Spring 2019 Trip Report (May 25 - June 7)

Share your latest adventure in Yellowstone.

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lah
Posts: 165
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:47 pm

Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (Updated through May 30)

Post by lah »

Yes, what a day. I remember waiting at Otter Creek with you for a bit, too.



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Max
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Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report, Days 6 & 7

Post by Max »

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May 31, 2019

Friday was brutally long, but fun. I kicked things off at 4am following about two hours of restless sleep. I had agreed to host a friend of a friend and his wife for a day in the park, so we had to meet at Roosevelt early to start our journey. In spite of some literal and mental staggering about, I did make it on time. Sergio and Gladys were visiting Yellowstone for the first time from South America and were open to just about anything. After laying out the options for them, they chose to go south first in search of the Western Desert grizzly bear family. So we drove over Dunraven Pass.

We made it there in good time, and patrolled the road waiting for the family to emerge, along with a dozen other patrolling vehicles. After several passes and no luck (other than a surprise sighting of tolerant Sandhill cranes), we called it and drove back east, and then south. Things didn’t get any better there. Multiple visits to the owl spot and a trip out past Sedge Bay and back yielded little more than a rare Swainson’s hawk sighting. Even the grouse on Lake Butte fled the moment it saw us. Nonetheless, my guests were loving life, exclaiming how amazingly beautiful everything was...

Read the full trip report from Days 6 and 7 in the blog.

Max



Nikon_nerd
Posts: 117
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 4:06 pm

Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (Updated through June 1)

Post by Nikon_nerd »

Great trip reports! Photos are excellent as always. Really loved the grizzly COY's and the black wolf. Do you think the sow with the COY's was the Beryl Springs sow. (If so, that's a bit farther north from where she usually hangs out. That's almost into Obsidian's range.)

Thanks for taking the time to post the reports and the photos. Good luck with the tour.



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Max
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Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (Updated through June 4)

Post by Max »

Beryl has apparently just kicked her two-and-a-half year olds out. Just in the last couple days. Obsidian has the new cubs (was three, now two).

Max



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Max
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Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report, Days 8 - 10

Post by Max »

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June 2, 2019

Client pick-up day means a scramble to pack the car, clean up the cabin a bit and hit the road in time to get through the park and up to Bozeman in order to run errands before picking up folks at the airport or the hotel.

All that leaves little time to photograph anything on the way out. I had hoped to maybe see a reunited moose family outside the cabin before I left, but it was not to be. Driving past Warm Creek, I spied a moose grazing in the willows. Much later in the day I’d learn a moose popped up dead across the road from that spot (reportedly it died during a breech birth).

Driving through Round Prairie, folks were still set up where the elk carcass was, but everyone was fairly relaxed. Whatever action may have happened occurred earlier in the morning. I drove onward, keeping an eye on the clock. I didn’t have much free time, but I did check a few spots for bears on the way through. All I found was a ragged coyote—one I’d seen a couple days earlier near Floating Island Lake—digging around and searching below the road on the Petrified Drive.

That was all I got on Sunday as I retrieved everyone successfully and we prepared for our first day of adventure in the park.


June 3, 2019

Every Yellowstone visit presents something different (which is a big reason I love the place), and every photo tour is also different. On Monday we began with something I’ve never done on Day One of a tour: we went up to Swan Lake Flat. Normally I save a trip up there at sunrise for later in the week, since traditionally so much of the action occurs in the northeast and down on the east side. But we had a good excuse to switch things up. Grizzly bears and wolves had been seen close to the road in recent days, and further south the Obsidian sow and her cubs were seen again the previous evening.

Well, we got no wolves, and the grizzlies (we only saw one) were far away. We did get some sunrise elk...

Read the full trip report covering Days 8 - 10.

Max



lah
Posts: 165
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:47 pm

Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (Updated through June 4)

Post by lah »

That shot with the pronghorn fawn is so great. Love it. It's fun to get some unusual happenings. Others are all great, too.
Thanks.



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Max
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Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (June 5 - 7, The End!)

Post by Max »

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June 5, 2019

I’m trying to write this entry a day late, after coming off sixteen (Tuesday), fifteen (Wednesday) and fourteen (Thursday) hour days. With no midday breaks, that has meant very little sleep in between. I took a day off from writing. Now, in my half-conscious state, I have to try and recall what the heck happened on Wednesday and Thursday. So be warned that what follows may be truncated, disjointed, and probably totally inaccurate. Half of these recollections may be based on hallucinations.

On Wednesday we finally dedicated a morning to the northeast corner. In my book, this area of the park still offers the most potential for sheer variety (something I’ve always enjoyed, often picking destinations with multiple possibilities rather than just spending each morning searching for one type of animal). We were due for more black bear photo sessions, anyway, so the northeast made sense in more ways than one.

Our first stop was not for a bear, however. Instead, we got a moose feasting on young aspens at Floating Island Lake, an encounter which made me thankful we didn’t plant any new aspens on our property. We have enough trouble keeping the bison away from our wee pines.

Next, a random bighorn sheep traveling solo down and back up the steep hills near the Petrified Tree lot. And then, finally, a bear. One of my clients spotted it below the road. We found a safe place to pull off and walked back up. While my group snapped some photos, I scanned the trees for cubs. I had seen a black with a mixed pair in the area, after all. Didn’t see any, so we figured it was a lone bear. After the shoot, we moved on to check Calcite Springs (quiet) and then went out into Little America and the Lamar. We stopped for bison calves, searched for an elusive Western meadowlark and photographed some of the Poopville swallows at Hitching Post.

Read the final trip report in the blog, and thank you for following the adventure this time!

Max



mdtrot
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:57 pm
Location: East Texas

Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (May 25 - June 7)

Post by mdtrot »

Wow, thanks for the wonderful trip report and photos! You are simply indefatigable when you are on your game!



Winona
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Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:53 pm

Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (May 25 - June 7)

Post by Winona »

Max-I hope you keep writing trip reports, although sanity and family come first. I honestly feel you should turn your trip reports into a book. Throw in some photography tips. I love your writing style and of course your gorgeous photos.



Winona
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:53 pm

Re: Spring 2019 Trip Report (May 25 - June 7)

Post by Winona »

Max-I hope you keep writing trip reports, although sanity and family come first. I honestly feel you should turn your trip reports into a book. Throw in some photography tips. I love your writing style and of course your gorgeous photos.



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