Wyoming blog 2018

1/14/2018: Winter birds

Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk
Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk
Juvenile Golden Eagle
Juvenile Golden Eagle

4/1/2018: Today we went back to Gooseberry Badlands for a nice hike. 

Gooseberry Badlands Wyoming
Gooseberry Badlands
Gooseberry Badlands Wyoming
Gooseberry Badlands
Gooseberry Badlands Wyoming
Gooseberry Badlands
Gooseberry Badlands Wyoming
Gooseberry Badlands

4/7/2018: 2 years ago I photographed a pair of one of my favorite birds, the American Dipper, at their nest in Sinks Canyon State Park. This year we happed to catch the pair in the process of building this marvelous nest. When compete, it will be a complete sphere with just an entry door in the lower center.

American Dipper Sinks Canyon State Park Wyoming
American Dipper
American Dipper Sinks Canyon State Park Wyoming
American Dipper
American Dipper Sinks Canyon State Park Wyoming
American Dipper

4/27/2018: Spent Candy’s birthday weekend at Grand Teton National Park.

Found this bull moose just starting to grow his antlers back. It’s amazing how large these will get in just a few months, only to shed them again next winter.

Moose Grand Teton National Park Wyoming
Moose
Grand Teton National Park Wyoming
Teton Range
Red Fox
Red Fox
Teewinot Grand Teton National Park Wyoming
Teewinot

05/11/2018: Spent Mother’s Day weekend in Cody and Yellowstone National Park. We love the South Fork drive out of Cody.

South Fork Shoshone Wyoming
South Fork Shoshone
South Fork Shoshone Wyoming
South Fork Shoshone

5/12/18: Along the North Fork drive into Yellowstone today: 

North Fork Shoshone Wyoming
North Fork Shoshone

In Yellowstone, we went back to LeHardy Rapids, famous for the Harlequin ducks. I photographed them 2 years ago but always wanted more. 

Harlequin Duck Yellowstone Wyoming
Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Duck Yellowstone Wyoming
Harlequin Duck
Harlequin Duck Yellowstone Wyoming
Harlequin Duck
Harlequin Duck Yellowstone Wyoming
Harlequin Duck
Porcelain Basin Yellowstone Wyoming
Porcelain Basin
Chocolate Pots Yellowstone Wyoming
Chocolate Pots
Bison Yellowstone Lake
Bison
Grizzly
Grizzly

5/13/2018: On the way back into Yellowstone for another day, we had great light to view the rock formations known as “The Holy City”.

"The Holy City", North Fork Shoshone Wyoming
"The Holy City", North Fork Shoshone
Bison, Yellowstone Lake Wyoming
Bison, Yellowstone Lake
Silex Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Silex Spring
Silex Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Silex Spring
Mirror Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Mirror Spring
Artemisia Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Artemisia Geyser

5/25/2018: Heading over Togwatee Pass for a 4 day Memorial Day weekend, we came across this huge male Grizzly.

Grizzly Wyoming
Grizzly
Grizzly Wyoming
Grizzly

05/26/2018: When we moved here 4 years ago, I had a list of bird species I wanted to find and photograph. This little bugger kept evading me despite knowing its habitat and learning its song. Eventually we started to believe it didn’t really exist, so we called it “Unicorn Warbler”. Suddenly, this weekend, we were able to find it on three different hikes! 

MacGillivray's Warbler Wyoming
MacGillivray's Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler Wyoming
MacGillivray's Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler Wyoming
MacGillivray's Warbler

Before we moved to Wyoming, we visited the Canadian Rockies. Candy found this amazing wild orchid, the Calypso Orchid. She has been searching for it here in Wyoming the way I searched for the warbler. This lucky weekend we found it too, on the Phelps Lake hike in the Rockefeller Preserve. You can’t tell from this photo, but the flower is less than an inch diameter!

