We are up at the crack of dawn, suiting up for an 8 am departure into Yellowstone, the world’s oldest National Park. The snowmobiles are lined up in the freshly fallen snow, camera cases strapped on the back. With over 3,000 square miles of park straddling Montana and Wyoming, our excursion with professional photographers, Barbara and John Gerlach, will only visit a fraction of this vast and beautiful land.

Yellowstone Park takes its name from the Yellowstone River, so named by the Minnetare, a Native American tribe, to describe the ‘yellow’ stones that line its banks. It is a land of rich natural diversity — 67 species of mammals and over 300 species of birds; thousands of species of native plants. It is also the most visited American national park with almost 3 million visitors a year, mostly in the spring, summer and fall.

In the winter the park is almost entirely closed to wheeled traffic. Instead, a strictly limited number of snowmobiles are allowed access on any given day, shepherded by authorized guides. This is a change from the time when unregulated snowmobile use caused an adverse environmental impact on the park.

Guided by Barbara we enter the park from the West gate, the closest access to the town of West Yellowstone. The groomed trail wanders along the Madison River where bald eagles perch in the trees or swoop down along the cold, icy waters to fish. In winter, because of the deep snow at higher elevations, the wildlife drifts down to the plains and meadows, making it easier to spot them

Within a few miles of the gate, Barbara spots a herd of American bison foraging off the road. Their shaggy brown coats accumulate the falling snow until they are covered in white. Plodding through belly-deep snow, they plow their heads back and forth to clear a path to the grass underneath. As you focus on their seemingly ancient eyes, these are the true inhabitants of the land. We are the interlopers.

Over the course of our stay we see hundreds of them, hunkered down, warming themselves near the thermal pools or ambling across the snowmobile tracks, requiring us to navigate gingerly through the herds Despite their soulful eyes and slow gait, these animals are quite dangerous, able to run at speeds of 30 miles an hour and willing to attack and gore if their space is invaded. Barbara and John warn us to drive close together to prevent the bison from breaking into the snowmobile line and to keep the snowmobiles between us and them when we disembark to take photographs. Bison have the right of way and you don’t want to get into an argument with them.

This is the only wild free-roaming herd of bison in the US, and it is not without controversy. Having been hunted close to extinction in the 1800s, there continues to be considerable tension between farmers and conservationists because some believe that the bison can transmit brucellosis to domesticated cattle. Notwithstanding lawsuits to prevent it from happening, any bison wandering outside Yellowstone Park into Montana in the winter in search of food can legally be slaughtered to protect the cattle.

In addition to bison, the most widespread mammal in Yellowstone is the elk or wapiti as they are known in the Shawnee language. Reddish-brown with dark heavy manes and a light beige rump, the elk (all cows, the bulls are higher up in the hills) seem to congregate in groups along river banks, feeding on tiny bits of grass that they dig out of the snow or pull from the water. The elk are at greater risk since gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995. Staying close to the water offers them a measure of protection.

We do not see any wolves or coyotes on this visit to the park but are fortunate enough to see a red fox. As we drive down the track, a small orange ball is visible sleeping out in the open in a snow-covered meadow. We stand by the side of the road for over 45 minutes, cameras poised, clicking away at the slightest variation in body posture — a look, a shift of position. It would appear as though the fox is bedded down for a long sleep when suddenly it jerks up, cocking its head from side to side, seemingly listening. Has it heard a rodent under the snow? Slowly it stands up and stretches from the black tip on the end of its nose to the white on its large bushy tail. Then this shyest of the Yellowstone animals simply begins to trot through the snow along the river bank and up a slope into the trees, ignoring us completely.

As we turn our snowmobiles towards home at the end of a very long day, the sun has already set in the west, painting an orange glow across the sky while in the east an almost full moon rises above the tree line. Meanwhile, wispy clouds that resemble bison running across the plains, float through the darkening sky chasing the setting sun. Yellowstone Park is a constantly changing environment. You never know what you are going to see. To truly appreciate the beauty of this incredible place, you have to be willing to explore it in any season, even in the depths of winter.

IF YOU GO
If you are interested in photography, John and Barbara Gerlach run several winter photography workshops in West Yellowstone every year. You can contact them by emailing them at Michele@gerlachphoto.com or via their website http://gerlachnaturephoto.com

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