Yellowstone 171005-06 Going home

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 171005-06

Today was the first morning I could sleep to 8.30. Some of the group are already gone. We are 6 people going home today. The others are going to other palces in the US.

Our taxi for the airport picked us up at 11.30. Did not take long to get there. Just about 30 min.

Waiting at the GATE, Bozeman Airport, Montana
One of the best views I have seen from a GATE I think.

We are going from Bozeman to Minneapolis
Minneapolis to Amsterdam and
Amsterdam to Arlanda Stockholm.

We leave Bozeman 13,30 Oct 5th local time. Comes to Minneapolis 16,47 local time
Leave Minneapolis 19,33 and arrive at Amsterdam 10,30 next day, Oct 6th

For a while we had company, another plane travelling alongside us.

Leave Amsterdam at 14,45 and arrives at Arlanda 16,45

And finally, closing in to Arlanda for landing.

A looong day! But as we go against the Earth rotation it seems longer then it was. Still, it was long enough. 13 h in the air and lots of waiting hours.

After that comes the bus to Stockholm and train to Katrineholm. And Taxi home. I was home 21.30. Tired!

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Yellowstone 171004 Last day in Yellowstone

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 171004



Today we were up and out before sunrise. Packed and ready to leave. But the baggage would stay at the lodge until we comes back from Lamar Valley. We were given our breakfast yesterday evening as we were up before breakfast started.

I spent some minutes trying to capture some stars in the camera. Got Venus and halv Orion. Just for fun. It was a clear morning. Then we left.


After about halv an hour we spottes a group of Wapiti on a hill. Everyone out of the cars. This is the kind of shots I wanted for several years. But there are no hills or mountains like that where I live so I was quite happy about it.

Wapiti elk

Next animal up was a brown bear. Wery hard to see and to photograph. It was about two m up from the road and in bushes. I´m to short so my images was not good. The taller men got great shots. It is unfair!  😞  The bear is turned away from me and I had to work a lot to make it look rather OK.

Brown Bear

Later on we made a stop where there usually are wolfs. We had not seen one yet so it would be a treat. Here is the group looking for wolfs in Lamar Valley. But did not find any.

While they were looking I turned the other way. There was frost so I decided to have some fun until my friends screamed "The wolf is coming!" I had no wolf in sight, but a bison right in front of me.

Frost, bokeh and bison!

A little later we found, not a wolf, but three coyotes. Not bad either. And they did not care a bit about people on the road. They walked right through our group. We just moved away a step or two.

Bison and Coyote

Well, almost too close.

Coyote crossing

After a long morning it was time for picnic lunch at Lava Creek. We had a guest, a Dipper in the stream.

And a last look at Mammoth Hot Springs from the car as we are passing by on our way to Bozeman, our last lodge and tomorrows flight back home.


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Yellowstone 171003 Cody - Lamar Valley - Mammot Hot Springs - Gardiner

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 171003

This day started early as usual. Packed and ready to leave at 7.45. We go north from Cody to The Northeast entrance and then west to Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner where we stay the night.
During the ride out of Cody I tried to capture the "famous" face mountain. Can you see the face?

Now was the place where we started to see cows instead of bison. Quite weird, but they were far off and no reason to take shots from the car. 

We took Wyoming Highway 296 also know as "Chief Joseph Scenic Byway", "Dead Indian Hill" and "Sunlight Bridge" (one of the highest bridges in the US).
Nez Perce tribe in Yellowstone
I´m not that person that wants to be reminded of how evil people can be so, instead of sharing the history I noticed a chipmunk at this high altitude with snow,  still trying to get food out of people. Sadly we did not bring anything for it as we did not expect to see one. :)

Looking down from the Sunlight bridge

A cold chipmunk 

Lots of beautiful, scenic, views along the road 296

We made a stop in Cook City and it´s museum. They did have a sense of good humour. :) "Coolest small town in America". Quite nice from what I could see in that short amount of time.