Calypso Orchids Wyoming
Calypso Orchids
Red Baneberry Wyoming
Red Baneberry
Spring Beauty wildflower Wyoming
Spring Beauty
Yellow Violets Wyoming
Yellow Violets
Heart-leafed Arnica Wyoming
Heart-leafed Arnica
Phelps Lake Wyoming
Phelps Lake

5/27/2018: Hike to hidden Falls

Cascade Creek Wyoming
Cascade Creek
Cascade Creek Wyoming
Cascade Creek
Hidden Falls GTNP Wyoming
Hidden Falls
American Pika Wyoming
American Pika
Yellow-bellied Marmot Wyoming
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Teton Bison Wyoming
Teton Bison
Uinta Ground Squirrel Wyoming
Uinta Ground Squirrel

Back home…misty morning moonset over Wind River Peak

Moonset over Wind River Wyoming
Moonset over Wind River

6/22/2018

White-tailed Prairie Dog Wyoming
White-tailed Prairie Dog
White-tailed Prairie Dog Wyoming
White-tailed Prairie Dog

6/24/2018: Candy and I went birding with Bob and Suzanne.

Burrowing Owl Wyoming
Burrowing Owl
Long-billed Curlew Wyoming
Long-billed Curlew
Sage Thrasher Wyoming
Sage Thrasher
American Avocet Wyoming
American Avocet
Brewer's Blackbird Wyoming
Brewer's Blackbird

6/28/2018: Been planning this shot for about a year. There are only a few months (between May and July each year) when the moon sets far enough south to set over Wind River Peak. It’s also uncommon for it to set just after sunrise to light the scene. My goal was to be in the perfect location to have the full moon set in the “Surveyor’s Notch” between Wind River peak and Little el Capitan peak. Turns out this date is the only time it will happen for a couple of years. Obviously it needed to be very clear, but a few light clouds to catch the sunrise light would be nice. Couldn’t have planned it better…

6/29/2018; Camped in the northern Big Horn Mountain range this weekend. There were 2 waterfalls I’ve had on my Wyoming to do list since we moved here. The first was Porcupine Falls. It was only a half mile hike, albeit straight down, so the hike back up was tough. However, it was worth it. 

Porcupine Falls Wyoming
Porcupine Falls
Porcupine Falls Wyoming
Porcupine Falls

6/30/2018: Today was the hike to Bucking Mule Falls. This was a 5 mile hike round trip. 

Big Teepee Creek Wyoming
Big Teepee Creek
Lupine
Lupine
Lupine
Lupine
Paintbrush
Paintbrush

Michael not only was the first to spot this male Hairy Woodpecker feeding young, but also got the best photos.

Hairy Woodpeckers
Hairy Woodpeckers

At the end of the trail, we discovered the only way to see the falls was from a small rock promontory overlooking the 1,000 foot deep Devil Canyon. I am terrified of heights but didn’t hike all that way not to get out there and get my photos!

Bucking Mule Falls Wyoming
Bucking Mule Falls

Note that these photos cannot possibly do this scene justice. We are actually several 100 feet above, looking down on a waterfall with a 550 foot drop. It was breathtaking (or maybe I just couldn’t breathe out of terror?).

Bucking Mule Falls Wyoming
Bucking Mule Falls

7/20/2018: We decided that to really see more of the beauty of Wyoming, we needed a camper. We got this small R-Pod and took it up to the Falls Campground on Togwatee Pass for our first time in a camper.

Falls Campground
Falls Campground

The wildflowers at 8400 feet at nearby Wind River Lake were fantastic. Lots of Lupine and Indian Paintbrush and many others…

Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Wind River Lake wildflowers
Fireweed
Fireweed
Lupine
Lupine

Back at the Falls Campground, this is Brooks Creek Falls with The Pinnacles in the background. High clouds prevented me from accomplishing my goal of star trails over this scene. However, this interesting shot was taken at Midnight. The only illumination for this is the 73% gibbous moon.

Brooks Creek Falls with Pinnacles night
Brooks Creek Falls with Pinnacles

The next night I tried for star trails at Wind River Lake, but clouds got in the way again. This was also taken at midnight with only the moon to illuminate the scene.

Wind River Lake night
Wind River Lake

Here are a couple of more “normal” daytime photos of Brooks Creek Falls and The Pinnacles.

