Yellowstone 2023 Trip Report
- pscrimshaw
- Jun 6, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 19, 2023
Sometimes we romanticize the far off magical places that we want to travel to and forget to enjoy the beauty in our own backyards. In wildlife photography that often means me trying to find ways to get myself back to Africa, but there is still amazing wildlife to be seen here in the United States. In a lot of ways, Yellowstone is that backyard for me to enjoy (even if it's a grueling day's drive to get there). With no other big trips planned for myself this year, I decided to pack up my car and head out once again to the great American natural wonder that is Yellowstone.
I started my trip a bit in reverse compared to last years. Instead of starting in Yellowstone, I drove further south to spend a couple of days in Grand Teton National Park first before heading north into the main park.
Last year I arrived in the Tetons in July which was just a bit too hot for any major wildlife activities. This time around I wanted to visit in May which is much cooler, and also times up well with the grizzly bears that are coming out of hibernation with their new cubs of the year. I was searching for the most famous grizzly of all, Grizzly 399 who at 27 years old is the oldest bear to ever reproduce in the wild. The week prior she had just emerged with one tiny cub, which made headlines all over the news. With not too many years left in her, she was my ultimate target to photograph this year.
Instead of immediately heading up to her historic territory in the park however, I began with a stop at Schwabacher Landing instead to do some landscape photography at sunrise. Not to keep comparing to my previous trip, but last year I got some gorgeous golden and purple lighting over the Teton range as a result of an early morning thunderstorm. This time around, the clouds were unfortunately hanging over the tips of the mountains and just didn't lend itself to any great photo compared to my last experience. Just as I was about to head further down a trail for a different composition, a cow moose exploded out of the bush on the other side of the river and completely caught me by surprise.
Moose can be incredibly territorial and aggressive, so while this was a cool sighting I was definitely very nervous as to what her next moves were. She made eye contact with me before taking a quick drink so I knew she had noticed me. She then leapt into the river and I thought for sure she was headed straight towards where I was standing, but she veered off and headed towards where I intended to keep walking down stream. Needless to say after that encounter I decided to call it a day and leave in case any other moose decided to appear out of thin air.
After the moose sighting, I headed off to take a couple quick shots of Mormon Row in the early light as well. It wasn't anything spectacular, so I decided to stop messing around with landscapes and go look for some grizzlys!
When I reached the park gate, the ranger there had let me know that there was a sighting near 399's territory, but it wasn't actually her. Regardless, I drove up there to see if I could get any good photos of this other grizzly. Luck was not on my side however as it turns out grizzly 1063 or "Bonita" had just disappeared behind some bushes 15 minutes before I arrived just after posing in the sun for the last 2 hours. I was so deflated, because I was messing around with landscape photography when I should have just headed straight up to look for bears instead. I spent the rest of the entire day hanging around that area hoping she'd pop out again, but in the end I wouldn't see a single bear in the Tetons.
My time in the Tetons was brief, and the following morning I set off for Yellowstone. I did manage to get some cool back lit shots of elk in the flats outside of the park, which helped make me feel like the trip there wasn't entirely a bust.
As we headed up north to Yellowstone, something caught my eye on the left side of the road. I had to do a double take before I realized that it was a fox just casually sitting there! With no other vehicles around me, I hit the brakes and backed up to try and get a shot of this inquisitive creature. He happily bounded over right next to my car door, most likely hoping to get a handout (don't feed foxes people it's not good!), before realizing he wasn't going to get anything and just stood and posed in the street before heading back into the forest. It was only later when I looked back at my photos that I realized that he was actually blind in one eye, which I had never photographed before in a wild animal.
After that brief fox encounter, there would be no more stops until Yellowstone. Last year I had arrived just after the historic floods that shutdown much of the park. I was eager to explore the northern loop that had been closed off, and hoping that it would yield me better photo results because my morale was starting to get low. After a few tourists stops at Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Hot Spring, and Mammoth Hot Springs (including a brief but far black bear sighting), I finally arrived at my home for the next few days: Lamar Valley.
Lamar Valley is also known as the American Serengeti, with constant wildlife sightings all around you for miles on end. Just as I made my way into the area, a huge group of parked cars was a sign that there was something good nearby. After talking to some nearby photographers, I realized that there was an elk carcass up on a hill, and everyone was waiting to see what kind of predator may show up. Carcasses on near roads are often the only way to actually get good photos of predators in Yellowstone, so if something was going to happen then this was my shot. Eventually a cinnamon black bear came down to feast, and while I got a couple of good shots the reality was that it wasn't the greatest encounter in the world. After a few more hours hoping something else would come by, it was getting dark and I had yet to check into my cabin in the nearby town of Silver Gate.
On the way out I briefly saw a grizzly far off on the other side of a river, but its back was to me and much too dark for photos. Driving at night is especially scary with so many bison around that blend in with their dark coats, so I was very nervous until I finally reached my cabin.
