Pebble Creek Campground

The next stop on our Yellowstone-Grand Tetons adventure was Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley.If geology is the thing for Yellowstone’s southwest, its northeast is known for wildlife.The Lamar Valley is where you’ll find herds of bison, antelope, mountain goats, bears (if the season is right) and, of course, wolves.Notthat you’ll definitely see them, but the Lamar Valley is where to go if you desperately want to.What it also has, and what captivated Ann and me, is an incredible landscape.But I get ahead of myself.

We departed Norris campground at a decent hour - 6:30 am.We approached the canyon area around 7 so we decided to stop for breakfast.By 10:15 we arrived at our destination - Slough Creek Campground.Only to find out that the campground had filled two hours earlier.After some discussion with the camp host, we decided to go further up the Lamar Valley to the Pebble Creek Campground instead of over to Mammoth.A half-hour later we pulled up.The camp host said he had one last campsite available.“It’s pretty small, so why don’t you check it out and let me know if you want it.”

He was right.It was small.I paced it out.I paced it out again and decided that, while not ideal, we’d find a way to fit our tent in.

When we went back to the front of the campground, three cars were in line waiting to hear my answer.At that point, we were convinced we had to grab it.We had our site!

As you can see, it was pretty cramped and we couldn’t use the fire pit, but it worked and it was in the Lamar Valley.  The rock wall you see behind our tent gives a hint of what the gorge was like up-creek.

Once we set up camp and chatted a bit with the camp host and other campers to get some tips about where to go, we headed out to “scout out” the area and to prepare for a potential sunrise shot for the next morning.  Our scouting trip quickly turned into a photographing trip.  After a quick run further up the valley to find out that it quickly started climbing (though we did get a look at some mountain goats on a cliff-side), we went back down the valley.  By then, afternoon was settling in, clouds were creating patterns in the hills and we had to stop and photograph.

We were glad to see some clouds.Having all-blue skies is pretty boring in photographs and already the Lamar Valley was giving us material to work with.Why it should not seem so different a place, the skies in the valley seemed very different than those from where we came from.Maybe it was the clouds or maybe it was the open spaces you get in the valley, either way Ann and I found it very appealing.

At one point when the clouds were obscuring the rock face in the photograph above, I looked up to get an idea about how long it would take the cloud to move and saw this cloud I couldn’t resist photographing.

Yellowstone-PCLamar-03-Clouds

We slowly continued on our way back down the valley, checking out the different places we’d noticed on our rush to find a campsite.

Yellowstone-PCLamar-04-ValleyRiver

We made several stops to check out views on Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River, often seeing people enjoying themselves fishing.While there seem to be a lot of wacky people at Yellowstone (tourists who do incredibly stupid things [well, if you define slamming on your brakes and stepping out of your car in the middle of the road to make an iPhone photograph of an animal 400 yards away with cars backing up on both sides of the road as stupid, which I do . . . not to mention doing things that could aggravate bison or bears just to get a photo . . .], as well as the “wolfies” which one fisherman described as, “well, they’re a bit wierd” [he was right]), the fishermen and women tended to be the most normal of the people we met.Yes, they tend to be passionate about fishing, but they generally seem practical, down to earth and, well, someone you wouldn’t mind sharing a beer with (one gave me a Moose Drool Ale!).And in case you think I’m being particularly biased, Ann would agree with me that many of the photographers we met fall into the former group instead of the latter.I just hope Ann and I don’t come across as fanatics the way a lot of other photographers do.

We found a point along the Lamar River that we thought would make a good morning shot, and then continued down valley to see if there was an even better location.By then the sun was starting to set and create those wonderful landscape textures that are so pleasing to the eye.

Yellowstone-PCLamar-05-Rocks

It pretty much seemed like there was an image to be had in any direction you looked.  This was becoming some scouting trip!

And as we started making our way back up the valley to the campsite, we got to enjoy lovely cloud patterns lit by the setting sun.

We got up early the next morning and the sunrise light didn’t disappoint.

After photographing at our sunrise location until the sun was fully up, we drove over to Slough Creek near the campground we had wanted to stay at.  There’s a reason why people will line up very early in the morning to get a campsite here.  Not only is there a lovely creek that runs up a side valley as well as hiking trails to enjoy, as you’ll see below, the creek attracts a lot of wildlife.  We unfortunately missed a pack of wolves that passed by a bit before we arrived there (for obvious reasons, we ultimately drove by the big pack of people standing on a hill looking for wildlife so we could photograph something a bit more interesting).

