This morning we awoke to cold air temperatures, two inches of snow on the deck, heavy overcast skies, and some areas of fog. The ship was heading into the Lemaire Channel, a narrow passage between the Argentine Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula mainland. The temperatures here were at freezing, and the amount of ice floating in the channel was surprising compared to what we had witnessed so far. 

Small icebergs, bergy bits (smaller than 5 meters in height) and brash ice (small pieces floating together) littered the passage and the ship just pushed them away; smaller pieces of ice rafted together in the currents and created patterns.  Even with the dark grey skies, the blue ice of the icebergs was surprisingly vivid. At the end of the Lemaire Channel there were many large icebergs in the distance.

The morning stop was Peterman Island, inhabited by colonies of Adelie and Gentoo penguins as well as a small colony of Antarctic shags. The snow here had large areas of greenish or reddish snow; the color due to algae that grows in areas of permanent snow. The landing on a rock shelf was easy, and paths led to Gentoo penguin colonies to the right and left, with the Adelie colony further up the hill on the right.  A path on the left led uphill to an overview of a small inlet that had an accumulation of grounded icebergs or various shapes.

The afternoon stop was six miles further South at Vernadsky Station, a Ukrainian research base.  While waiting for our arrival time at the station, we spent time exploring the nearby waters which were filled with icebergs of every shape imaginable. These large icebergs were carved by currents, flipped over as the center of mass changed, and carved again. We never witnessed a large iceberg turn over, but it was easy to imagine how impressive it would be.

The station was originally established at this site on Galindez Island, part of the Argentine Islands chain, as a British facility in 1954 and was sold to the government of Ukraine in 1996 for one pound.  The UK had no further need of the station, and the cost of dismantling the base due to Antarctic agreements would be costly.  Scientists from Ukraine lost access to Antarctic research facilities with the dissolution of the USSR, so it was a win-win situation. The Ukrainian Antarctic Center conducts projects in geomagnetism, seismology, upper atmospheric physics, meteorology, biology, and physiology research. Expanded to house 24 people, and operates the world’s most southern gift shop and public bar serving homemade vodka. One of the scientists conducted a tour of the facility which ended at the gift shop and bar, where we sampled the vodka.

After our visit here, we returned to the ship and started our two-day journey across the Drake Passage.  It started off with high seas; I spent most of the time the first day in bed, which was not a loss since the fog was fairly thick and the horizon could not be seen until two days later when we approached the Beagle Channel.

Our lodging was located in Townsend, TN. There are several lodging choices in this town, and it is located to the northwestern corner of the park near Cades Cove, a popular area of the park for wildlife and historical structure. We made a late afternoon drive through this area on the first day of the trip and saw 14 black bears and cubs. However, due to the unpredictability of wildlife, we had only one sighting during the other four days of our trip. All the wildlife images were made in the Cades Cove area with the exception of the snail which was found on a tree near the river along the road to Tremont. While we occasionally sighted white-tailed deer and turkeys a few times, the opportunities were not great most of the time. That’s nature for you.

Wildflowers were everywhere in the lower elevations, the trees and other vegetation at the higher levels were still bare. Some species, such as the white trillium were past prime and showed a pink coloration. Occasionally, a blossom or two in good condition found their way in front of my lens. Since I was traveling with a group I was conscious not to get too carried away with any particular patch of flowers, although John encouraged me to get the images I wanted and did not rush me.  There were several roadside river locations that had a variety of flowers growing, and several images could be made in a short time. Once in a while I had to rely on flash or small LED lights to provide illumination in the darker areas of the forest.

Rivers ran near many of the roads, and small cascades and waterfall were found in many locations. The ideal weather to photograph these water features is overcast, preferably after a rain. The overcast conditions provide an even lighting and the rain wets the rocks and vegetation darkening their color. The last day was the only one that was cloudy and we had saved the road to Tremont for the last morning. John said that we would have visited this area earlier in the trip if the weather had been better.

Additional images from the Great Smoky Mountain trip are coming in the next post.

The day started with heavy overcast as we cruised toward Orne Harbor, where a large glacier is the main feature at the end of the harbor and a large hill of exposed rock is on the south opening to the harbor.  This is the location of the Chinstrap Penguin colony we were scheduled to visit. A few chinstraps were in the water near the shelf of rock that served as a landing area, but there were thousands of penguins along the ridge. The path to the ridge was on the other side of the ridge, which we saw when the ship rounded the point on the way to the afternoon landing area. Oceanites reported 1000 chinstrap penguin chicks on the ridge.

