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Return To Yellowstone: With Family

From 1995 to 2001 Yellowstone National Park was one of my favorite destinations for wildlife photography, and my visits were timed to coincide with the birthing/nesting season in spring, and elk rut in fall. I then discovered the dual attraction of landscape and wildlife that the Canadian Rockies and Southeast Alaska have to offer, and spent the last several years exploring those regions.

It wasn't till the summer of 2007 that I had the opportunity to revisit Yellowstone. Unlike previous visits, when I was by myself or with fellow wildlife photographers, this was a family vacation with my wife, Elizabeth, our daughter, Michelle (10) and our niece, Valerie (8). The timing of our vacation was also different from my previous visits which were made in early June and late September to avoid summer crowds. This time, due to my wife's work schedule, we arrived in Yellowstone at the absolute peak of tourist season - Fourth of July week!

Given the warmer days and large crowds of July, and the kids' fascination with geysers, visitor centers, and gift shops, my expectations for outstanding photo opportunities were not very high. The main objective was to have fun with the family and introduce the kids to the wonders of nature.

As it turned out the photo opportunities far exceeded my expectations. On our last evening we photographed three wolves with cubs as they fed and played for more than two hours on the bank of the Yellowstone River. Previously I had distant glimpses of wolves in Yellowstone, but zero photos. For icing on the cake I also came away with some of my best images of grizzly, moose, bison, coyote, and even geysers. Not bad - considering the fact that most of these opportunities occurred the last two days when afternoon thunderstorms cooled things down considerably and wildlife became much more active.

Moose feeding in lake Click on images for larger view

Canon Rebel XTi EF 500mm f/4 L The first morning started off well as we came upon this young bull moose feeding on aquatic vegetation at the edge of Floating Island Lake. I had previously photographed nesting sandhill crane, coyote, and yellow-headed blackbird at this location, but had never seen moose in the lake. As I was putting the tripod away after the moose had left an osprey surprised us by diving into the pond to grab a talonful of vegetation, perhaps to fortify a nearby nest.

Bison

Canon Rebel XTi EF 500mm f/4 L These two images, taken on the last day, shared remarkable similarities. They were taken less than a quarter-mile from each other, and both animals swam across the Yellowstone River moments after these photos were taken. Bison photo was taken early morning; grizzly photo was taken late evening. This is the same grizzly that interrupted the wolf pack's evening meal. More on that later...

Grizzly Bear

Geyser eruption

Canon Rebel XTi EF 17-40mm f/4 L I would not have come away with this surreal image of a geyser eruption if the kids weren't with us. We had spent the afternoon pounding the boardwalk at Midway Geyser Basin, and as evening approached my intent was to go look for wildlife. However, Michelle and Valerie were fascinated by geyser eruptions, and wanted to see more. After reminding myself this was a family vacation I turned onto Firehole Canyon Drive to look at more geysers. Just as we arrived this geyser suddenly erupted, spewing out a huge column of water and steam. The eruption was over by the time I got the camera mounted on tripod, but it was such a great show we stayed, hoping for an encore. We did get another eruption about an hour later - much smaller than the first, but with much more dynamic lighting. The setting sun found a gap underneath the dark storm clouds to dramatically backlight the water and steam, resulting in an eruption that looked almost volcanic.

Coyote

Canon Rebel XTi EF 500mm f/4 L and 100-400mm We all have numerous images of coyotes in our files, but this is my favorite shot using a slow shutter speed and panning along with the trotting coyote to convey a sense of motion. This coyote was checking out waterfowl and rodents along the Yellowstone River.

Coyote and geese

Pronghorn Antelope

Canon Rebel XTi EF 100-400mm L On the way back from Lamar Valley we spotted this handsome pronghorn antelope with thick, symmetric horns. Light overcast provided perfect lighting for this subject. Note the absence of distracting shadows, and retention of detail in the white rump.

On our last evening we were in Hayden Valley driving toward Canyon Village. Rounding a bend we saw a large number of vehicles pulled over to the side. Given the location, and what we had seen in this area during the week, I was certain it was just another bison jam. Rolling down the windows we asked a man returning to his car what he saw. "Wolves feeding on a carcass on the other side of the river," was the electrifying response.

As related by a videographer who saw the event unfold, three wolves had dragged the remains of a deer carcass down to the edge of the Yellowstone River. When we arrived one wolf was feeding on the carcass, another was regurgitating food to feed the pups, and the third - the white alpha female - was resting and keeping an eye on her pack.

Alpha female

Canon Rebel XTi EF 500mm f/4 L 1.4X T/C The white alpha female is shown at left. The right photo is what we saw when we first arrived on the scene.

Wolf family

We watched and photographed a total of two hours, during which time the adults took turns feeding and resting, and the cubs played and begged for food. During action sequences I missed the 10 frames per second capability of my EOS1V-HS film camera. Other than that I was very happy with the performance and image quality of the digital Rebel XTi.

Pup waiting for adult to regurgitate food		Pup begging for food

Half an hour after we arrived at the scene thunder clouds caught up to us and it started to pour. We ran back to the car and waited about 15 minutes for the thunderstorm to pass. Upon our return to the river bank we heard that during the brief time we were gone a grizzly bear had come out of the forest and tried to steal the carcass, but was chased away by the wolves. Wow!

Grizzly leaving after trying to steal the wolves' meal

Later that evening we did get a second chance to see that grizzly as it finally exited the area. The bear came out of the pine forest, angled down toward the water, paused briefly for the image shown at the beginning of the article, then swam across the river - giving the people on the side quite a show.

Grizzly bathing in Yellowstone River

Wolf photographed by Michelle through scope eyepiece

An interesting side story to our evening with the wolves: My daughter, Michelle, was frustrated because her Canon A710 digital point & shoot camera wasn't giving her enough magnification to photograph the wolves on the other side of the Yellowstone River. She asked me if she could take a picture through a spotting scope set up by the man next to us. I told her what she wanted to do was called digiscoping, but it required a special adapter to connect camera to scope, and we don't have one, so don't bother the man. Not burdened by pre-conceived notions about what can or can't be done with a camera she asked his permission, anyway. The man agreed to let her try, and the resulting image, shown on left, blew me away. It's incredibly good given the way it was taken - she just pointed the camera at the eyepiece and took the shot. After seeing Michelle's image the man with the scope and other tourists around him took turns photographing through the eyepiece. Michelle was very proud that she started a new trend in photography.

Notes on visiting Yellowstone with kids:

1) Make sure each kid has his/her own camera to avoid endless fights and dropped equipment.

2) Michelle and Valerie spent hours amusing themselves with a camcorder doing 'news reports' - taking turns as cameraman and reporter. This gave me time to wait for light to change, geysers to erupt, and wildlife to interact, etc..

3) Sign them up for the Junior Ranger Program offered at all of the Visitor Centers. For $3, each child gets a workbook to study and complete. Upon completion they are sworn in as Junior Rangers and receive a cool iron-on badge. This kept the kids occupied for a day and a half learning about nature and conservation, and the program prompted us to visit some locations and participate in activities we likely would have skipped.

4) Don't plan on starting your photography at sunrise.

5) Have plenty of food and drink in the car. Yellowstone is a huge Park, and you'll be spending a lot of time driving to planned locations, or just cruising for wildlife. With that much food and 2 kids cooped up in the back seat for a week we were glad we drove a rental instead of our new car.

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