Yellowstone Vacation

We spent the weekend before Christmas with my Uncle and Aunt- Clive and Anne. They drove all the way down from B.C. to spend time with the family. We had a lot of fun frolicking in the snow, albeit freezing...yes... we are talking -25 F at times. We really appreciate Clive and Anne for coming down our way! Here are a few pictures of us.





I had a lot of fun taking pictures-even though it was snowing the whole time. here are a few of my shots I took at the Geysers and Hot Springs (called terraces), braving the cold cold weather.







We cross country skied up to Temple Falls, well... we tried to, and turned around after a few miles because it was getting late. On the way back down the ski trail we were confronted by 2 big bull bison...one on the road... and one next to it in a narrow gully. On the opposite side of the road was a partially frozen lake. Not wanting to risk falling in the lake, we decided to SLOWLY shuffle past the buggers- the closest one being about 30 feet from us. It stopped to look up at us, as if determining that we were no threat, and then took back to feeding on the ground plants.


We also saw a lot of wildlife along the way.



On the very first morning we were there, we saw this amazing site- a grizzly guarding its kill. Actually, it was a kill that a pack of wolves made, but the grizzly stole it from the wolves, being stronger and more dominant. This is a rare site in Yellowstone, as most bears are in hibernation well before Christmas. On a side note, I made Naquel VERY upset because I kept inching closer to the Bear (I didn't have a long enough telephoto lens with me). I kept telling Naquel I was fine because I wasn't too close... besides... I can run faster than a Bear anyhow! Then the grizzly suddenly stood up erect and was stepping in my direction. I could have made it back to our SUV easily, but yeah... it was a stupid thing for me to doo.

We ran across some other kills sites, which was really neat, but you have to be really alert because many carnivores in the forest are attracted to carcasses, and they could be comming from behind you.