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This article is Copyright 2005, James Morrissey, and may not, in part or in whole, be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. The images in this article are the property of James Morrissey.

Friday July 22nd

We woke up late at Old Faithful Snow Lodge this morning (around 8 AM). It had been raining earlier and the sky was quite cloudly. I had been up much earlier but had gone back to bed when I saw the weather. It is my goal to photograph the geyser basin today and I am not sure that it is going to happen. We decided to have breakfast at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. The breakfast crew was much more on the ball then the evening folks were. The breakfast food was quite good.

After breakfast, we waited around until the sky looked like it was beginning to clear. The weather seems to move quite fast as opposed to here in the East. I know it should not make a difference, but it definitely seems that way. As the light improved, we started photographing the geyser basin at Old Faithful. The light was not great and we had to stop relatively soon as I don't like shooting in direct sunlight. The sun is just very overwhelming at that altitude. We decided to go out and scout wildlife. It was a poor day for the wildlife that day. For whatever reason, people seemed especially belligerant towards the other animals.

At 12:30 PM, one of the highlights of my day occurred. We napped. The sun was high and we had just gotten off near the firehole river. When we awoke, there must have been 50 people swimming in the waters there. Nice idea for the next trip. It looks like a lot of fun.

At about 1:50 PM, 3 miles past Madison Junction (toward Canyon), we saw a group of 10 female elk and 2 relative newborns crossing the River. A little down the road, we saw two bull elk. We sat and watched them for about two hours. The audience around the elk were a bit irritating and it was hard to do any decent photography with all of the people harassing the elk. We were located across the river from them, away from the rest of the folks who were watching/clapping at the elk. Eventually, they got bored and left. The elk then got up and I got some nice shots.

Jackie and the Elk (c) James Morrissey

At 5 PM, we encountered a cow elk and her baby. We were alone with a couple of people in the woods as Momma and Baby bedded down. One of the fellows was carrying an Olympus E-1. He did not speak English, but he breifly showed me his camera. The 50-200 that they have is just so small and light as compared to my 70-200 F2.8. The E-1 body is also quite nice. We sat with them for about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes undisturbed until Momma went down into the creek to get some food.

It is amazing how fast a crowd can occur in Yellowstone. Very quickly, there were close to 50 people who had walked into the creek. A few of the brighter ones decided to surround momma and baby. People just don't get how potentially dangerous many of these wild animals are. A moose cow can way over 800 pounds. A bull can way close to 1,300 pounds.

We had gotten the photographs we had wanted from a safe place, attempting to use natural blinds. I suppose that had I wanted to spook the cow or the baby that I could have gotten much closer, but I feel strongly that we are on their turf and need to respect the wildlife. The photograph, while important, is not so important that it is worth spooking the animal for. We melted into the background and got a ranger to help the cow with her baby. She was obviously feeling backed into a corner. I am glad that no one got hurt.

Last, at about 7:30 PM, we sat with two other bull elk, that we had initially thought were the same bachelors we saw earlier in the day. They had nicer racks though. Several tourists walked right up to the elk to take their pictures with their 35-105 mm digicams.

It's an Elk, Not a Moose. :) (c) James Morrissey

I don't mean to come off as someone who is grandstanding, but I have NEVER seen behavior this borish towards the other animals in the park. For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone did considering how packed the park is with wildlife and humans. Today was just rough. It helped create a lot of stressed animals and I think that it makes photographing the wildlife more difficult. We DID get some nice shots though.

At 8:30 PM, the light in the Hayden Valley (on our way to Grant Village) was spectacular. It had just stopped raining and there were huge cloud banks over the hills. At the same time, the sun was piercing directly into the hills from the West. What a beautiful site. The grasses all had a rich yellow-green look to them. There were allegedly two grizzly's in the back, but they were so far out that one needed to resort to spotting scopes to see them.

Hayden Sunset (c) James Morrissey

That evening during the sunset, a powerful lightning storm occurred. I have some hand held shots of lightning crossing the river. Nothing really impressive as we were in a hurry to get to Grant Lodge. However, there WAS a double rainbow (well, one and a quarter, anyway) that we took at ISO 1600. Came out much better than I expected. It was a wild experience.

For folks who are interested, Grant Village Lodge is pretty nice. The restaurant was quite good - producing the best we had in the park. The only problem with the Grant Village Restaurant is that you need to make reservations for dinner. Also, in the morning, the sun is quite powerful and the room gets very warm. However, when you consider how new the structure is, you can see that they produced it in a very tasteful fashion. After Grant Village, the next best place was Mammoth. Old Faithful was a disappointment on all counts.