The next morning it was back to the carcass, but it seemed like the same black bear was the only one nearby again. With good cloud cover and lighting, it was a great day for photography, but I just needed a subject. Luckily there was a nearby herd of bison with young calves affectionately known as "red dogs" for their red colored coats, and I got some great mother and calf shots that I was happy with.
Afterwards it was off to Slough Creek, which historically has been the most reliable place to see wolves in Yellowstone. The Junction Butte Pack call the hills here home, and they had a den with a couple of puppies that could be visible with a spotting scope but was otherwise not very good photographically.
After watching the wolves from a distance, I decided to head back to Hayden Valley in the south which had given me my best wolf photo last year. Unfortunately lightning didn't strike twice, and I didn't see anything in Hayden besides a few bison.
The evening didn't fare much better, and finally I decided to just drive back and forth through Lamar hoping that something would pop up. Just as I rounded the corner near the confluence of Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River, a huge line of people were parked looking at a grizzly bear on the other side of the river. This must have been the one I saw late at night driving out of the valley on my first day, but it looked pretty small for an adult grizzly so I couldn't be sure.
Eventually it popped out of some bushes and began making its way down river. I got some awesome shots, and it was exhilarating trying to reposition as the bear moved. It began to look down at the river, and then it hit me that this bear wanted to jump in and cross! Luckily I got the moment it jumped it perfectly in focus, and then spent the next hour or so watching it pace back and forth trying to cross to another channel in the river before giving up and heading back to where it initially was laying.
Satisfied with some great photos of a grizzly that I didn't get last year, I noticed that it was time to fill up on gas more more adventuring in the coming days. I drove through to nearby Cooke City when I noticed a huge line of photographers on the side of the road literally in town. When I looked to my left, I realized what everyone was looking at. Baby foxes!
There must have 7 or 8 of these little ones running and playing while mom looked on. They had made an abandoned building their den, which meant we could photograph them from just a few feet away. It was an amazing encounter, one that I never thought I would have in Yellowstone.
I was honestly on such a high from these photos alone, that I could have been content if the trip ended there. But with grizzlys and foxes down, I was ready to seriously commit to getting a good wolf shot.
The following morning I staked out Slough Creek again, which virtually always led to wolf sightings but they were just so far away. Suddenly, one black wolf came down the hill and came relatively close for a photo (I say relatively because just making out the shape of a wolf counts as close). I was convinced that it wanted to come cross the road, and ran to my car to drive down the valley to intercept it. Instead I just looked like a crazy photographer, and the wolf never ended up crossing. Such is life sometimes.
Afterwards, I didn't linger at one sighting for too long, and just figured I should drive around the park and see what luck brings me. There were some cool black bear sightings, a cool coyote hunting with a badger as a companion, and even a grizzly bear way off in the hills.
Finally I decided to call it a day and head back to the cabin, when about 15 minutes outside of town I saw a giant hulking figure. It was a bull moose, which I never expected to see in Yellowstone. They are far more common in the Tetons, but since the reintroductions of wolves into the park they had been very rare to see in Yellowstone itself. Two more bull moose came out as well, and despite the low light I got some solid photos from them. I had just wished it was fall instead of spring so that I could see their antlers at full display instead of just velvet nubs.
The following morning I was 100% committed to my wolf photo and would accept nothing less! Or so I told myself until I saw a grizzly bear 100 yards off of the road posing for some great shots. Sometimes the photo comes to you instead of you coming to the photo. Unfortunately I realized that the photos didn't come out as sharp as I would've liked, partially because I was shooting from my car window instead of my tripod. But I was happy nonetheless and it is always a treat to see Yellowstone's largest carnivore in their own environment.
Then the rest of the day was actually all about wolves. I did get slightly distracted by more foxes, but otherwise it was just back and forth chasing leads and praying for good luck. Rumor was that a black wolf had been seen nearby, but by midday it must have been laying in the shade. At roughly 6PM, a black mass came out of the trees and I finally got my wish.
This yearling black female belonged to the brand new Shrimp Lake Pack. With only her, her mother, brother, and her mother's mate, they are a small pack that has most member splitting off to hunt independently. She looked around and clearly wanted to cross the road, but a mob of people had shown up and clearly deterred her. Wolves are clever, and I'm sure she would try her luck crossing either later that night or the following day.
Unfortunately for me that was the end of my trip. Just like last year I was chasing wolves and got them on my last day in Yellowstone. It is such a difficult place to get good photos in, but that just means extra time and patience will reward you if you give the park a chance. I've made it a bit of a yearly excursion, and Yellowstone is always a nice change of scenery from Africa at times. Now that I've done spring and summer in Yellowstone, it's time to visit in fall and winter next!
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