Jake Peterson’s Blog

The last bit of wildlife we photographed was this nice Bull Elk. Of course along the way back we saw another bull but he was to far away to do anything with. So we lucked out and happened to see this fellow alongside the road only ten feet from a turn out. Tyler was quite happy, for he wanted the Bull Elk in winter shot. As I said he was last we photographed but not the least. For on the way back we also saw White Tailed Deer, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, two more Bald Eagles, and a Golden Eagle dive bombing on some other birds in the fields outside Gardner. All in all an excellent day of shooting.

One of the common elements of Yellowstone is the geothermal vents that are seen throughout the park. Some of the more beautiful ones are more on the western area of the park. This big old male is keeping warm in one of those vents. He was further down the road from the coyotes as we headed back to Gardner. Along the way back form the coyotes we also saw a Golden Eagle feasting on the remains of something, to hard to tell what and to far away to capture any good shot.

Here is the pack or at least three of them as they cross the frozen river. The fourth one is only a couple feet ahead of these three, with number five further in front of them, below the hill and out of sight, with number six crossing the bridge ahead of us.

Since they traveled in a pack, they followed the same path in the snow, or at least 4 of them did. The fith one we saw went over the hill before the bend on the road, so we didn’t have time to capture him, and the sixth one followed the road for about a mile roughly. Then the seventh one was about 2-5 miles away, he was too far out to get a clean shot.

We drove from Gardner over to Lamar Valley and on the way back from Lamar Valley, about 20 miles west of Cooke City, we ran into a pack of SEVEN coyotes. This is something I haven’t seen before. As they went over the hill beside us, then down the road and across the frozen river, we managed to capture a few nice images.

We were just about to drive away when one of the Bison form the herd decided to venture forth to the river bank itself, and pose for us for a while. Once we past the bison herd, we had an unexpected visitor. A Bald Eagle flew over us as we were driving and continued to follow us all the way down to Roosevelt Tower. We also saw a dipper, briefly, come up and then back down into the water on the Gardner River.

Well it was a Sunday and my friend Tyler and myself decided to drive over to the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park to see, well whatever would show up. so first off its snowing, and its windy, and dark. For you see it was about eight o clock in the morning, we had our coffee, and we were off. It was windy and almost white out the whole day, but sometimes the best images are taken in the worst conditions. We didn’t get to far past Gardner when we ran into a herd of Bison grazing next to the Gardner River. So we decide to stop and play with them for a little while.

Well I finally made it out of the canyon and into the fields right before you reach Three Forks when I came upon a usual scene. A Rough Legged hawk watching the fields for voles and any other yummy critters. The only problem is they are normally quite skittish when you stop to shoot them. He was no different, as soon as I stopped he flew but only a few feet away. At this point he cooperated for a little while before he decided to do something very rude. He flew to a sign post, a white sign post. O well he posed for long enough.

So once I got passed the elk carcass and Big Sky I ran into a few more friends. About 2 miles past Big Sky I ran into a group of 5 rams and well I saw 6 ewe’s but there could’ve been more. None of these were the big boys you see with the big curls but they were of decent size. They were quite cooperative for some time as they came down the hillside.

I was driving up the road heading towards Bozeman away from West Yellowstone, when I saw a carcass of an Elk. Can’t say if it were male or female because the antlers were gone, the head was covered in snow and its back was toward me. There was a coyote on the grounds as well but he was a little more skittish. The Eagle seemed to have control of the feast. Of course the local ravens and magpies were all over the place but as I said the eagle was the boss.