Still, we made it to the area early enough to have some interesting light, even if we did miss the wolves.

We didn’t, however, miss the bison.If the geyser area tends to have the solitary male bison, the Lamar Valley is characterized by bison herds.The one below was a pretty small herd.  

Now don’t get to thinking that Ann and I are great wildlife scouts.We aren’t.We figured we’d run by these guys sooner rather than later and that getting bison photographs wasn’t going to be a big deal.Why?Well, on our drive to Slough Creek the day before we passed two bison herds and drove through two others.The previous night we noted herds at several locations.Our conclusion was, we could see bison any time we wanted to here and, as we would find out later, whether we wanted to or not.  

Still, watching a herd of bison is impressive.

With wildlife photography, after a while you get beyond the “I’ve got to get a picture of it!” mentality and, quite simply, get bored with plain shots.  You then get back to thinking like a photographer.  About what might make a good photograph that just happens to include a bison in it.  Like all photography, it’s not easy.  You either have to find a great composition with great light, etc., or you find instances where something more is happening and you are able to capture something special that is happening.

As we were driving on the gravel road leading out of Slough Creek (very, very slowly I might add considering we were, once again, driving through a herd of bison) we came across this male who started scratching himself on a bush.  I asked Ann for her camera (which has the telephoto zoom on it), rolled down my car window and made several photographs of him doing his thing.  I felt sorry for him - how do you scratch an itch on your neck if you’re a bison?  it looked like he got the job done.

We continued our drive down the Lamar Valley, passing the furthest location we reached the night before and found this lovely little pond not too far off the main road.  It actually has a name, Specimen Pond.  Ann and I pulled over, walked down and started photographing.  Like the Artists Paintpot in the geyser basin area, we wound up finding a lot of images here and spent quite some time photographing.

Taking advantage of the sun’s location, we worked our way towards the right of the image, at one point climbing some rocks to get a higher vantage point, and around to the other side.  As we were shooting we noticed that cars were pulling over a bit down the road and we could see a herd off in the distance on the other side of the ridge.  We didn’t think much of it as we kept photographing.

Then, when we were on the far side of the pond somebody yelled, “Watch out - bison are coming!”  We looked back and, sure enough, bison had worked their way up the ridge, to the road and were now starting to head our way.  We stood and watched a couple of minutes as bison came our way - 400 feet away, 300 feet away, 200 feet away.  Then the first bison walked into the pond and started drinking with the others following.  Ann and I kept photographing,  keeping an eye on the bison.  

Ann asked me, “Is it safe for us to be here?”  I responded, “Sure, as long as they keep their distance.  They know we are here and obviously don’t consider us a threat.”  Then I added, “They’ll let us know if they want us to move.  And when they do we’ll just walk around the pond.”  I then turned back to my tripod and composed another image of weeds in water.  We kept glancing over our shoulders and we noticed the big guy pop over the ridge.  Now, in case you don’t know (and I guess we really don’t “know” but simply deduced from watching the herds the previous couple of days) there’s always the boss of the herd.  You know him (and yes, it’s always a him) in one of two ways - One: everyone gets out of his way and/or he’s telling everyone where to go (often with a horn to the rear) and Two: which is much easier to tell, he’s the BIGGEST bison in the herd.  We got to calling him the “big guy” and would look for him every time we came across a herd.

Anyway, the big guy had arrived.  He took his time walking down the hill and showed no signs of agitation (which is a good things).  He got to the pond, put one foot in and stopped.  He then turned his head and looked at us.  He then stepped out of the pond, took a couple of steps towards us and stopped, facing us dead on about 150 feet away.  “Hon, I think he just told us to move.  We’d better get going.”  Which we did.  We didn’t try to get closer for a better shot, we didn’t wait to make more photographs.  We grabbed our tripods with cameras on top, turned away, and started walking.  I’m pretty sure that he understood that we understood his message because we hadn’t taken more than 2 steps away (I may have been walking away but I didn’t take my eyes off him) before he turned and walked back into the pond.  We walked around the pond, took a couple of more photographs (none towards the herd because it was looking into the sun and, well, the first photo told us it wasn't worth it) and then went on our way.

See, while so many people were driving around looking for wildlife, we just went about our business and let the wildlife come to us.  That made for a much more relaxing vacation I think!

By then the sun was getting pretty high and everything was looking flat and ugly, so we headed back to camp for an early supper.  While we were cooking, the skies became overcast so we decided to explore the gorge that was at the end of our campground (as recommended by our camp host).  It was still mid-day, but the overcast skies would allow for some nice light in the gorge and we’d get to photograph moving water.

