DAY 3: Yellowstone / Grand Teton National Park GroupShoot

Today, the weather was surprisingly terrific! It was raining when we left the hotel at 5:00 am but by the time we arrived at Dunraven Pass it was snowing then it progressed to clear, blue skies.

On the way to Lamar Valley (via Dunraven Pass), we saw a "jam" in Hayden Valley and was greeted with the Otter Creek Wolf Pack working on a bull elk carcass. They were several hundred yards away but I might have a decent pic at share later that was taken at 700mm.

From the wolves/elk carcass, on to Lamar Valley, where we shot some landscapes, no wolves, and a very friendly colony of ground squirrels.  We saw some mountain goats at the cliffs in Lamar and a pronghorn mom and her baby posed for us. We moved on to Mammoth Hot Springs, as we watched a coyote start to chase an adult elk cow but thought better of it and moved on. We snapped the Sandhill Cranes and their two chicks at Floating Island Lake. A coyote (yesterday, it was reported) attempted to nab the chicks but the adult Sandhills repelled the attack.

Had Lunch at Mammoth, proceeded to Swan Lake Flats based on report from a park tourist that the Grizzy sow and her 4 cubs were there. We rushed over and sure enough, we got some decent pics of the mother and her 4 cubs.... we stayed around for 20 mins, the mother appeared to lay down, so we left and headed to Gardiner looking for big horn sheep. Honest.... within 10 mins after the leaving the Grizz at Swan Lake Flats, we heard on our radios, that the Mother Grizz has chased down an elf calf for her (and the 4 cubs) supper!  BUMMER! We heard it was spectacular...... I was depressed for some time.....

However, we got some GREAT Big Horn sheep images with their lambs..... the lambs put a smile on our face. We visited a Convenience Store in Gardiner and discovered that a bear cub had become separated from his mother, fell in the river, swam downstream, ascended the river bank and climbed the nearest tree it could find which was on the convenience store property!!.. it was clearly frightened as people gathered around. A YNP Park Ranger was arriving as we departed....Geezz.. there is wildlife everywhere!

On the way back into the park, we photographed the Roosevelt Archway.

We proceeded to Hayden Valley for some landscape pics... not much wildlife at that time but there were a ton of bison in the morning. We took a short drive towards the east YNP entrance and took in the breathtaking vistas that area of the Park has to offer!

Back to the hotel at 9:00 pm, after putting in 16 hours in the Park today.

Sunday, everyone is on their own for the day and we will have dinner at 7:30pm to learn from everyone about their experiences they had for Sunday. The weather is expected to be good for most of the day.

The Park (for a Saturday) had light traffic which is a good thing ...as us photographers are trying to get to place to place quickly...

It starts all over again in about 6 hours!

Stay Tuned!

Mark