Adventures From The Backseat

On our first morning at Yellowstone we had to go back to town to get some prescription medicines for S.  It was a great morning…35 degrees out.  Our breath made beautiful clouds of steam.  L, G, and S had to thaw out before starting our day.  I, on the other hand, was nice and comfortable from a night spent in my brand new sleeping bag…the one that rolled into the river on the way home right after I bought it (oh wait…that’s a different time and story)…the one that’s rated for 0 degrees!  I tried hard not to gloat…I think I pulled it off but I’m not positive.  After warming up a bit we set out.

Now I have to warn you…this was our first morning…everything was new and exciting (it actually remained exciting throughout our stay but the newness did wear off a bit)…other than our first hour and a half we hadn’t explored anywhere…I was determined to document our entire trip…I was still in the back seat but with only a bag of snack food between L and I although I still had all of my “equipment” at my feet…I get easily excited…the windows of the car were full of the bugs we had picked up on our drive there…etc.  I mention all that because I want you to get a sense of this adventure at that moment in time.  This entry is not about my best shots…it’s about our excitement and delight. 

So…here goes…

We got in the car (and turned the heater on) and headed towards town.  Suddenly we see motion to the left!  A bison comes crashing down the hillside and enters the road in front of us!  Wooo Hooo!  Excitement!  There may have been a few squeals but I can’t verify that.  G immediately stops the car.  What are we supposed to do? 

There’s a bison walking down the road in front of us!

Right down the middle of the road!  But there are cars…several cars…behind us…and they are getting impatient…honking their horns.  Our philosophy at this moment is “who cares…we are in Yellowstone and there is a bison in front of us” .  But it’s obvious that we need to drive on.

We slowly and with definite squeals of nervous excitement inch forward.  Bison, meanwhile, is claiming the yellow line down the center of the road.  Who wants to argue with that?

We continue onward…squeaks and squeals and excitement filling the car (and with bugs on the windshield).

Closer…and closer…and closer…

That is not a death grip she has on the steering wheel…she’s merely being cautious and prepared!

G keeps a really close eye on our big furry friend…what if he decides to veer our way?

We’re almost past him (and yes, I’m out of my seat belt to take these shots…please don’t inform the authorities).  There is a collective sigh of relief along with awe and gratefulness for the experience.

Farewell friend…you have really made our morning special!

We continue on our way.  We reach one of the busy, crowded areas of the park (visitor center, lodging, restaurant, store, rangers’ offices, etc.) and spy these three elk making themselves at home and comfortable on the grassy center.  Now…aren’t we at Yellowstone?  And didn’t we come to Yellowstone to see wildlife (even if it is in a busy, populated area)?  And doesn’t it make sense to stop and take some photos?  I thought the answer to all of those questions was a resounding “YES” but the ranger didn’t concur.  She quite emphatically waved us on our way.  (I still had to take pictures…it’s in my genes…or something like that.)  The gray at the bottom of the photo is the door below the backseat window…take a good look…you’ll probably be seeing it a lot as I continue this ongoing saga.

The elk, meanwhile, decided that a long nap was in order…after all the ranger had everything under control.

I had to document this natural castle perched on the mountainside

even if it was through a dirty window as we’re driving along with traffic in front and behind us.

We finished our business in town…including the purchase and consumption of a delicious ice cream cone…and headed back.  We’re already becoming Yellowstone “wise” by now.  There are some cars parked to the side of the road.  We have no idea why but G finds a pullout and stops the car.  We follow the direction all the binoculars are pointed and there they are!  Balanced on the top of the huge cliffs in the distance and outlined against the sky, the big horn sheep pose for all of us mere humans below. 

There were at least three of them with ravens soaring above.  They were rather clear in our binoculars.

But wait…is that more I see at the base of the cliffs?  It is!  How totally awesome!

Here is what we actually saw without binoculars or zoomed in, cropped photos.  All of the photos I took at Yellowstone were with a regular lens or a wide angle lens.  None were taken with a telephoto lens (I’ve found my telephoto lens doesn’t take the same quality photos as the combination regular/wide angle one so I haven’t been using it lately).  Any closeups you see are just the product of severe cropping.

I tried to get more light on my subject.  Now…can you see all the big horn sheep below?   How many do you see?  (I see one on the very top.)

Let’s zoom in a bit and crop a bit.  (All of the following views are taken from the photo above.)  Now I see two on top and look there at the base of the cliff.  It looks like a mama with a baby!

Two on top…

Mama and baby below…

And look here…way over to the right and where the rock changes color is another one!

If I remember right, there was another sheep with this one that we could see through the binoculars but I couldn’t find it anywhere in the photo.

Well…at this rate I might finish the documentation of our trip by next summer…hope you enjoy following along…stay tuned for further adventures.  I will warn you once more that I’m leaving Thursday evening and won’t be coming home until Monday evening so it may be a while before I continue…but please wait because it’s all so very exciting…