Taking time to look at the little things can reveal some fascinating sights.

Hitting the Lamar Valley every morning meant getting up at no later than 5am in Gardiner. Today I slept in until 4:30... Long underwear, check. Rain jacket, check. Poofy snow jacket, check.

By the end of the day I'd be checking my sunburn. 80 degrees!

I was still smarting from the bad string of luck I'd had the previous day, but day 2 didn't start out much better. Lamar was quiet again. Snow still coated much of the landscape. I stopped near the confluence... never know when there might be otters about. Instead, there were a few birds, but not much else. This little fellow watched me warily before exiting the water, skidding all over the ice and finally finding some solid ground.

I stopped back at Slough Creek again to check in on the wolves. There was talk of one or two grizzlies in the area, but when I went down parallel to the Slough Creek campground road, I saw nothing but bison and elk. There had been a fresh kill a ways from the den site, but only ravens were there now. A plane buzzed overhead for 10-15 minutes, scanning the area... I assumed this was a research plane, keeping track of the wolves.

Done peeking through scopes, I decided it was time for a bit more serious exploration. The road to the petrified tree had been blocked off, I assumed due to snow or ice. I parked at a nearby turnout intent on hiking to Lost Lake, where I had seen wolf tracks last winter. As I walked up the road, I spotted large areas of matted hair. There had been a kill right in the middle of the road, which is why they had closed it off. The carcass had been dragged off the hillside and was scattered in bits and pieces.

Swan Lake Flats offers a completely different view in colder months.

I made it to the trailhead and started the short walk to Lost Lake. The ground was still frozen over, so I had to pick my way carefully. Being alone, with no bear spray, I started singing some really ridiculous songs, calling out to the bears, wolves and moose that might be nearby. I felt like I was ringing the dinner bell, letting 'em all know that food was on the way...

Lost Lake was a bust. Quiet, a few wolf tracks, but empty. Later I heard from a fellow who said he had gone up to the petrified tree a bit later in the day and had spotted a wee black bear. Oh well. It's all about timing...

This was the first day they were opening more roads in the park, and I was intent on heading south to explore a bit more. I stopped briefly at Mammoth, which I rarely visit, and took advantage of the clear weather to get a few shots.

Summitting the hill above Mammoth and emerging onto Swan Lake Flats was like entering another world. The area is completely different in wintery conditions, and much more beautiful! I noticed a gentleman tromping out into the snowfield, where he was approaching a bald eagle in a distant tree. I joined him for a bit and stayed on after he left, getting pretty close without scaring the eagle off.

A lone bald eagle blended into the still-wintery landscape of Yellowstone in springtime.

Heading further south, I spotted some sandhills out in a snow field... this would make for a fantastic shot, and there were even some trees nearby which would conceal my approach in order to avoid startling these touchy birds. I drove back a ways to the nearest pullout, where some kind ladies offered to give me a ride back to where I wanted to be dropped off. I took them up on the offer, warning them to drop me off a bit ahead of where the cranes were, since I didn't want to make them stop at a blind corner and risk an accident. So, they dropped me off... and then drove ahead and stopped right in front of the cranes, scaring them off as I snuck through the trees. Drat!

Feeling a bit snakebitten, I tromped back to my car, and kept going south to the bald eagle nest along the Madison. When I arrived, one eagle was in the nest, while the other was across the river. Soon, the nesting one took off and despite being focused on the second one, I managed to miss the shot as it took off. Luckily, it landed in a tree ajoining the nest, and I was able to get it as it hopped over to the nest.

I waiting for over an hour to see if they would switch spots again, but it didn't happen. Time to take off and head back north. I groggily drove back up toward the Lamar. Rounding the first bend after Roosevelt, I encountered what was certainly a bearjam. There turned out to be two bears up in the trees near the road. One was a small black hiding timidly. The other was a larger cinnamon black, resting on a kill. While I had missed some of the earlier commotion of these two bears wrestling over the kill, I was just happy to get a few bear shots, even if it was just sitting there using this carcass as a pillow.

Things were finally looking up. With the eagle and bear encounters under my belt, I was feeling more confident that the next day would be even better!