We wound up spending over 3 hours there in roughly a 200-yard stretch of the gorge!  And it was worth it.  Unfortunately a rock slide blocked off further progress into the gorge, but we made the most of what we could.

I climbed over one slide only to find I could see more, and worse ones to boot, further down the “trail.”  Still, I managed to get one final shot before we turned around.

Unfortunately, the dense cloud cover that gave us such lovely light in the gorge intensified as the afternoon progressed and we were met with an overcast sunset and no photographs.  We drove out, got stuck in several bison traffic jams (one caused by a solitary big guy that decided he needed to walk right down the double yellow lines of a bridge right at us), and arrived at specimen pond to have a great conversation with a photographer about his travel rig (google Sportsmobile to get an idea). A beautiful drive, but no photos.

That night it rained.  The bottom of our cheap tent leaked a bit and we woke up to a big pool of water that had formed on our cooking shelter (nothing that a bit of scooping with a cup didn’t take care of).  The day looked iffy, which wasn’t such a big deal.  The plan was to head over to Mammoth see what photographs were to be had there, take a shower and do a bit of laundry if possible.  So we brewed our pot of coffee and got an early start.

We didn’t drive more than 100 yards down the main road before we made our first stop  The thing about photography is, sometimes nasty weather creates great photographic conditions . . . sometimes.  That was the case that morning.

As the skies were clearing, low hanging clouds were adding character to the valley.  The clouds quickly dispersed, leaving crisp clear skies and a lovely glow on the ground.  We wound up stopping several times, and discovering places we’d missed the day before.  After this stop, Ann and I discussed how much we enjoyed the photographic opportunities we’d discovered and we decided that we’d stay in the Lamar Valley an extra day, taking a day off from our stay in the Grand Tetons.

On the way to Mammoth, we left the valley and entered a new part of Yellowstone.The main road ran through some mountains and offered a different range of sights that you don’t see in other areas of the park.And occasionally you’d drop into these little valleys to find creeks and ponds.This is Blacktail Ponds.  If we'd had more time, it would be an interesting area to explore.

One of the places I’d thought I wanted to see the most was Mammoth Hot Springs, an area of travertine hot springs where giant colored mounds had built up over time.Unfortunately, as we approached the hot springs we could see the masses of tourists walking on the boardwalks - just like the geyser basin area that we had recently left.I don’t know if it was Ann or me, but one of us said, “Do we really want to see these?”Well, the answer was no, not with the tourists.We’d enjoyed the sense of openness and quiet of the Lamar Valley so much, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to re-enter the masses.  

We went to have breakfast to see if our mood would change.It didn’t.So we decided to drive the car loop to see if that would help.It only made things worse.Masses of cars are much like masses of people - they’re not very attractive.While I did manage to stop and get one shot, we pretty much had our fill of the hot springs and drove back into the complex for a shower at the Mammoth resort hotel.

After a great shower, we headed into nearby Gardiner to do some laundry (thinking that if we did it now, we wouldn’t have to do it until we got to the Tetons).By the time we got to Gardiner it was heavily overcast.Then it started raining.And then it started pouring.And then the really bad news hit.

In Gardiner we had cell phone coverage, which meant we could finally check things out online.More importantly, it meant we could check the weather, and that was the source of the bad news.Forecast was rain the next day, and snow the day after that.Then cold for another day, and then warming.Not good.We checked the forecast for the Grand Tetons - possible rain the next day, sunny and cold, sunny and warming after that.Long story short, instead of staying in the Lamar Valley an extra day, the weather led us to decide to leave two days early.Snow was planned for the day we were going to drive the Bear Tooth Highway - that definitely wasn’t going to work.And we’d been warned about what rain could do to our tent already.Ann and I made the decision to turn tail and run for it.No need to waste 2-3 days to bad weather when our next destination was supposed to miss it.  

While we had a most excellent (and I do mean excellent!) meal at The Raven Grill in Gardiner we headed back to the Lamar Valley knowing that we would be leaving the next morning.But as we entered Yellowstone again, we were reminded that our choice was likely a wise one.The Park Ranger at the entrance told us that we were lucky, the rains had caused a landslide on the road between Mammoth and Gardiner and the road had just re-opened after being closed for a couple of hours.  

As we drove up the Lamar Valley back to our campsite we made a couple of stops for photographs.We stopped again at Specimen Pond . . . 

. . . and pulled over for a glorious sunset sky.  Those were the clouds that wrecked havoc on our plans.  At least they gave us something to enjoy before we had to leave.