Although these small penguins climb this hill (on the other side) perhaps several times a day, I found I was too unsteady on the climb up the hill to make it worth it and decided to stay near the landing area to photograph penguins in the water and on shore, an Antarctic Tern that stayed in the area, and a few landscape images. The zodiac cruise that followed went deeper into the harbor, up to the glacier at the end.  There was a large amount of brash ice here, and several reports from some of the zodiac drivers of whales flipping their fins near the kayaks and zodiacs.  By the time we arrived in the area it was over.  We did see images of the whales approaching the boats as well as some underwater images of the whales swimming by the boat.  There was a report, and later some shared images in a slide show, of a leopard seal playing with its food, a penguin.  We also cruised to the mouth of the bay, following a humpback whale hoping it would breech or take an interest in us. The vista of huge icebergs and nearby 3,500 foot mountains across the Gerlache Strait was spectacular.

 Our afternoon landing was on Cuverville Island, a rocky island in the Errera Channel between Rongé Island and the Arctowski Peninsula on the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is an important birding area as the large breeding colony of Gentoo Penguins resides here.  It is the largest Gentoo colony on the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Oceanites counters reported approximately 5,000 Gentoo chicks on the southern part of the island.  To my untrained eye, there seemed to be at least as many penguins nesting on the north end of the beach.

The skies were open overcast with patches of blue sky and the temperature here was warm, just above freezing with no wind so our waterproof coats came off to be more comfortable.  The coats are necessary in the zodiac because the speed of the zodiac causes a wind chill that is surprising for the low speeds involved. One the way from the ship to the beach we stopped to examine a relatively small iceberg that had an interesting shape. The icebergs are shaped by environmental forces; air temperature, wind, water currents.  Only ten percent of floating ice is above the surface, and when the center of mass of the iceberg changes due to erosion of the submerged portion, or a large piece breaks off, the iceberg reorients itself revealing a portion that had been submerged and carved by the ocean currents.

Gentoo penguins were everywhere; large colonies at either end of the beach, on the rocky slopes of the hill, and on the ridges high on the hill.  The rocky ridges are the first to show as the summer approaches, and those that make a nest here are able to lay eggs earlier, and the chicks have a greater chance of survival if the weather is severe during the summer months.  Bringing food up to the chicks on the ridge, adults develop trails of compressed snow that are chest deep.  Often there are two parallel paths, one up and one down. There were great opportunities to photograph penguins on the beach and at either end.  Prior to leaving the beach to cruise around the island, the hearty souls in the group took the opportunity to take an Antarctic plunge off the beach. We finished out visit to Cuverville Island with a cruise around the island where a few spectacular icebergs were found.

Day 4 – February 3 – Perterman Island and Vernadsky Station

The day began with clear skies, flat seas, and reasonably warm weather.  Our morning stop on this day was the Almirante Brown Station, a scientific research station built by the government of Argentina.  The station had been mostly abandoned for a time due to fiscal problems and appeared uninhabited, although there were signs that repairs were being made to some of the buildings. Gentoo penguins were nesting in the areas around the buildings and allowed close observation of the nesting areas along the trail up the hill. I was surprised to find a Sheathbill, a.k.a Antarctic Chicken, a land based bird that is an opportunistic feeder, stealing krill and fish from penguins, eating their eggs and whatever insects they can find.  Surprisingly, we were told they also eat penguin poop.

After enduring the rough weather of the Drake Passage and the previous night’s snow and high winds, the blue skies and reflections of mountains, glaciers and icebergs was a welcome sight.  The views were stunning.  We walked up the trail to the top of one hill to find the trail up another hill.  We probably should have climbed that hill also but the view from even this lower elevation was plenty scenic and in any case, the sooner we returned to the shore, the sooner we would get out in a zodiac to cruise Paradise Bay looking for Antarctic shags (similar to cormorants) , whales and seals.

One of the adventure activities offered on the Vavilov is sea kayaking. There were about a dozen passengers who had signed up for this activity, and this was their first outing.  They had to wear dry suits so that if they tipped over, which they did on purpose this morning, they would be dry and float until their safety zodiac driver could retrieve them. 

We cruised the edge of the bay past a shag colony on the side of a cliff, on our way to cruise the bay looking for whales, seals, and any birds that may be there. This is where we found Sophie, one of the enthusiastic kayak guides; a shag had landed on the bow of her kayak and used it as a platform to search for fish in the water.  It stayed with her for quite some time and eventually she had to quickly paddle away when it went in after a fish.

We found several leopard seals sunning on small icebergs.  I say small, but leopard seals are 9 to 12 feet long, and can weigh up to 1300 pounds, so the chunk of ice needed to carry animal is substantial. We also stopped to observe and photograph Weddell seals.