And then we were going back into the park again. Heading for Lamar Valley. And picnic lunch. We had a fox as lunch guest and it was the first time I tasted jack fruit. It was tasty.  Think it suited the plate too.



Usually when you see critters and birds the birds are Cattle egrets. But here they were Starlings. Lots of them.

Please click to enlarge for a better view.


Last, but not least, Mammoth Hot Springs.
In Mammoth the Wapiti Elk are "walking in the park" or rather, live in the traffic roundabouts.

And the Hot springs are Hot. And so many I had no chance to see them all in the amount of time we were given for the place.

Then we went to Gardiner at the border between Wyoming and Montana and our new lodge. When settled in the room we had some time to edit images for tomorrow. Then we
 met at a restaurant for dinner. When back at the motel I took a shower, uploaded the images and prepared for the last day in Yellowstone.

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Yellowstone 171002 Snow Lodge to Cody

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 171002

Leaving Snow Lodge and Upper Geyser Basin today at 8,30. We are going east and to a colder climate. We travel along Yellowstone Lake and east out of the park to Cody and .Best Western Sunset Inn

To start the day we met the Wapiti deer again. But in snow this time. I think it was the same one as yesterday.

We made two quick stop for birds and then a last stop and goodbye to Yellowstone Lake, and at the last stop we met a women dressed in summerclothes. She appared to look for birds. I asked her if she wasn´t cold? But she said  she lived there so she was used to the cold weather.

Goodbye Yellowstone Lake!


From Yellowstone Lake we drove through Shoshone Valley. Alongside the river. What an amazing place. Wonderful Mountain hillsides and a bridge over the river, with an amazing guest. We had spotted a rather young grizzly at the side of the road. We stopped and followed the grizzly. It seemed to be a rather young one. And at the bridge it crossed the road and climbed over the fence to the other side. We could follow it for about half an hour. Amazing. Think I will have to do individual post for this as well, late on.  I found a video of travelling this road it is in the end of the post.

Of course we had picnic lunch and then visited Buffalo Bills Museum.
Pahaska Tepee shop and Buffalo Bill Museum. That was the first place I had time to shop. So, I did. a poncho and a blue shirt.


Around three a´clock we arrived at the motel in Cody But did not stay for long.  What happened next was:  Wild horses, Red Canyon Wild Mustangs So, after getting our rooms and unloaded the luggage we were out and about again. This time the were taken there by the tour guides for the horses. Arriving at a location where we did see a herd of horses we stopped and was instructed about how to pass the fence. And to be careful of small cactus's with harsh needles. One of us was unlucky and had a bad encounter with the needles on her thigh. Not fun for her.

We walked carefully towards the horses but we soon got a problem. There are roles about how close you are allowed to be towards wild animals. But those horses was curious about us and approaches us. Making us go backwards again.  One thing I notices was that the yellow grass was very stiff. And I noted that the horsed did not graze as they usually do. They eat the top of the grass. The seeds! Looked very unusual until you realized what they took.

Then we headed back to Cody and went to Buffalo Bill restaurant for dinner and was served a VERY BLOODY STEAK. I doubt it was fried more then 2 minutes.  And, for the first time we had a group session sharing some of our images from the first days of the trip.

Back to my room, taking a shower and uploading my images. And, back to single room again :)
Tomorrow we are going to Gardiner.

Shoshone valley river to Cody video from youtube



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Yellowstone 171001 Grand Canyon, Norris and a lot more

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 171001

It is amazing how much you can do in one day when you wake up early and go to bed late. Sleep? Well you can always do that when you are back home. 😁  And, this should be a long day.

Breakfast at 6.30 and starting at 7.30 when the sun rises.

A short time after leaving, at the shore of Yellowstone Lake we noticed the flock of Wapiti Elk at a restroom. Did they need to go? That´s the question. Well we got some nice shots. I also shared a few from the road on my NF Photo blog. You can find them HERE.

