Yellowstone / Grand Teton 2022

My wife, Jill, and I went to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks from May 29 to June 11, 2022. It was an epic trip, but before I get to document it, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the currently ongoing flooding emergency in Yellowstone. This video from the National Park Service highlights the damage to one of the roads:

Our thoughts and prayers are with the residents of Gardiner, who are currently isolated from the outside world, and with the park workers and visitors impacted and evacuated during the emergency. I will update this post if I find a good charitable organization to help those impacted by the flooding. EDIT 06/15/2022 - I have made a separate post for Yellowstone relief information.

So, on with the blogging. First, here is a collage of the very, very, very best images from the entire trip:

These images individually can be found in this Google Photos album. Each picture has a brief description of what animal or scenery is shown.

For some context of where we saw things, I made this annotated map:

We spent the first week in Yellowstone. We camped at Bridge Bay campground. The first couple of days were cold and snowy, but our camper van kept us warm and cozy:

Camper van in snowy Bridge Bay campground

A highlight of the trip was near our campground - a Great Grey Owl! This was a lifer for both me and Jill:

As the week progressed, it quickly warmed up. Here is a before-and-after picture of the Hayden valley, separated by only a few days:

Hayden Valley, snowy vs. green

We spent quite some time in the Hayden area. First, the Harlequin Ducks were courting in the Yellowstone river:

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin group

Harlequin Duck showing off

We also spent some time watching a wolf pack interact with a Bison high on a distant hill:

Bison interacting with a pack of wolves

The sequence starts in the upper left with 5 wolves resting - one lying in the snow bank below the crest, the other 4 on the crest. A Bison showed up, and started moving through the wolves on the crest of the hill. They got agitated, and seemed to confront the Bison. The Bison did not seem phased at all by the wolf pack, and passed right through it. The wolves decided to live and let live, and returned to sleep on the hill as the sun came out. The center photo was taken the next day from a different vantage and different lens.

We also got to watch a fantastic wolf sequence in the Lamar Valley a few days later. Here is a collage:

Lamar Wolves

This sequence progresses left-to-right, top-to-bottom. The sequence started with a black wolf and a gray wolf moving down the hill from their den. They seemed to be chasing an Elk, but later passed it and ignored it. Shortly after, another gray wolf showed up at the bottom of the hill - covered in what looks like blood. It is not clear whether this wolf was injured, or whether it was coming from a fresh kill. In the middle, three of the wolves are hanging out with a variety of other wildlife, including an Elk, two Sandhill Cranes, a Bald Eagle, and a Raven. A black wolf ended up moving off, and we caught up with it near the main road as it descended into the river valley.

After a week, we popped out of the park for one night to West Yellowstone for a taste of civilization (showers and a take-out meal). While there, we visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center - highly recommended. It is sad that these animals cannot be wild, due to human interaction, but it is good that there are places for them to live. You do get a much closer look at the animals than you can in the wild. And it is the only look at River Otters we got on this trip :-(

River Otter at Grizzly & Bear Discovery Center

We then moved down to Grand Teton National Park. We camped at Gros Ventre campground, which has a lot of moose nearby. Between Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and the road to Dubois, we saw at least 11 moose and possibly more. Here is a collage of 9 of them:

Moose Collage

In Grand Teton, we spent much time at Schwabacher Landing, where we saw the sunrise:

Schwabacher Sunrise

We saw the sunset:

Schwabacher Sunset

And we saw a variety of critters - including this mink:

Mink Collage

We first noticed the group of female Mergansers chasing something in the water. At first, we thought it was a muskrat. On closer inspection, we saw it had a fuzzy tail. It was too small to be an otter, and the fuzzy tail meant it was neither beaver nor muskrat, which left mink as the aquatic animal with the closest match. The next morning, after taking sunrise photos, we found it again. It was fishing. It brought its fish out to a log, where it munched on it, and then went back out into the water.

Other highlights of the trip included 25 bears:

Bear Collage

All but the last row were Yellowstone bears. The last row is from Grand Teton. Note that some of these bears are only visible as a hunk of bear fur... which is a reminder that both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are bear country. While out hiking one day, we came across this fresh footprint:

Bear Footprint

We were extra alert for the rest of the hike! I always carry bear spray, but hope never to need it.

For a detailed picture-by-picture description, go to the Google Photos album I mentioned before. The collages are in this Google Photos Collages album. If you are a glutton for punishment, the following collections are available as well:

• Birds
• Mammals
• Cold-blooded animals
• Landscapes / misc
• Animals at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center

If you feel so inclined, you can purchase prints of some of the very very very best at my smugmug page.

It was a fantastic trip. We hope to go again - but of course we will wait until it is safe to travel there again.