 Our afternoon stop was Neko Harbor on Andvord Bay, and to get there we cruised by a small peninsula in the Aguirre Channel where Chile’s Gonzalez Videla Base is located. There are several buildings there but it is now considered inactive.  However, there are fuel stores and supplies in storage for emergency use, or in the event that the base is reactivated in the future.

We landed on a rocky beach with large colonies of Gentoo penguins at either end. The Oceanites census takers reported 2200 Gentoo chicks here.  With so many penguins entering and leaving the water, this was the only site on the trip where I was able to capture penguins porpoising; jumping out of the water to catch a breath as they are swimming underwater. There were many penguin families with two chicks, alternately eating and sleeping, and we observed male penguins collecting stones for their mate’s nest even though it was well past mating season.

The Neko Harbor area was a great place to photograph Gentoo Penguins, but with the clear blue skies and no wind, the scenery was fantastic to view and photograph. With the great light and more floating ice to be found, the occurrence of “blue ice” became more frequent.  Blue ice is created as snow accumulates on the ice caps, the weight of which compresses the layers of snow below to form ice, and as the pressure builds forces the air out of the ice, the size of the ice crystals increases making it dense and clear. Water, and ice for that matter, absorbs red and yellow light resulting in its blue color. The surface of ice and snow will typically reflect the full spectra of light, appearing white, but when light is transmitted through the ice, it will appear blue.  As evening approached, the skies became cloudy with a few gaps that allowed the last of the sun to light small sections of the landscape.

The rough seas were mostly forgotten.

 Day 3 – February 2 – Orne Harbor and Cuverville Island

Our first stop, Bellingshausen Station, is a Russian Antarctic research facility at Collins Harbor on King George Island. Adjacent to this set of buildings are research stations operated by Chile and China. One of the South Shetland Islands, the summer temperatures here are relatively warm, with much of the accumulated melting away, and giving opportunity to lichens, mosses and other vegetation to grow. Unfortunately, much of the snow free areas are muddy.  On land, we were allowed to wander around the area, follow one of the expedition staff on a hike along some of the roads, and visit the small Russian Orthodox Church.  There were a few Chinstrap penguins along the beach and it was our first exposure to observe these medium–sized seabirds as they interacted with each other.

One unique activity today was the short run prepared for a group of avid motorcyclists who booked a trip to the Antarctic with the intention of being able to ride a motorcycle on the continent, which will have completed their goal of riding on every continent.  One of the expedition staff photographers took video of each person riding the single motorcycle on the road; documenting the (minimal) environmental impact of the event on the site.

After exploring the immediate area, we boarded a zodiac and cruised along the shoreline and around a point to a Gentoo penguin nesting site on Ardley Island.  This was our first introduction to a breeding colony and it was surprising how extensive an area the nest site covered, and the amount of uphill travel these birds had to travel. Also on board our ship were two volunteers for Oceanites who were tasked to count penguin chicks, as well as nests and chicks of any birds observed, at each of the sites the ship will visit. At this stop they counted about 5000 Gentoo chicks.

Our evening landing was planned to be at Deception Bay, which has a narrow opening in the rim of an extinct volcano. However, due to increased winds with a direction that would make passage into the bay unsafe the captain and expedition leader canceled that visit.  The evening did prove to be energetic with waves crashing into the bow and so cold that snow began to accumulate on the outer decks.

 Day 2 – February 1 – Paradise Bay and Neko Harbour

This was my second visit to the Galapagos Islands.  My wife and I visited in April of 2005, and I never figured I’d return since I have a lot of other locations on my list of places to visit and photograph. 

This trip was one of the prizes awarded to me as grand prize winner in the 2010 Audubon Magazine photography contest.  The cruise was provided by Lindblad Expeditions aboard the National Geographic Endeavor. Lindblad and Nat Geo do organize a great trip, with top notch naturalists, including a few trained by National Geographic photographers to provide advice and guidance to the less experienced photographers among the passengers.

Each day was similar in schedule, but widely different in experience.  We’d awake anchored in the location for the morning excursion.  Occasionally a choice of activities was offered which might include a long walk, a short walk, or just a stay on the beach but mostly one walk was offered.  There was always an alternative activity, usually a zodiac ride along the coast, for those not wishing to take the offered hike.   Most landings (all but two) were wet landings; the zodiac would get close to the beach, and the passengers in turn would get off into the water and wade to the beach.  The water was never more than knee deep, and towels were provided on the beach to dry off feet and put on shoes for the walk.  Upon embarking the ship from the morning excursion, we’d sail during lunch to a second location for the afternoon activity.  Between shore excursions were afternoon lectures, occasional deep water snorkeling or kayaking opportunities.