After that encounter we stopped at the Fishing Bridge. Don´t seem to be much fishing there now. They exhausted the population. :(  But it was a nice bridge.

Then, more volcanic stuff. The Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron. Coolest place ever. Hot pools sounding and looking like a soda bottle. Air bubbles popping a lot. To bad I did not get any video of it. Later on I have to make a separate post of this one.

North of the Mud Volcano was Hayden Valley but the open landscape was empty of wildlife. A great disappointment. Just a few birds in the waterpools and streems.  Wildlife was elsewhere.

Next one up: Yellowstone Grand Canyon

After the canyon it was time for another chilly lunch. It has been a little hail in the air. And we also had some guests for lunch.

Please enlarge for a better view.

Next stop one of my favorite places from my first visit 24 years ago.  Norris Geyser Basin!  Norris seem to be the hootest ground in the entire Caldera. And this was the place where we got a real hailstorm and I got a bit sick from hight! 2311 m above ocean level. Took the strenght from my legs when I had to walk uphill.

 Lower Geyser Basin Paint pots  We visited this place on my request. I had seen the beautiful trees from the road and wanted to see them. But the place was soo much more then the trees. We were given 20 min to see it but then our tourguide changed his mind and gave uo 45 min. He loved it too.

Now we drove back to the hotel for a short break. Very short as we visited the last Paint Pots. We did now go for a trip for trying to get some sunset wildlife images. The sun came out for a little while. Enough for us to witness a herd of bison cross the road.

Then the snow started. And it was getting dark. So this is the last image for today. Bison grazing in snow.

But we continued north to the West entrance to the park where we had booked for our dinner at 19:30.  It continued to snow the rest of the evening. When we were back at the hotel it was late. Just time to upload and a quick shower. Packing, as we are leaving the next day, and then bedtime.

I realized I will have to make separate posts for each one of the places visited today. So much to share, too much for the post of a single day.

Hope you were not overwhelmed :)

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Yellowstone 170930 2 Finally in Yellowstone NP

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 170930

Well, finally in Yellowstone our first stop was at West Thumb Geyser Basin located at the shore of Yellowstone Lake. At the entrance there are a couple of mudpots and then there are all wonders at the shore of the lake.

I could stay here all day long but as usual we have minimal time on out hands. I think it was 45 minutes this time. You don´t even have time to walk all boardwalks.

Heading out again to fine a place for the chilly picnic lunch we encountered a group of Wapiti deers in a burnt forest. They walked among the treetrunks and was rather hard to watch.

Our chilly picnic lunch. Not even a cup of hot coffee or tea. But we managed. The picnic areas was great everywhere in both parks. Table´s and toilets were well tended to and cleaned every day.

So far the weather has been quite nice even if chilly but now it started to rain.  When we came to Midway Geyser Basin o Grand prismatic spring it was raining and the rain combined with hot water was  a disaster from a photography point of view. And for a tourist too. We want to see as much as possible but this time it was so much fog we could not see more the 3 steps in front of us. Quite scary when you walk on a boardwalk with a hot area below. Luckily it was a bit windy so every now and then the fog drifted away for a little while.

First: The welcoming slope

Excelcior geyser

and then Grand Prismatic Spring, the one that normally are very colorful.
Grand Prismatic Spring was very low in water from what I have seen before so much of the color was not seen. The dry summer affected this place as well. To my disappointment.

Last but not least was Old Faithful at the Upper Geyser Basin. We also spend two nights as it´s neighbour in Old Faithful Snow Lodge. We were lucky to see Old Faithful have one eruption before it was too dark and we should go for dinner.

We had our dinner at Old Faithful Inn that night. And had to walk in heavy rain to get there and back after the dinner. Those two night I have a room mate as there were no single rooms available. Coming back from dinner at 21.30 we uploaded our photos and started to edit a few for tomorrow.

And, again an early morning are waiting for us.

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