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Saturday, January 27
I slept much better – all that fresh air and exercise yesterday really helped.
After breakfast, we loaded up the coaches and took off in search of wolves. It took almost two hours (and one potty break) to reach the location of a known fresh kill. We were not the first to arrive, despite the earlier than usual departure.
We finally claimed our spots in the line of photographers after stomping through the knee deep snow to the edge of the viewing area. The rangers had given this location special permission to get a little closer than the usual 100 yard minimum distance for predators. We were about 200 feet from the carcass. Later, we were to find out that the pack numbers about 18 members and the prey was a very large bull elk – he had an impressive set of antlers!
We had been waiting for only a short while when one of the pack members poked its head out of the trees, then ambled across the road to have a morning snack. I saw two or three of the pack members, others, who stayed out longer, reported five showing up today.
The photo to the left shows the crowd of people jockeying for a position along the line we were allowed to advance to. It extends several feet to the right into the woods, also. I would wind up near the right end of this line.
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These photos show two views of the first wolf to make an appearance. It's across the road from us and just checking the crowd from the safety of the trees.
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These two photos show the wolves at the kill site. They are snacking on the large elk that the pack had brought down.
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After I had gotten some photos I was satisfied with, I gave my spot to one of the others and waded back to the road. There, another wolf had started crossing the road, heard the motor drives on some of the cameras, and stopped to check out the situation. It posed for a long time!
This panorama shot shows how the crowd of photographers had grown while I was off in the woods. What may not be apparent is the steadily falling snow...
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It was a snowy, windy morning, and my fingers had lost feeling, so I retreated to the snow coach. I wound up staying inside the coach for the rest of our stay there. We were there for about 4.5 hours.
From there, we dropped down to a picnic area for a much needed potty break before continuing on to Gibbon Falls, where we spent some time shooting. The snow wasn't falling there and the wind had dropped to nothing, so it was very pleasant (despite the mid teens temperatures).
These three photos show Gibbon Falls from our viewpoint.
These two photos show some details of Gibbons Falls.
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While most of the others were finishing up with the waterfall, I wandered back to the parking lot where I took these two photos. The one on the left shows tire and track marks in the snow covered parking lot.
The photo on the right shows some of the snow covered trees at the edge of the parking lot.
That was it for the shooting day as the snow and wind picked up again.
Dinner was at the Serenity Bistro. I had an excellent piece of salmon! And the salad came with a strawberry vinaigrette that was really yummy!
Now, to fit everything back into the suitcases for the transfer tomorrow. We're moving to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.