The weather was mild and cloud covered for sunrise, with the clouds burning off as the day went on, with the afternoons mostly sunny.  Seas were mostly calm even when on the edge of the archipelago north of Isabella Island.  Sunrise photography was not great, and only one evening was good for sunset, with the exception of the last evening at sea, when we were circumnavigating Kicker Rock, unique rock formations which are the remnants of a volcanic cone.  Just before we sailed away from this rock, the light turned golden and the rock appeared on fire.  Based on the week of dull evening light, this last evening was spectacular.  The ship was sailing into the sunset, I hurried to the bow of the ship, where both feet slipped out from under me, I landed flat on my face spread out on the deck, my camera skidded across the deck  . . . and no one noticed.  I dragged myself up and looked around; everyone was intently watching the sunset and hadn’t noticed my acrobatics at all.

View the Galleries.

 At the end of September, my wife, Chris, and I visited Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park hoping to see and photograph the yellow and orange fall foliage, abundant wildlife preparing for winter, and perhaps a touch of winter itself.  We arrived with the leaves just starting to turn, scant wildlife, and temperatures in the 80’s for the first few days.  We did find a herd of 200 or so bison spread out in the Lamar Valley and on the return to Mammoth Hot Springs we found a herd of ten pronghorn does with a buck keeping order.  One evening we also had a few bighorn sheep come down the cliffs to the Gardiner River. The first evening we planned on eating at the park dining room anticipating the evening show; 30-40 elk cows with two or three bulls vying to keep track of their respective harems, and try to coax a few more cows from another harem.   We saw one nice bull, and four cows.  Where did they all go?  The introduction of wolves to the park did reduce the elk herds, but to a greater degree than initially expected.  This was a result of the overwhelming success of the wolf packs, which have done better than predicted.  The wolf/elk ratio has probably hit an equilibrium; if there are not enough elk for one reason, let’s say a bad winter, there will be fewer surviving wolf pups due to less food available, then the elk with have greater success, and then the wolf numbers will increase.

 We spent the first three nights based in Gardiner, MT, at the north entrance to Yellowstone NP.  From there it is convenient to travel to the Lamar Valley, Tower Junction and the Canyon Village section beyond, and to Norris Geyser basin.  Basically, the northern half of the park.  Mammoth Hot Springs is the northern headquarters of the park services with lodging, dining, and conveniences (general store, fuel, post office, etc.).   The springs for which the area is named, and the travertine cliffs here have changed over the years as geologic activity redirects the hot spring water below ground though subterranean limestone,  dissolving calcium carbonate and depositing it as travertine (a bone white mineral) as the water cools on the surface. But that is not what creates the rainbow of colors at this, and all other, thermal features: it’s the thermopiles (heat-loving microorganisms).  The color of the thermopiles is due to the temperature of the water.  Cooler waters support the growth of orange, brown and green thermopiles while clear and yellow thermopiles thrive in the hottest water.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has several viewpoints to easily view and photograph both the upper and lower falls and the Yellowstone River. There are also a number of trails that lead down into the canyon for a more intimate view of the falls. We visited the canyon on different days and at different times of day to get a variety of light into the canyon.  While overcast conditions greatly reduce shadows in the canyon, the light is not dramatic nor does it bring out the intense colors of the rock.  The sun cast a heavy shadow on half the canyon for our visit to the canyon at midday, and a return visit a few days later at 3pm with cumulous clouds in the sky provided a brightly lit inner canyon.

Our next stop was in Jackson, WY, near Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons National Park.  Since we were so late in planning this trip, we opted to stay in Jackson, even though we would have an additional 20-minute drive into the park for sunrise.  Sunrise opportunities are numerous in Grand Teton; Schwabacher Landing, Oxbow Bend, Molton Barn, and Mormon Row.  In our exploration, we found a beaver pond near the road (about a foot away from the road) where one evening we watched two adult and two young beavers feeding on the bark and leaves of small branches within fifteen feet of us.  We visited the location several times during our four days in Jackson and did repeat the experience.

Again, wildlife was somewhat scarce, with the exception of the beaver.  We saw several elk cows and a couple of bulls in the early evening hours, but did not see a single moose.  We did see osprey on a nest but the position made photography impossible, and saw a red tail hawk flying.  In any case, the landscape photography opportunities were reasonably decent, even though proscribe forest fires at the south end of the park resulted in ground smoke at the base of the mountains.  This is evident in the images that show a grey pallor on the lower half of the mountains.

