Almost every Winter around New Years my wife (the Expedition Photographer) and I escape to Yellowstone National Park to cross-country ski, observe wildlife and reflect on the beauty of nature and the passing of the old year. Here is a photo diary of last week’s trip, with all photos taken by Mrs. Ed in Montana. I hope these photos offer some beauty and peace in an otherwise violent and troubling weekend.
This has been a remarkably cold and snowy La Nina-type Winter here in the Northern Rockies, with major snowstorms hitting almost weekly, followed by frigid cold and then a warming period. In between storms we escaped to Yellowstone National Park for the New Year’s weekend. We had delayed the trip by a day to miss the tail end of a major snowstorm and the allow time for the extreme cold temperatures to warm up a bit. Not.
Here’s the view from our lodge room’s porch at Gardiner, MT, looking south into the park, with the Yellowstone River flowing north below us. It was a crisp 5 above zero for New Year’s Eve.
The view to the west from the lodge porch with the Yellowstone River bridge.
We drove into the park to catch the late afternoon lighting along the Gardner River Canyon.
Clouds of steam rise from the hot pots and geysers at the terraces in Mammoth, WY, the park headquarters.
Steam obscured some of the late afternoon alpine glow on the peaks of the Absaroka Range.
We warmed up with a cold drink in the cozy bar at Mammoth Hot Springs, just before the festivities for New Year’s Eve.
The next morning, New Year’s Day brought clear skies with frigid temps, but we decided to ski anyway and try to see some wildlife, like these Elk in the Gardner River Canyon.
Also active along the river was a Water Ouzel or American Dipper.
Here the Ouzel dives into the water to hunt for aquatic insects.
The air temperature is 8 degrees below zero F.
The Water Ouzel flies to another rock in the rushing river.
The expedition photographer, Ms. Ed in Montana, poses next to the halfway sign near the north park entrance. This summer we hope to drive to the Arctic and get closer to the pole than the equator.
As the snow deepened and we drove toward the Lamar Valley More giant bull Elk appeared near the Blacktail Plateau. Here is one bull resting in a snow covered draw.
Another Elk paws the ground trying to graze.
Elk populations in the northern Yellowstone herd of which these individuals are a part have fallen by half since the re-introduction of wolves in the mid 1990s from near 15,000 to 6,000 to 7,000. The northern range, once terribly overgrazed by large wild ungulates, has now re-vegetated especially around riparian zones, which have encouraged greater populations of songbirds and fish.
But we saw no wolves on this trip but three or four coyotes like this one that was busy hunting, and refused to turn around for a better photo.
Halfway into a short ski we decided that it was too dang cold and retreated to the lodge. Later that day we find out that the high temperature at that place was -15 below zero.
The next day, it is 20 to 25 degrees warmer and we continued our ski to Tower Falls. Here’s the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.
Reaching the overlook we are greeted by the huge ice cone of Tower Falls. Water was still rushing behind the thick ice.
Returning to our car, the afternoon light turns the landscape blue, here with two grazing Bison.
With the deep snow and cold, I realize that we are as far from the green of summer that one can get in the year. It will be late May before any wildflowers bloom at this high place. How the wildlife like these lone Bison survive here is absolutely amazing. The Bison sweep their large heads back and forth to clear the snow to graze, and are followed by small herds of Elk, which cannot clear deep snow as well.
On the drive back to the lodge, we encountered this herd of Bison cows and calves migrating eastward up the plowed road.
This Bison is unimpressed by the size of our Honda Element. The car probably doesn’t smell right either.
Returning to Mammoth, we see more wildlife, like this Grizzly Bear dressed up for the holidays at the park post office.
On the last morning as we left to return home we gazed on the light of the cold sunrise on 11,000 foot Electric Peak on the park’s northern border. John Muir, the famous naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club climbed Electric Peak in the late 1890s. His famous quote "Climb the mountains and get their glad tidings... and your cares will drop away like autumn leaves" was not written about his beloved Sierra, but Montana’s Gallatin Range and Electric Peak.
In all, the visit to Yellowstone was a good way to welcome in the new year, but Summer in the Northern Rockies is a long, long way off.