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I traveled to Yellowstone National Park today with the intent of camping for a day before heading to Glacier National Park. This didn’t happen because all of the campsites were taken by 9:30AM this morning. Instead of reserving a space I just thought I’d travel up and find one of the first-come/first-serve sites but I didn’t arrive early enough. I did stay in the park most of the day before leaving in the afternoon to head toward Glacier.

I drove through most of Yellowstone today without seeing any wildlife. This is pretty unusual. Last year, I saw just about every big game animal in the Park, but not today. I was about seven miles away from the western exit when this all changed. A gray wolf was in a field near a head of elk. I pulled my truck over and hopped out to photograph the scene. It appeared at first that the wolf was preying on this elk herd but as I stayed with the group I noticed that he was in search of something. About a half mile from where I first spotted him, the wolf found a carcass about 200 yards away from me in the middle of the field. He stayed there for over an hour eating what remained. I wasn’t able to get a great shot of the wolf but I’m very proud of the shot below. Most people never get the opportunity to see a wild wolf and I was very fortunate to get to see one today. I’ve heard wolves before but this is the first wolf I’ve ever photographed in the wild. I thought my trip through Yellowstone was going to be a bust today, but it turned out to be awesome! Check back later in the week to see my journeys through Glacier National Park. I’ll be camping out there for several days, so my next post will probably occur this weekend.

It’s been a year since I climbed to the summit of Mt. Evans in Colorado. In that year, many things have changed in my life, but nothing has changed atop the mountain. It is still super cold at the top; it is still 14,264ft; and it is still one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The climb to the top of this mountain is mainly done via your vehicle on a narrow, winding two-lane road up the side of the mountain, but you do have to hike the last several hundred feet to reach the summit. At these altitudes, you have to do everything slow. It can be hard to catch your breath if you move too fast. I usually don’t have problems at high altitudes but I got a headache today. I’ve been a bit under the weather which may have played a role in this but the main culprit was me staying on top of the mountain for most of the day.

My goal today was to photograph mountain goats. Last year, dozens of goats could be found at the top of the mountain, so I thought this would occur again. I was wrong. I only saw two; a female and her kid. I did manage to get a few shots of the pair, but I was bit disappointed in not finding any more on the mountain. I did see a lot of female big horn sheep which I photographed early in the morning. My favorite image from these is of a female sheep that is warning one of the younger sheep to get out of her way. She has her head cocked back and is jumping in the air. In the next image, she hits the other sheep on the head for not getting out of the way fast enough.

My main pursuit this year while on top of the mountain was a pika. It’s a small rodent that’s in the rabbit family. This pika was busy gathering food, so I parked myself near his den to get the shots you see of him below. My favorite images of wildlife are those that involve action. I really like the shots I got of him jumping from rocks with food in his mouth. These are my favorites from the day.  I stayed with the pika for about an hour before heading back down the mountain. On my way down, I spotted a yellow-bellied marmot on a rock near the road so I had to stop to take some photos. While shooting the marmot, several of her babies crawled out of their den. I was able to get a few shots of them before the mother hurried them back inside. After shooting this, I headed down the mountain and began my trek toward Yellowstone. I got about half way due to spending a couple hours in the Snowy Ridge mountain range in Wyoming. This is a beautiful place that I hope to get to explore more in the future.

Tomorrow I head to Yellowstone to begin a couple days of photography there before heading to my ultimate destination – Glacier National Park. Check back tomorrow for another update from the trip!

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The drive tends to be the hardest part of any trip I ever take. But, it’s the necessary evil if you are going to use an automobile to travel. Today, I began my annual summer photo expedition and it involved a 15 hour/998 mile drive from Little Rock to just west of Denver. This year’s expedition will take me to Glacier National Park in Montana, but I’m going to make a couple of pit stops along the way. The first stop will be to Mt. Evans tomorrow. I plan to climb to the top and hopefully photograph mountain goats that call this place home. From there, I’ll make my way to Yellowstone and then eventually to Glacier. All of this will involve driving, but I got my hardest day out of the way today! It was a rather uneventful drive. I had great weather for 99% of the way with only a small thunderstorm in Hays, Kansas that slowed me down a bit, but it helped wash off the thousands of bugs that were mashed on my windshield. I didn’t get a chance to do any real photography today, but here is a photo I took with my Canon G10 while driving on I70 in Colorado.  Check back tomorrow for another update!