Brooks Creek Falls with Pinnacles Wyoming
Brooks Creek Falls with Pinnacles
Brooks Creek Falls with Pinnacles Wyoming
Brooks Creek Falls with Pinnacles
Sticky Geraniums with Mountain Asters wildflowers Wyoming
Sticky Geraniums with Mountain Asters
Mountain Golden Pea wildflower Wyoming
Mountain Golden Pea

09/01/2018: Labor Day weekend I finally got my start trails over the falls and pinnacles. This time the foreground was lit only by starlight.

Brooks Creek Falls star trails Wyoming
Brooks Creek Falls star trails

Hiked up to Torry Creek the follwing day. We have been to several of Wyoming’s petroglyph sites, but I think this is my favorite. Most sites have stone walls full of petroglyphs but protected by chain link fence. Here you have to search for them on individual boulders scattered on a hillside. Also, these are Dinwoody style petroglyphs. This distinctive style petroglyph is only found in Western Wyoming and possibly a small part of Montana. The humanoid figures typically have wide bodies that are filled with intricate geometric shapes.

Dinwoody style petroglyphs Wyoming
Dinwoody style petroglyphs
Dinwoody style petroglyphs Wyoming
Dinwoody style petroglyphs
Dinwoody style petroglyphs Wyoming
Dinwoody style petroglyphs
Dinwoody style petroglyphs Wyoming
Dinwoody style petroglyphs
Douglas Fir
Douglas Fir
Torrey Creek Falls Wyoming
Torrey Creek Falls

Back at the campground, Canada Jays, frequently called “camp robbers”, kept looking for handouts.

Canada Jay
Canada Jay

Camping at 8300 feet elevation with ZERO light pollution can be magnificent. We could see the Milky Way from the southern horizon all the way to the northern horizon. Here are 2 of our favorite Wyoming things, a buck and rail fence and the Milky Way painted on Wyoming’s dark skies.

Falls Campground Milky Way Wyoming
Falls Campground Milky Way

9/8/2018: This weekend we camped in Yellowstone. I had been planning for over a year to get a photo of Rustic Falls in Yellowstone with the Milky Way behind it. Tonight I couldn’t wait for the Milky Way to move all the way over to the notch in the tree line because clouds started moving in. This didn’t come out as well as I had hoped, so I’ll have to try again another year.

Rustic Falls Milky Way Yellowstone Wyoming
Rustic Falls Milky Way

One of the most spectacular sites in Yellowstone is Grand Prismatic Spring. Before now, one could only view it from ground level, having to settle for aerial photos for the full view. Last year, however, the NPS built a viewing platform on the hill behind it. Here is the view after a short hike…

Grand Prismatic Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Grand Prismatic Spring
Grand Prismatic Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Grand Prismatic Spring
Grand Prismatic Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Grand Prismatic Spring
Spouter Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Spouter Geyser
Black Sand Pool Yellowstone Wyoming
Black Sand Pool
Punch Bowl Spring Yellowstone Wyoming
Punch Bowl Spring
Daisy Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Daisy Geyser

9/22/2018: Our 5th year in search of fall color

Grand Teton National Park
Tetons
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Snake River Canyon
Snake River Canyon fall colors
Swift Creek Canyon
Swift Creek Canyon fall colors
Swift Creek Canyon
Swift Creek Canyon fall colors
Swift Creek Canyon

Ended the day back at the Tetons for sunset.

Grand Teton National Park
Tetons

Of course, we don’t even have to leave home for fall color. This is the view of the Wind River mountains from our back deck!

Wind River Mountains
Wind River Mountains

Earlier this year, Candy and I stumbled upon the most amazing rainbow colored hill at Sand Draw. Ever since then I planned to come back in the fall to photograph this spot with the cottonwoods along the dry river bed at sunset.

Sand Draw Wyoming sunset
Sand Draw

10/19/2018-10/21/2018: While I usually try to keep commentary to a minimum, these next few sections will be much different. As I mentioned previously, I am becoming a geyser fanatic. This weekend we went back to Yellowstone National Park with hopes of seeing even more geysers that we have not witnessed erupting previously. 