We then moved on to Old Faithful Snow Lodge for the last five nights of our stay.  This location gave us good access to the southern half of the park, and even drives to the Canyon Village area were not that far away. A large number of visitor accessible thermal features is in this area, including Old Faithful geyser.  Photographing hot pools and geysers can be challenging as they produce large amounts of steam.  Your luck will depend largely on the direction and speed of the wind, and the air temperature.  On my winter visit here, there were times when you could hear a hot pool bubbling, but couldn’t see it for all the steam surrounding it.  The higher daytime temperatures (low 70’s) while we were there offered up some interesting views of the thermal features.   I concentrated on areas of the thermal features that had striking color or interesting compositions.

The wildlife activity did eventually perk up as the nights became cooler and the daytime heat finally abated.  We saw several herds of elk along the Madison River, and bison herds could be seen at many locations with about 50 animals each, except for the big herd in the Lamar Valley.  By far the best experience was viewing a pack of wolves in the Lamar Valley returning to an elk they had killed the day earlier. At one of the pull-outs overlooking Hayden Valley, we overheard this tidbit of information from a couple that was deciding where to go next.  One at a time the wolves would come to the carcass, chase off the ravens and magpies, and try to pry meat from the bone.  Since the carcass was in the river, one wolf tried to pull it up onto the bank to get at the meat that was previously submerged.  Another big spectacle was the number of photographers who had lined up shoulder to shoulder in two locations.

We spent three days at this tropical rainforest lodge located on the banks of the Sarapiqui River.  The attraction here is the abundance of green and black poison dart frogs and red poison dart frogs as well as masked and red-eyed tree frogs.  One back lit basilisk lizard was a challenge to photograph as we tried to move through the undergrowth off the path and not chase the lizard off.  There were also lizards climbing a tree next to the dining room, and we even saw a baby fer-de-lance on the side of the path.  It couldn’t have been more than three inches in diameter coiled less than a foot from the path. The lodge naturalist moved the snake into the forest for everyone’s (and the snake’s) safety.  When Greg was selecting some vegetation for nighttime photography of a red-eyed tree frog, he explained that we had to carefully look under the low vegetation to make certain no fer-de-lance were there.  We could hear numerous birds throughout the forest, but they were elusive with the exception of a mot-mot, a chestnut billed toucan, and an ochre bellied flycatcher on the nest. We also had some time with howler monkeys which were very close and almost eye-level from the balcony of the lodge’s classroom.  The naturalist believes they come to see their reflection in the floor to ceiling windows.

One morning we traveled to a nearby farm owned by a local family that has preserved some of its property as forest.  Great Green Macaws and Scarlet Macaws live in the forest and stay close to the farm to roost and feed.  He also had a large enclosure that injured birds, which locals had found were rehabilitated and allowed to go free.  There is an opening in the cage where birds can come and go as they please.  The owner also rescued two jaguars from being hunted and killed by local villagers for killing cattle.  The farmer got the villagers to agree to let him capture the animals rather than just kill them.   He built an enclosure to house the jaguars and takes good care of them; they look healthier than some zoo animals I’ve seen.

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity -Part 3

After attending the Natural Exposures Yellowstone in Winter Photo Tour described in Part 1, I picked up a rental car in Bozeman and continued my winter adventure based in Gardiner, MT.  Gardiner is only a few miles from the north entrance to the park and Mammoth Hot Springs.  Highway 212 passes through the northern section of the park to Cooke City just outside the northeast park boundary.  This road is maintained year round and is the only means to reach Cooke City during the winter.

Since I arrived in late afternoon, I decided to check the road conditions and get a feel for the locations I could safely stop the car to photograph and went for a quick reconnoiter into the park after checking-in at the hotel.   Bison where close to the road, and with little traffic I stopped to photograph one group of bison eating grasses under the snow.  One had a small tuft of fur on the end of one of its horns, probably a remnant from an altercation with another bison.  I saw one bison run uphill through chest deep snow and took a series of photographs, not even thinking to switch to video.  I caught a sunset from one of the viewpoints.  After dinner in Gardiner, I returned to a pull out just before the Gardiner River Bridge to photograph the night sky.  The sky was cloudless and full of stars and a low crescent moon provided enough light to see the hillsides.  It was plenty cold, about -10^o, and I worked fast to take a few images.   The best results were taken at the 17mm, ISO 800, f4 at 30 seconds.  The trail of the stars was barely visible when viewed at 100%.  With the 50mm lens, the track of the stars was evident and not usable at over 20 seconds. It’s hard to focus through the viewfinder, and I resorted to using live view and increasing the ISO until I could focus, then reducing the ISO down to 800 to capture the image.

