Yellowstone in Winter

Do you have a favorite location you like to photograph or collect specimens? Share these locations with your fellow members by submitting each location as a topic. You may submit one (1) location per day and illustrate each location with up to four (4) images. Please, follow the image posting guidelines in place in all of the other forums and galleries.
Locked
User avatar
MikeBinOKlahoma
Posts: 1491
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Umm....Could it be Oklahoma?

Yellowstone in Winter

Post by MikeBinOKlahoma »

I've only been there once, for about a week last January, but it was a very special experience. You need honest-to-goodness cold weather gear for the trip, because it is BRUTAL. The temperature was in the teens for most of our trip, and it got up to the twenties at one point. Lowest temperature was our first morning on snowmobiles, when it got down to minus nine degrees (all temperatures here are Fareneheit!). The frightening part is that this is a WARM SPELL for Yellowstone in January! The minus nine degree day was the morning I took this shot. These bison are surrounded by a Winter wonderland of frost on trees, but just munching in calories takes priority.

Image

Yellowstone has plenty of water. Water combined with elevation change means waterfalls and rapids. These can look pretty special in Winter.

Image

I loved the landscape and animal-in-landscape shots, but the Yellowstone specialty of closeup shots of big mammals is still very much a possibility. This elk bull was using the warm water of a geothermal-fed stream to survive. He and a couple of cows waded along the stream, feeding on water vegetation and what plants they could browse from the bank. They stayed warm in the hot stream water, despite temperatures of around zero.

Image


Old Faithful is a Yellowstone icon. On our one clear day, we just HAD to visit and photograph an eruption.

Image

There is one road along the north edge of Yellowstone park that is kept plowed and open all winter. It is very possible to have a productive photo trip shooting from the road (and very difficult to get any distance from the road on foot!). But for the really cool stuff, you need to go into the park on snowmobiles. This had become a major problem several years ago, and there was a move to ban snowmobiles from the park. This was later reversed, and a requirement for low-noise, low-polluting snowmobiles was issued, plus a requirement for all snowmobilers to be accompanied by an experienced guide. I supported the total ban at the time, and had mixed feelings when a photographer friend urged me to join a group trip that would include several days on cars and three days on snowmobiles. I'm glad I decided to go. The animals went about their business ignoring us, and I'm convinced the revised decision on snowmobiles was a good one. While our group was in the park, we encountered actor Brad Pitt on a snowmobile outing, as you can see here....Whoops, no that is me! Understandable mistake on my part to get us confused! :lol: :lol: :lol: And I may have been confused because it appears I was channeling the spirit of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the time.

Image
Mike Broderick
_____________________________________________________________
"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.....My mandate includes weird bugs."--Calvin

(reposts on this site of my images for critique or instruction are welcome)

User avatar
Ken Ramos
Site Admin
Posts: 4809
Joined: Tue May 04, 2004 7:58 pm
Location: Western North Carolina

Post by Ken Ramos »

Magnificent Mike! =D> Between you and Rik I am almost convinced that I am going to have to take a trip out into the northwest before I die and rot away. These are beautiful photographs. It maybe extremely cold but hey, if I can survive 6 mos. in the arctic circle... :roll: Thanks for the tour Mike, wonderful! :o

BTW, just look at those rosey cheeks! :lol: Looks like a lot of fun! :D
Site Admin.
Kenneth Ramos
Rutherfordton, North Carolina
Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.

rjlittlefield
Posts: 727
Joined: Fri May 06, 2005 11:57 pm
Location: Richland, WA, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

A very beautiful place. It's odd that I live so close, but I have never gone to visit. :-k Maybe next year...

Ken, rosy cheeks just come with the territory. Man, those snowmobiles look cold! It'd be so much more comfortable with some exercise to work the chill off... :roll:

--Rik
Reworks and reposts of my images in this forum are always welcome, as are constructive critiques.

Locked