Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 349

We are out of Yellowstone Park after four nights in the Yurt Camp where only the snow coaches and snowmobiles could go on groomed trails. We were picked up at the Mammoth Hot Springs by a Yellowstone Expeditions snow coach driven by Nadia Garbage who was our driver the whole time we were at Yurt Camp where she was the Camp Manager, cook, guide and driver. While in Gardiner we were joined by Kinn Elliot, a close friend and fishing friend of Matt’s who has fished in Yellowstone Park for several years but had never been there in winter. Also joining us in Gardiner was our guide, photographer and author of several books, Tom Murphy, a friend of Don Andrews. Thousands of his photos of the park and its wildlife are on display in many of the buildings throughout the park.

On the way in we did some wildlife watching finding an otter that cooperated while it dove under the ice in the river looking for cutthroat trout, then coming back out to pose for photos on the ice. Barrows Goldeneyes, Mallards, and Tundra Swans dotted the open water of the river. We moved further into the valley and Nadia spotted a couple coyotes along the river and then a lone black wolf a long way away but coming in our direction. I got one shot before it went behind the ridge. We turned around and found it coming out behind the ridge where there was a small herd of bison. It lay down with just its ears showing through the scope. We moved further down the valley finding a couple coyotes diving into the snow for mice and voles which were interesting to watch and photograph. Coming back to the yurt camp we photographed the tundra swans in great light and found one banded with a yellow band which we could read the number. We took some shadow shots on the way back out of the valley and sunset over a feeder stream.

We arrived at the Yurt Camp and staff there took our bags to our assigned yurts. I had a Yurt to myself an 8x12 building with two single beds, some had a double bed each had a gas heater and a single 25-watt bulb for light. We were served breakfast and supper buffet style, and we made our own lunches each day. The other group staying there at the same time were there cross-country skiing, watching wildlife and scenery along the way. They were from several northeastern states.

Each of our days started with breakfast at five thirty, make a lunch and were on the snow coach headed out on the roads around six to see the sunrise every morning and looking for any kind of wildlife. We saw some beautiful sunrises each morning and Tundra Swans and several kinds of ducks on the Yellowstone River. As we entered Hayden Valley there were otters in the river, buffalo feeding in the meadows along the river, wolves, coyotes, and foxes searching for food roaming the open meadows. Snowmobiles were allowed on these roads and in some parking areas, there were a couple of hundred viewing the various geysers and falls.

While watching and photographing coyotes a park maintaince employee Jeff Henry came along that Nadia knew. They mentioned to him that I had been out here on the fires in 1988, and he told of when the fires came down the roadway into the Old Faithful Complex he was in the tower of the main lodge. Other employees were there all dressed in Nomex clothing with the sprinkler system going full blast, yet they were spraying out spot fires on the roof of the building. Luckily, the wind shifted and the building was saved. They don’t have the normal amount of snow, which is over four feet, but he was clearing gift shops of snow throughout the park which had close to three feet of snow on them.

More Yellowstone Park stories and shots to come but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Trumpet Swan