The next day started cold; at -27^o it was the coldest day on this trip.  The cold weather presented some interesting environmental conditions for exposure (photographically speaking).  I didn’t feel it was too cold to work, as the car was never that far away.  I did have to use gloves, and the layered clothing was comfortable enough.  My strategy for shooting in the park was to drive the road between Mammoth Hot Springs and Soda Butte Springs at the end of the Lamar Valley and possibly beyond, stopping when something good caught my eye.  The sunrise was below the nearby hills when I saw the first sundog, a refraction of sunlight through ice crystals similar to a rainbow.  The low cloud of ice crystals near the ground was brightly lit up with the sunlight, and in the middle was a bar of color.  I couldn’t see where the sun was rising over the horizon as it was behind some nearby hills.  Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I made several sets of exposure for HDR processing as the brightness range was too wide to capture in one image.  Then I drove ahead to try to see if there were sundogs on both sides and if there was the possibility of a decent image of the sunrise.  It was obvious that the sun was well above the horizon and I took advantage of a location that had the sun behind a hill, otherwise the sun would have been too bright to capture the effect.  As I entered the Lamar Valley I was able to capture the image of the southern sundog well above the horizon.  The very low temperature of the air and the steam rising off the much warmer water of the Lamar River resulted in the trees and bushes being covered in frost. I returned to Gardiner to pick up lunch, stopping along the way to photograph the Gardiner River.  There are paths and boardwalks that lead into the lower terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs; the low temperatures here resulted in great amounts of steam rolling off the hot water of the terrace.  A wide view was nearly impossible to capture although by waiting for a clear break in the steam I was able to make a few good image of the “ghost” trees at the top of the terrace.  The more intimate landscape images reinforce how cold it was, with layers of frost on the dry structures adjacent to those with hot water in them.  Another trip down the road yielded a few coyote images taken at long range with a 500mm and 2X extender.  This drive was mostly uneventful as I arrived at Soda Butte Creek parking area, turned around and headed back to a spot where I had seen two coyotes on the hillside.

When I pulled over to the side of the road, both passenger side wheels slid off the pavement into the soft snow and I couldn’t move the four-wheel drive Jeep Cherokee forward or backward.  The road is kept plowed, sometimes daily to clear off any drifting snow.  Although there are markers along the road, the edge of the pavement is hidden from view by the thin layer of snow there, and if the plow goes beyond the paved area, there is no way to know.  The plows extend beyond the wheelbase of the truck so they can plow a larger path.  Luckily, the folks in Montana are helpful and someone stopped right away even though he had a small car and no tow strap.  We both tried our cell phones, but no coverage out in the middle of nowhere.  The next pickup truck stopped and the driver had a tow strap and indicated he would turn around and be back shortly.   I crawled under the Jeep and it figures there are no tow points on a Jeep.  I found something sturdy on the rear axle assembly to attach the strap and he was able to drag the Jeep back onto the road.  I was extremely grateful for the help.  I figured I had enough excitement for the day as it was late afternoon and headed back to Gardiner.  Just up the road I stopped to chat with Daniel Cox and Randy Kokesch who had come down to photograph in the Lamar Valley for the day.  After carefully parking in a pull out, I told them my tale of woe, we compared notes, and I went on my way as the light was getting dim and they were heading back to Bozeman.

My second full day in northern Yellowstone was much the same as the first day, except that it was much, much warmer, in the 30s. Photographing at the lower terraces offered a clearer look at the mineral deposits as the amount of steam was greatly reduced. Two trips between Mammoth Hot Springs and Soda Butte Creek yielded a few scenics, good views of an American Dipper, black-tailed deer, elk, and bighorn sheep. On the first trip I found a traffic holdup near the Lamar Ranger Station; a dump truck with a plow had gone off the edge of the road and was settled at a precarious angle.  I felt a lot less foolish than I did the day before for doing the same thing.

On my last day I did a quick drive to the Lamar Valley and made a few images of scenery, bison, coyote and a Golden Eagle.  The drive back to Bozeman was uneventful, as were the flights back home.

All in all, this was a great way to see and photograph Yellowstone in winter.  The combination of wildlife, scenery and thermal areas accessed from the west side of the park by snow coach and the independence of driving the northern road made for a very productive photographic experience.

I’ve always wanted to visit Yellowstone in winter to photograph the scenery and wildlife.  After considerable internet searching, this year I signed on for a February trip with National Geographic contributing photographer Daniel J. Cox (Natural Exposures).  The trip schedule included four day-long excursions by snow coach into the park from West Yellowstone and a day on either end to travel from/to Bozeman.  Since I was going to travel to Montana, I added on three days of photographing the park from north entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs, the only area of the park that clears the roads for automobile travel during the winter.  More about my independent travels in Part 2.

