Winterwonderland in June

Grand Prismatic - Yellowstone National Park. Notice the buses on the left
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First day of our workshop! We met bright and early at the designated area at 5 am-ish-and started off on our adventure! Everyone was very welcoming and a cheery lot for such an early hour-this will be good. We headed straight off for Grand Teton Nat'l park and Yellowstone. It started raining just before we left the hotel and that was just about the nicest weather we would see all day.

No sunrise this morning, so we quickly turned our search towards Grand Prismatic-a gigantic geyser in Yellowstone. Rodney Lough, Jr. - amazing photographer and everything whisperer extraordinaire is our guide these next few days. You may or may not have heard of him, but he is famous for his photographic talents. You never know when you may find him at a turn out in a Nat'l park or signing posters in a visitors' center, so always be on the lookout. Not to appear one dimensional, he set out right away to demonstrate some of his many other talents (more would reveal themselves later). We challenged elk to a duel for control of the road and played chicken with several buffalo (the other white meat). Although he won, trust me don't give up your day job Rodney! It was killing me not to stop and photograph the wildlife but we had so many other sites to see and a goal of reaching Mammoth hot springs - many hours away.

It's just snow!

Old Faithful backlit for our private viewing
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One of Rodney's many other talents is mountain goat. I am proud to say it is now one of mine as well. We climbed a very steep hill across from Grand Prismatic to get some "aerial" shots. Now it may not seem like such a big deal to make a little climb, but did I mention that it was windy and hailing while we were up on that hill? Ah, the things we do for a great photograph!  We met some tourists from France and this is when we learned that Teton is breast in French.  Uh huh, le gran tetons (said with a guttural French accent, of course!). Rodney has a rule for newbies that he has to see the first shot before we take it. Great rule actually. He looked through our viewfinders, asked questions and made suggestions. This was so helpful. It helped me start to understand his thought process which will help me get better as I apply it to my own. An added incentive - the coveted photo snob pin awarded by Rodney for god only knows what but let me tell you, you don't want to be the only one without one! Actually, when you've set up a great shot on your own, he bestoes one on you in an elaborate cermony filled with fan fare, confetti, etc., and witnessed by the other elite members of this group, (not), or maybe it just all took place in the parking lot of some random site-more the reality.  In any event, it's a fun little thing and we are all proud of our pins. Next stop breakfast! We had buffet at the Old Faithful lodge followed up by a practically private viewing in a light rain of Old Faithful beautifully back lit by the sun just peaking out.  Fabulous!

Buffalo in snow - Yellowstone National Park, June 6, 2008
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On our way to Mammoth we came across an entire herd of buffalo chillin' at a turn out.  There were so many people stopping to take photos, and the buffalo were within touching distance.  Several calves were there as well.  Interestingly  they don't really look like buffalo, but tan cows with longer fur.  While we were taking photos, the temperature dropped dramatically.  It was then that we started to notice all the cars coming from the opposite direction, with a lot of snow on them!  One visitor told us that it was snowing about a mile away - and there were buffalo too!  We hopped into the van - an amazing feat for 12 of us - and drove off in search of snow-covered buffalo.  We eventually found some, but there were lots of adventures in between.

The further north we went, the more snow that was coming down.  We couldn't get to the buffalo up the road- they had moved quite a ways back. We stopped at Nymph Lake to take a series of photos (and make yellow snow - at least that's what the guys did).  We will learn later how to stitch them together to make a panoramic photo.  So many people stopped to ask what we were taking photos of and were sorely disappointed when they found it was "just snow" or "just a lake" and not an animal.  So sad that they missed out on this winterwonderland of a landscape.  Their loss!

Alright!  Back into the van and on to Mammoth.  Hopefully we will thaw out before we get there!  Not too far up the road we come to a dead stop behind a line of cars.  We find out that there is a rollover ahead and it will be at least 20 minutes before we can get through - we have been waiting 10 already.  Rodney makes the executive decision to head back towards Canyon and Upper/Lower falls.  Bingo! we found 2 buffalo in a field.  It was snowing so hard you could barely see their faces.  We scooted down a small hill to be on the same level with them, but one of them was really staring us down.  Buffalo can run 30 mph and most of you know I cannot run anywhere near that - more like 7-10 mph (downhill) and that tiny little tree I was standing under would have provided no protection if he started to charge, so I decided to head back up to the van.

If possible, it was snowing even harder by the time we got to Canyon (around 4 pm).  We hadn't eaten since Old Faithful - so we waited until the cafeteria opened and grabbed some food.  We debated about whether or not to stay the night up there so we could see the falls and possibly Mammoth the next day, but it turned out the road to the falls was closed - and would remain that way for the rest of the weekend.  Bascially we almost got snowed in as they were practically closing the road behind us.

Kip was challenged with getting us to Snake River turnout in time for sunset (which is 9:00 p.m. in Wyoming).  He pulled it off, but the sunset was once again a dud - although we did get some photos.  We also got some practice with some filters, so no complaints.

To bed some time after 11 - another early morning call - so gotta sleep fast - I don't think that will be a problem tonight!  More adventures tomorrow!