Serengeti of North America
On Safari in North America - The Yellowstone Ecosystem
The Serengeti of North America is what it’s been called. In the National Geographic article on October 6, 2015, Avery Stonich described the Yellowstone Ecosystem as a Safari in North America that “packs in more wildlife than anywhere else in the lower 48 states.”
Rocky Mountain National Park highlights the elk rut along with moose, bighorn sheep, and deer as the predominant large wild animals. It’s incredible, but Yellowstone and the Tetons offer a significantly more diverse wildlife photography opportunity including the famous mother grizzly bear 399 and her yearling cub, Spirit.
This past weekend, RMNPhotographer was in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons on a wildlife photography quest. Of course, we wanted to capture grizzly bear images, but it turned out to be so much more than that. Let me describe one day in Yellowstone.
With a five am departure from Gardiner, we headed for sunrise at Lamar Valley. Arriving, we immediately saw two different grizzly bears feeding off in the distance. When one began running toward the road, from our SUV our cameras went into action.
Just down the road, a herd of seventy-five bison moved along the meadow. “Red dog” bison calves were tucked in close to their mother’s side, a vision of what once must have been the wild west of a century before. Moving among them was a stray antelope, like a good neighbor passing by.
Just past Pebble Creek, a cow moose grazed on the side of a hill, a special moment on one traveler's wish list during his Yellowstone adventure. This is where we also saw a red fox. Scurrying along the hillside, he would stop and look our way, posing for a photo as he did.
Returning through the splendor of Lamar Valley, we passed deer and elk grazing on the hillside.
Three bighorn ewes laid under a pine tree watching tourists pass by. We stopped to look for the mysterious and elusive Junction Butte gray wolf pack. A kind man let us look through his spotting scope at a den 1.1 miles across the valley, but no wolves were present.
Near Tower/Roosevelt intersection, a mother coyote was moving her four pups from their current den to a new one. One at a time, she would clutch them in her mouth. As she did, the pup would go limp, and the coyote would prance up and over the hill to their new home.
Just before Dunraven Pass, a black bear grazed at the base of a pine tree. As she did, her COY (Cub of the Year) played, scurrying up and down the trees like a kid on a jungle gym.
Driving on through Hayden Valley, we saw a bald eagle in flight, the sun striking, lighting it’s feathers as it turned in the breeze. Sandhill cranes fed in small marshes, trumpeter swans floated gently on blue waters, and ravens searched for food to scavenge.
A Gaggle of Cars - A Sure Sign of a Bear
Driving through the afternoon, all was quiet until we saw the gaggle of cars, one on top of the other. Near Swan Lake Flats, it was a sure sign of a bear. We squeezed into a spot off the shoulder, and headed for the group of photographers, their zoom and prime lenses all pointed in the same direction. There we ran into photographer friends, some old, some new, and a few from the Estes Park area.
Moments later, there was movement from across the meadow where our friends pointed toward a small cluster of trees. Our cameras up, we watched a grizzly bear sow, large chested, round faced, and bulky in the biceps appeared from behind the tree. Following were two yearling cubs.
The magic of Yellowstone was happening before me. I had my prime 600 lens with a 1.4 extender pointed in their direction. The large lens pulled the bears in tight and clear. The grizzly bears scraped the ground for food. It was a two hour feast for the bears, and a magnificent experience verifying Yellowstone as the Serengeti of North America.
The excitement was even greater that evening as I scrolled through the 1,338 images I had captured that day. Most exciting were the grizzly images, and the bold yet gentle mothering of a magnificent creature that represents the Safari in North America. Like the lion of the Serengeti, the grizzly bear is king of the Yellowstone jungle.
And I thought about traveling on to Teton National Park, the southern edge of the Yellowstone Ecosystem. There we hoped to highlight our safari and see the most famous grizzly of all. The excitement of that possibility rushed through me. Would 399 and her yearling cub, Spirit, grace us with their presence?
