Yellowstone Winter 2025 Trip Report, Days 10 – 12

This report contains a description and photo of an animal in distress, which may disturb some readers.

January 18, 2025

It was sad to say goodbye to the Ravenettes, but I got them back to Bozeman safely. A few hours later, I was driving down to West Yellowstone with my second tour group. We also made that trip safely, and settled in to prepare for some exploration in the park interior. The next several days are going to be cold.

January 19, 2025

The Madison continues to be a bit quiet, with no bobcat sign, a smattering of waterfowl along the river, and one resting bison herd in a meadow Sunday morning.

The plan for Day One was to head over to the east side, which was more productive for us last week. On this day things began a bit slowly, however. Fortunately, a couple of my guests came from across the pond to photograph their first bison, and we were soon set up on some bulls browsing in the deep snow above the road. A bit further along, a Bald Eagle hid behind some branches.

Pygmy Alley and Fox Field came up empty (with the exception of two distant eagles), and we were soon on our way toward Canyon. The normally quiet and uneventful drive was interrupted by an unexpected wildlife sighting. Any wildlife along this stretch is fairly uncommon, but we definitely weren’t expecting the scene that unfolded.

Another coach was stopped in the road, with photographers out taking pictures. As we neared, we saw there was a small herd of bison scattered on both sides of the road. To our left, a patch of thawed ground indicated thermal activity. A cow bison grazed there, but to her right was a small depression… out of which popped a calf!

The calf was stuck, unable to extract itself from the hole. Its mother came to it at one point, but could do nothing to help. Prospects aren’t pleasant for this little one, which was unable to make progress during a couple feeble attempts. We remained in our vehicle, where I captured some footage through the window.

Later I learned from the rangers that it had been stuck there since Saturday. Even if the park service wanted to intervene (against policy), they wouldn’t be able to since it was in a fragile thermal area… a reminder of the risks one takes leaving the boardwalk in geyser basins.

Sunday, January 20 Update: Another snow coach reported they saw the calf out of the hole, believe it or not.

We had to move on. A mile or so south of the junction, we spied a distant coyote napping on the snowy slopes. Hayden was beautiful on this chilly day, with a distant herd of bison huddled before a backdrop of rising steam.

There was no sign of fox or otters, which had been so active in Hayden in recent days. And the teasing expanses of perfect smooth snow weren’t marred by bounding weasels, much to my chagrin. It wasn’t until we reached Mud Volcano that things picked up. Our coach driver spotted a well-camouflaged, resting coyote down below the road. It wasn’t very photographable, but just as we were pulling out, a second coyote appeared. Perhaps this was the same pair that stalked last week’s otters?

We never got great views of either of them, but just then a third coyote appeared… much closer to us. It was actually hunting in the thermal runoff below Mud Volcano.

That was a bit different from the usual fare, and served as a nice warmup for the clients. Following lunch back in the valley, we motored north. Beyond the morning’s steamy bison herd, a distant red fox scuttled through the snow, well out of photo range.

On our way back I wanted to stop at Artist Point, since we had a couple of Yellowstone rookies on this trip. We passed a few bison along the way, then parked and began walking down the narrow trail to the overlook. Only to be rebuffed, as another tour group came hustling toward us. I think they were shouting, “Run away! Run away!” Or something along those lines.

Sadly, they were not followed by a small lagomorph. Rather, it was a rather large bull bison with nowhere to go but our direction.

We backed off and gave him space to move on through the parking lot, then finally made it to the viewpoint where we could soak in the spectacular view of the snow-speckled canyon.

Okay, enough landscapes. Back at Canyon Village, we just missed a fox crossing the road. No matter, we had another fox appointment to keep. Right on cue, we arrived at Norris to watch a fox hunting near the road. It headed out along the river, prompting everyone else to leave. But our driver advised us to stay and wait. His instincts were once again right on. The fox made its rounds and even moused once (well out of sight) before coming back toward us. I took the opportunity to play with overexposed motion blurs.

The group was rewarded with their first close fox shots, and as we pulled out I even spied a second fox on a distant hillside. But why stop there? Down at Gibbon Meadows, yet another fox was out hunting too.

It took a while to build momentum, but we ended up with some nice sightings and a few tense, memorable moments to boot.

January 20, 2025

Brrr. I got a call this morning the park was delaying entry for snow coaches due to the extreme cold (a few lucky souls got in before the call went out). Our driver reported that after the call came through, it actually got colder.

It reached -37F. Not a record low for me in the park (I’ve made it to -40), but pretty close.

How did we spend our extra time this morning? By tossing hot water out of a cup and watching it freeze in mid-air. Science!!

When we did finally make it into Yellowstone, the hunt immediately began for steamy and/or frosty scenery and wildlife. Some bison danced in the snow near the road as the moon set over a ridge to the south. Swans huddled with frozen plumage, while others braved the cold waters and got their morning yoga in.

Today we had planned to head south toward the main geyser basins, which I felt was a great choice on such a cold day. The more steamy thermals and sunshine to pair with half-frozen beasts, the better.

Not surprisingly, we had some legitimate excuses to stop for landscapes, even when there was no wildlife to be found. Along the Firehole River, sunlight and steam combined for a magical view of Christmas Tree Rock.

Despite being met with (good-natured) derision when I mentioned photographing trees the previous evening, the group was intrigued and quickly got into a shoot at the Bobbysocks trees. A short ways south, we finally found a nice frosty bison bull to work with. And then more bison appeared. As you may recall, this route was “slow” a week ago, but things change day to day. The person who read this report and insisted there was “nothing down there” can today say that the area was beautiful, and full of photo opportunities.

We spent a fair bit of time at Biscuit Basin waiting for a bull to walk over and line up with a billowing thermal cloud… so many classic Yellowstone scenes this morning.

Even at Black Sand Basin, we stopped for thermals! Everything feels so alien down here on these frozen days that even an ardent wildlife photographer has trouble passing up some fascinating (non-breathing) subjects.

Following a lunch stop, we were making our way back north. Would you believe I geeked out over photographing snowmobilers?

We slowly left the most scenic part of the West side and made progress northward. Ever seen a solar eaglipse?

Our first fox of the day was out at Gibbon Meadow, where we left it the previous afternoon. But we moved on to a more reliable fox opportunity, back up at Norris where we saw two on Sunday. And sure enough, one was out again, hunting amidst the trampled bison grazing area.

It was time to head home, but we weren’t done. A Bald Eagle that had been feasting on a swan the previous day was back picking at scraps. It was joined by a curious raven before Canada Geese circled overhead.

Down on the Madison River, we saw two coyotes. The second was traveling with haste westward. At one point it approached a large flock of swans, but oddly didn’t make an attempt at hunting them.

Overall, an action-packed day, and I’m excited to have one more (cold) day in the interior before we move to the northern range.