We left Zion at 9:30am yesterday, and made it to Cave Creek just before 3pm (with the help of a one hour time change).  Natasha was shy for about 30 seconds, then started running and jumping – I think she remembered us, since the first thing she did was hunt for and steal Lou’s shoes.  We very much appreciate Mij taking such good care of the pup while we were gone (Natasha obviously loves Mij).

We relax here until Wednesday, then head out on a 2-day drive to Northern California to see the Holmes Clan at Sea Ranch.

Continuing on with our report from Yellowstone: Thursday, Sept 20th Part 1

Up early again, to put our stuff in the van at 5:45am, grab a quick breakfast at the Brandin’ Iron Motel’s Free Breakfast offering.  Perhaps they should have paid us to eat there 😉  It was less than good, but was a chance for people to eat something before we headed out so early (apparently the other motels don’t start breakfast until 7am).  Our room was clean, and the motel was conveniently located next to the park entrance, but that’s about all the good we can say about it.  Of course, it’s not like we spent any time in the room – we were out by 5:30am every morning, and usually not back until after 9:00pm.

This morning was another hunt for the Great Trophy Elk.  As I said yesterday, I quite enjoyed photographing the elk – Lou, not so much.  But, he was a good sport, and continued with his expert spotting technique.

We found a new subject, and this one was more to the group’s liking.  We hiked a ways out into the scrub to set up our tripods, and took photos for an hour or so.  It was cold – about 38 degrees.  We saw the Bull Elk bugling, running after his women, and keeping an eye on us.

Lou asked if we were going to photograph every elk in Yellowstone 😉  Well, Yes – if we can find them.  But then, we saw something else – we parked in the turnout, and as we got out of the van to get our camera gear – we saw this Big Guy:

It’s Billy Bison!  He was all by his lonesome – he came out of the bushes towards us, taking a couple steps, then eating some grass.  He walked right by the van (we were by then hiding on the other side), and out into the street.  He really wasn’t concerned about anyone else – he walked down the road a ways, and back in the brush.  We both got some good shots of the bison:

That was fun!  We then drove for awhile, and made a few stops along the way.  One of the places we stopped was Gibbon Falls – it was difficult to get photos, but we tried.  We were a bit disappointed that there were not as many opportunities for landscape photography as we would have liked.  This was due to the still-present smoke, and also due to the time we spent on wildlife.  Still, we never thought we would do it all in one trip – a reason to go back some day.  It was cool to be driving along and see the steam coming from the ground in the thermal areas – as long as it didn’t mean a giant volcano was about to erupt.

Some of the drive and vistas would be breathtaking on a clear day:

And, a snapshot of Lou – almost smiling – as we finished up at Gibbon Falls.  That silver van in back of him is the one we were driving around in.  We saw a couple nice Mercedes Vans that we suggested for the next tour 🙂

We then drove to the Norris Geyser Basin, where we had a good amount of time to walk around and see the sights.  Will include some photos from there in tomorrow’s post, along with more from our afternoon itinerary.

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