Geysers 101: There are two main types of geysers. Fountain geysers erupt through a pool of water, while cone geysers erupt through a sinter cone which has been formed by the deposition of silica after years of activity. You may think that once you have seen one geyser, you have seen them all. However, each geyser has a distinctive “personality”. I will try to give you a sense of this as you go through this page.

OLD FAITHFUL

The most famous cone geyser is Old Faithful. I still enjoy watching Old Faithful, but it is a pretty straightforward geyser, with the eruption intensity mostly constant for 3-5 minutes. Its main advantage is its predictability and you can see it several time a day, I like viewing it under different lighting conditions.

Here’s Old Faithful backlit by the sun. What’s neat here is the sunlight highlights what is water (dark) vs. steam.

Old Faithful Yellowstone Wyoming
Old Faithful

Here’s a nighttime long exposure of Old Faithful lit by the moon.

Moonlit Old Faithful geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Moonlit Old Faithful
GREAT FOUNTAIN GEYSER

There are several impressive fountain geysers in Yellowstone. We have tried to see Great Fountain Geyser in the past but always missed it. This weekend we saw it TWICE! Even when not erupting, Great Fountain Geyser is beautiful to see. Its sinter formations form concentric terraced reflective pools around the 16 foot diameter vent pool. By learning the following sequence of events, we got pretty good at estimating how much time it will be before the next eruption.

First the center pool slowly fills then overflows the terraces.

Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser

Then the center pool starts boiling around the edges.

Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser

The boiling then becomes violent in the center just before the eruption begins. 

Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser

Each active period is a series of explosions where you can hear and feel the “boom” followed by the water exploding upwards. It is quite spectacular. The first time we saw it, it began right at sunset, making it an even more amazing experience.

Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser
Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser
Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser

Unique to Great Fountain is that its eruption is spread out over almost an hour but with 5 minute quiet periods between each active period. After the first period we could hear everyone stating that may have been the most beautiful geyser they’ve ever witnessed, and then almost everyone leaves! At the sunset eruption we did leave after the first period because it would be too dark to see and photograph. The following day we stayed for the entire event of 4 active periods over about 45 minutes.

Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser
Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser
Great Fountain Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Great Fountain Geyser

In the future, I plan on going back numerous times to see this one. Not only because it is beautiful and different every time, but we also missed a spectacular phenomenon called the Blue Bubble. Apparently, sometimes the entire 16 foot central pool of water will dome up with gas and form a huge blue bubble witch then pops and explodes into an eruption.

WHITE DOME GEYSER

White Dome is visible from the viewing platform of Great Fountain Geyser. While waiting for Great Fountain, it is easy to see White Dome erupt, although its interval can vary anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. It has one of the largest sinter cones in Yellowstone.

White Dome Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
White Dome Geyser

CASTLE GEYSER

Castle Geyser is another of our favorites and is a cone Geyser. Its enormous sinter cone suggests that it has been active for thousands of years. There are several things I enjoy about Castle. It’s eruption is long, about 20 minutes (compare to Old Faithful @3-5 minutes). It puts out a lot of water which causes waterfalls down the cone’s surface. After the main eruption, there is then a 40 minute steam phase. To clarify, most geysers gently steam when not erupting, but this is an extremely high pressure, high speed flow causing a loud roaring sound. Because Castle produces a lot of steam, on any sunny day you can almost always see a rainbow.

Castle Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Castle Geyser
Castle Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Castle Geyser
Castle Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Castle Geyser
Castle Geyser rainbow Yellowstone Wyoming
Castle Geyser rainbow

RIVERSIDE GEYSER

Riverside Geyser is another crowd favorite. It is a cone geyser unique in that is sits on the shore of the Firehole River and erupts at an angle causing a shower onto the river. 

Riverside Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Riverside Geyser
Riverside Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Riverside Geyser

LION GROUP

This group of 4 cone geysers sits on a mound on Geyser Hill in the Upper Geyser Basin. Heart Spring is in the foreground. Lion is the large cone on the right. Then moving left comes Big Cub which hasn’t erupted in 20 years. Next (can’t see the cone from this angle, just some steam) is Lioness which hasn’t erupted in over 50 years. The small cone on the left is Little Cub which has frequent very small splashing eruptions.

