2024 Road Trip To The West; Part V; Yellowstone National Park; Grizzlies Bears And Other Beasts

The Lamar Valley in northern Yellowstone National Park.  I shot this from a moving vehicle
with my Nikon Zf and 24-120mm lens.  All other images in this post were made with a Nikon Z8.
(click any image to enlarge)

This is a continuation post of my 2024 road trip out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks primarily to photograph large mammals such as grizzly bears.  However, along the way out and back, I planned my adventure to be able to stop at various places and photograph.  You can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here and a post about what gear I took and why here.

Day 7 had the three of us (I was joining two other photographers in Bozeman, Montana for this part of my road trip) leaving Bozeman, Montana and driving to Yellowstone National Park (YNP).  I had been to YNP twice before.  In 1972, the park's 100th anniversary, I spent most of the summer in Wyoming and Montana studying Rocky Mountain field geology and field botany, part of a college summer program.  I absolutely fell in love with the Rocky Mountains, YNP and Grand Teton National Park (GTNP).  In fact, I loved being there so much that I fully intended to spend the rest of my adult life there.  However, life doesn't always go the way you want and the upshot is I went to Virginia for 6 weeks to help a relative with a business and I've been in Virginia since.  No complaints, however.  Virginia is a great place to live.

When I was in YNP in 1972, I never made one photo as, unbeknownst to me, my younger sister had gotten hold of my 35mm film camera and jammed it.  So, for the 8-10 weeks I spent out west, I did not make a single photo.  I was upset at the time but it is now water under the bridge.

My second visit was with my wife on an extended road trip in 2012.  I was really looking forward to finally making some 'grand landscape' images but, as fate would have it, much of the trip to both parks was marred by very heavy layers of smoke from many nearby wildfires.  Don't get me wrong, I was able to make other photographs, mostly intimate landscapes.  Did I mention water under the bridge?  More like a flood.

For this trip, all indications were that the weather would be nice.  No smoke!  There was periodic rain on some days, but generally very nice.  The rain passed quickly.  The water under the bridge has now receded.  Finally!

One of my two photographer friends lives in Bozeman travels to the park regularly and has made some outstanding images of grizzly bears, wolves, elk, landscapes, etc., etc.  I could only hope for those kinds of opportunities to present themselves during our planned three day stay.  Here is his website, Bridger Peaks Photography, if you would like to see some outstanding images.  

As we know, going to a place randomly for a day or three rarely produces excellent photo opportunities.  Most professional photographers return to the same location dozens of times to capture their images in just the right light, with the just right poses (for wildlife).  Unfortunately, I won't have multiple opportunities to visit Yellowstone.

We based out of a Super 8 Motel in Gardiner, Montana, just outside the NW entrance to the park.  Just as an aside, I would never stay there again.  Never.  You take that however you want to take it.  Each morning, we would leave the motel at around 6 a.m., spend the day in the park looking for wildlife, then return around 6-7 p.m.  Long, but fruitful days.

The overwhelming feeling I had after arriving in the park was one of reconnection with nature, rejuvenation of spirit and a renewed appreciation of what a splendid and special ecosystem Yellowstone is.  It is a true treasure.  I had a sense of peace and belonging come over me.  It has been a long time since I felt such serenity.

Not to drone on about all of this.  My friend knew exactly where the grizzly bears' territories were so we cruised among them hoping a grizzly would appear.  The clue was a 'bear jam' of other photographers who had already spotted a bear.  He also knew many of the regional professional photographers who spend almost everyday in the park and was able to get information from them.  As I said, the days were long.  We probably drove over 200 miles per day roaming among the territories but I came away with some images of which I am very pleased.

Here are some of my photos of some of the animals we encountered in YNP.

This is Jam.  She is a four-year old (?) grizzly bear.  In this image she was really far away on the top
of a ridge foraging for food.  I had my 180-600mm lens set to 600mm plus I added the 1.4X tele-
converter AND I shot in DX mode.  I still had to crop in significantly then upsize the file.  As I said,
she was really far away.  Take a look at her claws!  Jam's mother's name is Raspberry! Interesting.
A photographic note.  This image and the additional images in this sequence were handheld.  I will
post them in the near future after my road trip is over.

Here is another image of Jam.  Again, she was very far away and I used the same formula for this
image as I did for the one above.  Do you see the red on her muzzle?  She had just killed an elk calf,
 dragged it behind some deadfall and was consuming it.  It wasn't pretty or easy to watch but it is
the cycle of life.  Nature.  This image was made the day after the one above.  I'll have more images
of Jam in a future post.

This is another grizzly we encountered.  I don't know the name of this one.  This was a chance
encounter near a parking lot.  As we pulled into the lot, we saw several people moving toward
the far end.  My fellow photographer, Bill, spotted the bear and we jumped out.  I quickly set up
my tripod with the gimbal head and made many images as the bear who, at first, walked directly
toward us, then turned and walked away from us.  It was exciting to unexpectedly encounter
this creature! How about those teeth?

We encountered a variety of other animals as well.  Here are some images of those.

These badgers were near the road in the Lamar Valley.  The 'cubs' were playful, as young animals
normally are.  They were 'attacking' each other as well as mom.  This was sort of a tender moment.

I'm not a fan of coyotes.  However, this one, still with its winter coat, did look stately standing
in the early morning sunshine.  It was hunting, unsuccessfully, in this meadow.

A pair of Harlequin ducks sitting on a submerged rock at the LeHardy Rapids in the Yellowstone
River in the Hayden Valley.

This is not a grizzly bear.  This is image is of poor quality but I included it because this is a 
Cinnamon Black Bear.  I had never seen one before.  Black bears can range from black to blonde.
I wish I could have made better images, but it was very far away and the focus was just off a little.

These two elk were near where the above coyote was hunting.  They were keeping a keen eye
out for where the coyote was and what it was doing.  I thought the head tilt and posture of the elk
on the right was rather interesting.

This 'black' Black Bear was with the Cinnamon Black Bear foraging in a meadow.

This is a typical scene in Yellowstone National Park.  We saw literally hundreds and hundreds
of bison (not buffalo!).  The one in the foreground has almost entirely lost its winter coat.  To me,
there is something about seeing a herd of bison wandering freely across a beautiful landscape.  It
reminds me of how things must have been for thousands of years before they were slaughtered,
mostly for sport, almost to extinction in the 19th century.

These young bison are called Red Dogs.

This relatively young bison was walking right toward me.  I didn't stick around
to find out why.  I retreated to the car.

That is enough images for one post.  I'll be posting more images of wildlife in the future.  

We spent 3 1/2 days in YNP.  I'll call our time there very successful!

My next post will be images from Grand Teton National Park, including famous grizzly bear #399 and her current cub.  It was a thrill not only to see her and her cub, but I also made some nice images of the two of them.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

All content on this blog is © 2013-2024 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission 

may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.