P.A, yelled at me to put my seatbelt on. Needless to say, I was getting pretty annoyed by this stage, when to out combined delight the bear stood up and walked out from behind the tree. Of course her cubs followed her and we managed to get some fantastic shots (see below.) It was really and exhilarating experience as I guess it’s every ones dream to come to Yellowstone and see a Bear. So to see a mother and cubs was just phenomenal. Earlier, Drew came to the window and said, “Well, here’s your bear.” I had mentioned to him earlier that I wanted to see Elk, Moose and Bear, and I think the poor bloke felt a little bit of pressure to provide me with this experience.
We then drove down the road no more then two miles and saw another bear playing in the field. He was much further away, maybe up to 200fet, but you could tell that he was a good size. A ranger had parked nearby and I was talking to him about it, he felt that this Bear was part of a mating pair, quite possibly paired up with the Sow that we had just saw. Drew was so excited to come and talked to us and tell us that he had given us two bear experiences. All of us adults and kids, it’s fair to say, were equally excited. Then we just stood and observed this bear, before heading off to Mammoth Springs. Mammoth Springs was an interesting place, a small township within the heart of Yellowstone National Park. It had a large hotel and resort, visitors center, all heritage sandstone and rock buildings. Hundreds of Elk stroll through this settlement, grazing on the lush green lawns, and you can get as close to maybe 10 or 15feet of these creatures. There was an extremely high wind here and throughout the afternoon, which made walking and photography difficult.
The springs themselves were quite large and covered a large geographical area, in fact it would take 2hrs to walk along all the board walks to observe the whole area. The springs are caused by water, sulfur and calcium being pushed to the surface through volcanic pressure, cause the most unusual of formations when they reach the surface and cool down. Providing many interesting terrace formations and moon-like landscape.
We then decided we would head back over to Norris, view the geysers and as it was getting quite late in the day, we decided we would eat dinner in West Yellowstone in some authentic frontier town restaurant. It was approaching 8:00pm at night and the sun was still quite high in the sky, in fact what has been really unusual for us to get used to is just how bright t is so late at night. We found a restaurant called The Three Bears and it was like eating in a large log cabin. In the foyer area they had three stuffed bears to welcome guests (see pics below.) We then headed back to the campsite after dark, tired, yet blown away by a really great day.
      |      |
RSS Feed