Part 1 is long and includes both my trip report and a review of the Natural Exposures Yellowstone in Winter Photo Tour for those considering this trip or this tour company.

Natural Exposures Photo Tour

Booking the trip was easy with terrific communications from Tanya Cox, Daniel’s wife.  She arranged for hotel accommodations in Bozeman for the night before the trip, and offered a discount of $100 for being a first-time traveler with Natural Exposures.  I was also able to book the trip without the lodging costs since I had Holiday Inn points I could use for free lodging.

The afternoon drive to West Yellowstone was a little over two hours, and we stopped to photograph big horn sheep on a hill by the road.  That evening we met to discuss the upcoming trips into the park, photographic considerations for snow and high contrast, and Dan showed some of his work. We also filled in menu selections for the box lunches that Tanya would prepare for us.  There was a group dinner in the hotel restaurant following the presentation.

Day One – to Lower Geyser Basin

Natural Exposures uses 28 passenger tour vehicles (snow yacht, which have been designed for travel on snow in winter as well as on the road pavement the rest of the year.  With only 14 participants, we each had two seats so we had plenty of room for our gear.  We headed out from the hotel at 7 AM in anticipation of some delay at the park entrance station, which didn’t happen, and we arrived at the Madison River in low light conditions due to the heavy overcast.  We stopped near several groups of tundra swans and stayed there while the light brightened.  It was an excellent opportunity as we had adults and signets, preening behavior, take-offs, fly-bys, and landings.  Moving down the road, which follows the river, we stopped to photograph elk, bison, and eagles.  We stopped for a hot drink and pastry break at Madison Junction, which also has a warming hut and heated restrooms.  Heading south from here, we drove along Firehole Canyon Drive, stopping to photograph the cascades and walk along the road for other scenic views of the river.  Lower Geyser Basin is a short drive from Firehole Canyon and we stopped here for an hour to explore the Fountain Paint Pots and other thermal features along the boardwalk trail.  It’s very difficult to get still photos that fully capture the dynamics of thermal features.  Luckily, I didn’t forget that I have video capture capability on my Canon cameras, and actually remembered to use it once in a while.  The return to West Yellowstone included stops whenever bison, elk, and eagles offered the opportunities.  As we neared Madison Junction we received a report that a bobcat was on the prowl along the river.  Dan mentioned that he had heard of the bobcat for the last three years but had never seen it.   By the time we found the bobcat, it was getting pretty dark and snowing, but we couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

Day Two – to Norris Geyser Basin

It snowed overnight and we weren’t disappointed with the snow covered bison we found along the Madison River as well as snow covered trees and a fresh layer of snow everywhere.  It continued to snow on-and-off through the morning and we did have blue skies at times later in the day.  We spent a long time with an eagle perched in a tree across the river and we followed it as it moved up the river.  It was likely the same eagle we photographed the day before in the same tree.  Great looks for a long time.  Once again we stopped at Madison Junction for the facilities and a snack break.  Today we turned north and stopped for a while at Gibbon Falls.  The parking area and paths had been renovated in the recent road upgrades and while there were railings to protect visitors from falling into the canyon, they were of little benefit as the snow was packed down and three feet deep.  Only the top of the railing and stone walls showed.  The demarcation of packed snow to loose snow was impossible to determine in many locations and stepping out too far from the vehicle tracks could result in being hip deep in snow, as several of us found out.  Gibbon Falls was an interesting place to photograph with distant and close views available to those who decided to walk down the road, and back uphill.  The Norris Geyser Basin offered two trails to follow, one short and the other longer with an elevation change.  We only had an hour here so I chose to follow the short path figuring I’d have more time to photograph whatever interested me.  One difficulty with the paths here are that the number of visitors is probably less than some of the other spots and the deep snow on the boardwalks are only packed down in the very center.  Letting someone pass was an interesting exercise.  One feature here is that small pine trees are bent over with the weight of accumulating snow next to thermal vents and pools that have no snow accumulation at all.  We made a few stops along the way back to West Yellowstone for scenics and a particularly well lit bison foraging near the road.  As we neared Madison Junction, we again received a report of the bobcat hunting along the river.  This time the light was still low but at least it wasn’t snowing;  the action was limited as the cat stayed in one location, watching, napping, grooming.  No waterfowl floated by, which could have been exciting.  It would have been a toss-up of who was more excited, the birds or the photographers.

