We were fortunate enough to have some "bad" weather each day. I love some wind and rain. It adds character to the landscape, and what is more, sends many people scurrying inside. The next day I took the Lower Blacktail Deer Creek Trail into the Black Canyon of Yellowstone. I didn't find the trail itself all that fantastic, but the weather did make for some nice photo opps.
The wildflower display was quite nice. It seemed odd to be surrounded by wildflowers that were foreign to me. I knew some of the flowers: lupine, larkspur, and another flower that my wife and I thought was Mules' Ear, but turned out to be a close relative (the yellow flower here is Arrowleaf Balsaam Root).
The middle flower (pink) is Montana's State Flower, the Bitterroot. Small & delicate, it takes your breath away.
The flower on the bottom is Prairie Smoke, and it really caught my eye. The sun's rays caressed it gently, adding warmth to a thing of fragile beauty.
P.S. Thanks to Double Cabin & BackpackHNTR, both from the backpacker forum, for giving me an ID on the flowers.
The next day, since we were staying in the Tower-Roosevelt area, we spent the day exploring Lamar Valley, which is appropriately known as America's Serengeti, because of its abundance of wildlife.
Later that day, as the rain poured, we hiked up Specimen Ridge and got some wonderful views of the canyon's lower reaches. Also here, a layer of basalt was present (had also seen this in other places in the park). This layer looked like hexagonal columns of stone. They were formed when a several foot layer of molten lava cooled quickly.
Looking below, we also saw ospreys sitting on their nests, as well as a family of mountain sheep. The osprey were observable through binoculars, but too far away to get a descent picture of.
This family of mountain sheep weren't all that concerned about us, but the mother did lead her lambs to the cliff in short order. It amazed us, watching these ungainly looking animals as they easily maneuvered what appeared to us, to be a completely unnavigable cliff face.
We had seen many buffalo throughout our 7 days in Yellowstone. I had hoped to get a good shot of one, but each time we saw them from the car there was traffic behind us and I didn't want to force everyone to wait for my pleasure. The park warns that you should maintain a distance of at least 25 yards from buffalo, so when I was out of the car I was too far away from them to get a nice shot.
So, by our final day, Sunday, I had given up hope of shooting buffalo. Then as we came over a hump in Hayden Valley we gasped to find that a buffalo herd was in the process of crossing the road right in front of us. Soon we found ourselves in the midst of the herd. The lighting wasn't great for shooting, but of the 30 or so images I shot in quick succession I got about 5 worth keeping.
As soon as the herd passed, I pulled off to the side of the road, got out and clicked a few shots as they left.
Yellowstone is a very special place. I don't believe I will ever find a location that will knock Yosemite out of First Place in my heart; but in visiting Yellowstone my heart was forced to make room, lots of room, for a place outside of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
