Heart of Yellowstone

Ok, finally have some spare time to sit down and get this typed up. Time flies and before I know it, I am heading back to the UK in an hour! 2 months in the U.S. has to be some of the best time of my life and the experiences are overwhelming; extraordinary landscapes, amazing people and places, tracking and adventure in Yellowstone, my first ever thanksgiving, meeting an amazing wolf just before leaving… bla-bla-bla! There are so much backlogs I have to go through the next month, on species studies as well as personal diary, and to finally making a short documentary video of my time in the U.S.


Yellowstone National Park

So after 5 epic days, just over 1400 miles ploughing through the western states across Oregon, Idaho and Montana, I arrived at Yellowstone National Park. Despite the blizzard and sleeping at freezing temperature in the car, I managed to make it here in one piece. 

Waking up staring at the complete frozen window at -18C was not fun at all 

But before entering the Park, I paid a short visit to a friend’s friend, Anne, in a small town called Bozeman, 80 miles North of Yellowstone Park. I’ve got myself clean, followed by great homemade dinner and a warm bed was the best! Beside that, Anne also gave me some great advises as she used to be a ranger in Yellowstone Park. 

Me and Anne outside her house in Bozeman

For the next few days, I felt like I was in paradise, in a place where I can get on with my geeky things and perv on all the animals I want!

Sunset behind a female elk as she grazes through the snow

Let go!

a lonely bison feeding on a patch cleared of snow

Mule deers are hard to spot amongst snowy mountains

Coyote searching for food

Elk overlooking snowy mountain

Pronghorn Antelope feeding

whats going on whats going on?

Bison feeding in the snow

So here is a little background info, feel free to check out Wiki: Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world, is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features. (wikipedia.org) Here are some landscapes and scenery I've came across in the park.

Yellowstone feels very much like a safari park, except it was truly in the wildness and you can get out of the car anytime you want. Every other day I would do a 10 miles hike off trail to explore the part you don't get to see driving around. The hikes are recommended to do it in groups just incase you run in to a hungry grizzly bear! 

One of the best reason to wake up early!

Beside making photos, one of the most essentrial thing is to keep my laptop and camera charged at all time. But after 5 days of living in the car, all my equipments are running out of juice. So I headed to a nearby town for a coffee as well as charging up all my kits. Here in a local coffee place I met Cole the shopkeeper. After a drunken night with a lot of whisky, we've planned to head out together the very next day into Yellowstone for some good old adventure!

Cole made us breakfast at 5 in the morning before heading into the park 

Cole - the photographer!

A lovely place to chill and have lunch :)

Don't mind driving in this view!

It was a great day spent with newly met friend. However...

Us getting in trouble with Kevin the ranger

Cole who was driving the car at the time, nearly got a ticket from the park ranger. This is because we kept getting out of the car and leaving it in the middle of the road while take photos - typical! This is usually ok in the summer but in the winter the roads are slippery and the speed limit was 40mph... not a clever thing to do leaving the car in the middle of the road! The thing was that we had a warning already from Kevin earlier in the day... O dear!

Ok thats it for today and will keep the posts coming. Time to rush to the airport getting my flight back to the UK! Here is a teaser for the next post:

A beautiful wolf I met...