Day 3 – to Old Faithful

The temperature was colder than previous days, about 0º Fahrenheit to start the day.  While this sounds bad it was indeed a good thing.  The cold atmosphere in combination with moist air results in anything nearby being frosted.  We weren’t disappointed; frosted trees, frosted bison, steam rising from the rivers, we had it all.  Trees near the river were frosted from the steam rising from the water and the steam added some interest to the scene, but it was a challenge to capture images of wildlife near the river shooting through the mist.  A breeze was blowing the steam by one bison, and by watching and waiting I did get some images with less steam between me and the animal, resulting in images that show the effect of the steam on the bison in this cold environment.  Another effect of moist air on cold fur occurs with bison breath frosting their faces.  We were fortunate to arrive at the thermal areas near Fountain Flats while the frost was still on the trees; on the return trip from Old Faithful all the frost had melted.  Near Midway Geyser Basin we had good views of bison on both sides of the Firehole River.  The time at Old Faithful in the Upper Geyser Basin was limited to a little more than an hour due to all the stops for wildlife we made on the way.  Just barely enough time to get to a few nearby thermal features. Along the way back to West Yellowstone we stopped to photograph an eagle flying over the river, watching the ducks, hoping for a dynamic moment that never came.  The eagle perched on the top of a pine tree for a while, but by the time I had retrieved my big lens from the bus, it had flown off.

Day 4 – to Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Today we switched to two small vans since the snow “yacht” didn’t have the legs to reach the canyon and return on a single tank of fuel.  The smaller vehicles had similar accommodations as the larger vehicle with two seats for each photographer.  We headed out along the Madison River with a forecast of snow for the day.  It did snow at first, but we were treated to breaks in the snow, with some blue sky.  We stopped for scenery and elk along the river until out morning break at Madison Junction.  The rest stop was crowded with buses, vans, snow coaches, and snowmobiles.  On previous days the rest stop had only one or two vehicles; we had stopped frequently to photograph along the Madison River and reached the rest stop well after the normal vehicle tour schedule.  From here we headed to Norris where we turned west towards Canyon.  It also started snowing heavily.  We ate our box lunches at the visitor center which had a large room with picnic tables.  On previous days we ate in the bus, either at a rest stop or while we were traveling to save time.  As we headed over to the scenic overlooks of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, it continued to snow heavily.  Not looking good as we stopped to photograph the Yellowstone River from a bridge.  As luck would have it, the snow stopped when we arrived at the overlook of the Lower Falls, a 306 foot drop with water thundering over into the canyon bottom.  Ice formations on either side of the falls were conspicuous even from such a great distance.  We also stopped at Upper Falls, and then headed to Hayden Valley in hopes of seeing wildlife.  It was quiet there, with a couple of bison in the middle of the valley a mile or so away.  They were mighty small in the viewfinder.  The drive back to West Yellowstone seemed long, and it I’m certain it would have seemed longer if I had to drive; the snow was very heavy and it was difficult to see the road.  Traffic wasn’t much of a problem, but if one were to veer off the road slightly, the unpacked sides would cause a problem for the vehicle.  (More on that in Part 2.)  After we arrived at the hotel, we met for a pizza supper and many participants provided images to share with the group.  Dan also showed videos of their Canadian Rockies trip and an Africa trip (these and others can be viewed on the Natural Exposures website).

The next morning we headed back to Bozeman to catch flights home, or pick up a rental car as I did to extend the trip in other locations.

General Comments on Natural Exposures

I was very impressed with the logistics provided and the care Dan and Tanya, as well as their office staff, took to ensure that the participant’s needs were met.  One person had a late arrival at the airport and one of the staff met that individual at the airport and drove him down to West Yellowstone that evening.  Another person was a day late due to weather induced travel problems and Tanya drove up to the airport and back to bring that participant to the group.   A few weeks before the trip, a package arrived with a down vest, insulated coffee mug and a folio of information for the trip, and on arrival at the West Yellowstone hotel room I found a re-useable water bottle, a bag of chocolate truffles, some toiletries, and a bottle of wine.  Very nice touch.  The lunches that Tanya made for us were packaged in re-usable plastic containers which held a hefty sandwich, drink, desert and fruit, yogurt or other item.  A variety of chips was also available.  The lunches were different every day with exception of the sandwich that was selected for that day on the first night.  Out in the park, if anyone wanted to photograph something, they would shout out and the bus would stop and those interested would jump out and do their thing.   I think the time spent at the Norris could have been better spent at the Midway Geyser Basin’s Grand Prismatic Spring or have more time at the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful.   Because of the travel time involved, it would require reducing the amount of time we spent with some wildlife along the way, but that could have been handled on those occasions that the scene wasn’t changing dynamically enough to warrant staying at that location.  That’s my only nit to pick.  I can see why many of the participants had traveled with Dan and Tanya in the past, and several had already booked future trips with them.  I know I’ll be visiting their website regularly and will likely travel with them again.

Yellowstone National Park in Winter – Part 2