Heart Spring and Lion Group Yellowstone Wyoming
Heart Spring and Lion Group

Closeup of Little Cub (note Castle Geyser in the distance back left)

Little Cub Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Little Cub Geyser

Lion has an interesting eruption pattern. It erupts in series. It starts with a large initial 10 minute eruption, and this is followed by slightly smaller/shorter eruptions at approximately 1 hour intervals. It may have three or four subsequent eruptions or, rarely, may have a series of 15 to 20. The National Park Service (NPS) does not post predictions for Lion. However using recorded data of recent eruptions, I got fairly good at predicting it’s next initial eruption. This day we were hiking toward Lion and missed the initial eruption by about 5 minutes, but we saw the plume of steam from a distance. We then waited for the second eruption of the series which is shown in this photograph. It got its name because occasionally during the initial eruption, there is a loud underground roar that sounds like a lion’s roar.

Lion Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Lion Geyser

CLEPSYDRA GEYSER

Clepsydra is a very pretty small cone geyser. Its cone has lovely yellow/orange colors with a beautiful blue pool of water just in front of it. While it’s eruptions are small, 10 to 30 feet in height, it is almost continually erupting.

Clepsydra Geyser Yellowstone Wyoming
Clepsydra Geyser

BEEHIVE GEYSER

Just like Great Fountain, I have always wanted to see Beehive Geyser erupt. However, it is somewhat erratic. NPS does not make predictions for this one either. Again, using online sources, there is frequently a prediction with a four hour window. This particular weekend, it looked like Beehive would only be going off in the middle of the night. However, there was a 3/4 gibbous moon out, and I thought that it would be bright enough to illuminate the geyser for photography. There are a couple of things that makes this geyser unique. It has a very small cone with a small vent opening. This acts like the pressure nozzle on your garden hose. Thus, the stream of water is very narrow and can be extremely high, up to 200 feet (compare to Old Faithful’s 100 feet). We watched Beehive from across the Firehole River because I wanted to be able to photograph the entire water column. I understand if you are on the boardwalk right behind Beehive when it erupts, the pressure is so intense that it sounds like a jet engine. 

Another fascinating and unique phenomenon is that there is a small vent in the ground near Beehive called Beehive’s Indicator. This will start a small eruption of its own, and that is a signal that Beehive will erupt in the next 10-15 minutes. The night we were there, it was only seven minutes later that Beehive went off. 

Here is the nighttime shot showing Beehive’s cone to the left and Beehive’s Indicator going off to the right.

Beehive's Indicator Yellowstone Wyoming
Beehive's Indicator

While I was photographing Beehive’s eruption, Candy excitedly shouted “look there’s a moonbow!” I had to quickly change lenses to an even wider angle lens and got this photo of Beehive, the moonbow, and even got lucky to have the Big Dipper as a backdrop. What a way to top off an amazing weekend at Yellowstone!

Beehive Geyser with moonbow Yellowstone Wyoming
Beehive Geyser with moonbow

12/5/2018: The Wind River is just starting to freeze as seen in this sunrise shot from our backyard.

Wind River sunrise
Wind River sunrise

Snowflake portrait

Snowflake
Snowflake

December also brings crisp clear nights for astrophotography. Here is a composite exposure capturing 2 Geminid meteors piercing Orion “The Hunter”.

Geminid meteors in Orion
Geminid meteors in Orion

Also in December I captured Comet Wirtanen next to the Pleiades. The green glow of the comet contrasts nicely with the blue reflection nebula around the Pleiades.

Comet Wirtanen and Pleiades
Comet Wirtanen and Pleiades

New Years Eve found some interesting new birds for my yard. 

Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
Dark-eyed junco

This tiny bird is a Chipping Sparrow. These are very common here in the summer. What I didn’t realize is that there has never been a well-documented case of one in the winter in Wyoming. This, and several other photos, have been sent to the Wyoming Bird Record Committee. Hopefully I will have the first confirmed record (spotting it credited to Katherine Crawford) . 

Chipping Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Harris’s Sparrow
Harris’s Sparrow
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