The next day, we would go to Jackson (and my first internet connection in 4 days).

Saturday July 23rd

The morning we left Grant Village turned into a 'vcation day.' We got up at around 9 AM - mostly because the clock was set wrong (PM instead of AM) and the alarm did not go off. I am sure that it would have that evening. :)

We started at the Thumb Geyser Basin. We only recently started doing the Thumb Geyser Basin last year. All I can say is that I LOVE the rich variety of colors. Thumb has become one of my favorite places to shoot. The hot pools are all richly colored and the bacteria mats contrast great with the Yellowstone Lake.

Thumb Hot Pool (c) James Morrissey

Thumb Geyser Basin (c) James Morrissey

We started off and headed out towards the East Enterance. We drove over fishing bridge and took some scenics over Lake. The road was under construction and we turned around before hitting the Sylvan Pass. We were hoping to find grizzlies, but were not able to. We DID take some more wild flower photographs. They were great. The Canon EF-S 10-22 lens makes a huge difference. I will be writing a report on it later.

Wild Flowers at Lake (c) James Morrissey

After we returned from our trek to the East Enterance, we stopped at the Lake Lodge General Store (again, on the main road, not at the Lake Hotel itself). We got some more icecream from Pavel. He sure makes a heck of an ice cream cone.

We cut down (south) and re-traced our foot steps, going back around Grant and up towards Old Faithful. We stopped at the Midway Geyser Basin at about 1 PM and napped for about 1/2 hour. Then, we photographed what we could. The sky had nice fluffy clouds and even though the hour was late, the light was not overly-objectionable (at that time, often, the light is so strong that it is hard for me to be outside, much less photograph).

I used the 10-22 for most of the shots at the Midway Geyser Basin. I was surprised that given how much water was all around the parks (much higher water levels than in past years) that the geysers in the Midway Geyser Basin appeared to be so empty - even drained. I wonder what caused this? It helped cause the area to become a bit of a disappointment for me.

Midway Geyser Basin (c) James Morrissey

Later, we climbed the Artist's Paint Pots Trailhead. It was interesting because biologists were working in the stream bed with some park rangers. Yellowstone is such a fascinating place.

Afterwards, we made our way towards the West Gate and drove to Jackson Hole via Montana and Idaho - going down Route 22 through Ashton, Driggs and Victor. We have been debating purchasing land in Victor or Alpine as an investment property. Victor, IMO, was the nicest town within 25 miles of Jackson (though tiny in comparison to Jackson) and relatively close to the Parks area. However, I now understand the price differential in land. Jackson is VERY expensive. The outlying towns are incredibly affordable.

It was a bit odd to see the Grand Tetons backwards...:) It is a pity that the weather was cloudy and there was a blanket of haze covering the mountains. I think that this area is a goldmine to photograph - particularly at sunrise. Normally, most photographs I have seen of the Tetons are taken from the other side of the mountains (often from Schawbanger's (sp) point). While you don't get the same unobstructed view of the Tetons, it is pretty amazing. The contrast in the farm land also gives a very different and beautiful feel.

Grand Tetons as seen from Idaho (c) James Morrissey

It was here that we had the opportunity to find out what "The Pass" is. All I can say is 'whoa.' The Teton Pass is a road that goes up the edge of the mountain between Victor and Wilson Wyoming. My wife and I scoffed at the signs to 'return to Victor' if the gates were down. Surely it cannot be this bad, right? WRONG. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. This road is STEEP. It also has no guard rails for much of the drive. It has several areas on it for 'run away trucks' to be able to launch themselves into should their breaks give.

While it was definitely 'doable' during the summer, the idea of going up that in the winter on an icy road - or at night - is daunting. I have never seen anything like that in my life. One of our forum members says that I am being a baby and that if I REALLY want to see a large pass that I need to go up to Glacier....If I never have the opportunity to go up the Pass again, it will be too soon.

We wound up in Jackson at about 7 PM and stopped in on our friend, Janet (aka The Colonel), at the Buckrail Lodge (where we were staying). In my opinion, this is the neatest and cleanest lodge in Jackson and is very affordable. We have been staying there for years and the proprieter has become a friend over time. It was nice to be back - and to have a TV again (the rooms in the parks have no TV...which was OK). While they have no telephones in the rooms, they DO have wireless internet. Go figure. :)

We ate at a restaurant in Jackson called the Merry Piglets. The salsa is QUITE good - though the chips were not as good as they had been in prior trips. The food is quite decent and they give you large portions - though their prices are a bit high compared to other Tex-Mexican restaurants in the area (such as Pica's).

We got in, did our first web log, and crashed until the next morning.