Wyoming blog
Photo blog 2024
When Candy and I moved to Wyoming in 2014, I started keeping a photo diary of what we did and saw. This is my current 2024 blog page. For archives of past years, please follow these links:
May 10-11, 2024: The Great Geomagnetic Storm
The aurora borealis is occasionally seen from Wyoming, but usually it is fairly low on the horizon. Although predictions were for a significant storm, I was somewhat skeptical. We went to Ocean Lake for darker skies and a good view of the horizon in case the display was low down. Even before true nighttime, we could see the glow of the aurora, and after nightfall could see that it extended up more than 45 degrees above the horizon. We could see faint columns that changed over time, but due to humans having poor night color vision, could appreciate only subtle greens and reds. It was a joy to behold but not the fantastic displays I had seen photographed at higher lattitudes. By simply holding our smartphone cameras up we could see much more light and color. Still, for first-time aurora viewers, it was satisfying. This first video is a time-lapse looking over Ocean Lake taken during that first hour. This video and those following are time- lapses so the result is sped up. Most of these short videos are equal to approximately 8-10 minutes in real time. If on a computer, click on the bottom right symbol to make the video full screen. If on smartphone, it will usually be largest by rotating the phone to horizontal. These are very large files, so first time playing may be a little jerky, but second time through should play great.
Shortly after this, the display appeared to be quieting down and the green glow became amorphous without visibly shifting columns, so we decided to pack up and head home. We were were only 1/2 mile down the road when our good friend Jackson saw bright flashes of light even through the car window. He “suggested” we turn aroud, stop and see. The entire sky had exploded with very bright flashes of light, swirling patterns and now easily visible bright colors. The aurora was now directly overhead and extending to all horizons. We quickly drove to where we could pull off the road and stood mesmerized for the next hour. I had a very wide angle lens on my camera and it could only capture a small portion. It was difficult to decide where to point it next because everywhere was so beautiful, and when one area was fading, another would be flaring up. I hope you enjoy these timelapse videos and photos, but none of this can do justice to what we saw. Just like the 2017 total solar eclipse, it has to be experienced. This first video is looking toward the NW horizon.
The next 2 videos are looking straight up at the zenith.
Considering I took over 1300 frames that night, it was very difficult to pick just a few still photos.
5/16-5/20/2024: Yellowstone.
We have generally had bad luck over the years when searching for grizzlies in the Tetons and Yellowstone. This weekend was much better. On the drive over Togwotee Pass, we spotted a mother grizzly and Candy saw a small cub behind it. Couldn’t pull off for photo while towing the camper. Then the following day in Yellowstone, we saw a mother grizzly with 1 year old TRIPLETS. We watched them feed and play for quite a while.
My favorite shot of one cub standing watching the humans and mom looking perturbed.
It’s always fun to go to LeHardy Rapids and watch the amazing Harlequin Ducks. While mostly a northern Canada and Pacific Ocean bird, there is always a small population here. They thrive on the rough waters of the rapids, swimming easily against the strong current and even diving for prolonged priods.
Check out this short video of them swimming and then diving under at the end.
Bison were everywhere. Here are 2 resting with the Gallatin Mountains in the background.
We can photograph Canada Geese any day in our own backyard, but they are usually very adept at hiding their little yellow fuzzball goslings. It was fun to see them here. (Candy’s photo is much better than this.)
Everyone who visits the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone sees the Upper and Lower falls which are very large and powerful. However, many don’t realize there is another wonderful waterfall right next to the Upper Falls. It used to be quite a secret and difficult to find, but the NPS now has signs up and built a great lookout point to see Crystal Falls.
As long as we were in the area, we took the short walk to the Brink of the Upper Falls. The first photo is of the Yellowstone River just before plunging, and the second is a video from the brink of the falls.
We began our second full day hiking to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook.
Then we went to the Upper Geyser Basin. The NPS puts out geyser eruption time predictions for about 6 geysers. I have enjoyed studying the data put online by independent geyser watchers and have done fairly well predicting other geysers in the past. I decided to first head up onto Geyser Hill for the slight possibility of Beehive Geyser erupting. We had only seen it erupt once in the past and I always wanted to be up close for an eruption as it is just off the upper boardwalk. As we were crossing the bridge to get to the hill, Beehive started erupting. It was a picturesque sight with the Firehole River in the foreground and framed by trees. I guess I’ll have to keep going back to one day get a closeup view!
Shortly after we arrived at the Beehive cone, Old Faithful erupted.
Riverside Geyser is always a crowd pleaser.
You can’t really tell because I was only carrying my wide-angle lens, but the middle bison had a baby (often called “red dog”) nursing.
5/30/24: If you’ve followed my blog over the years, you know we had found a very unique (and our little secret) area of multi-color paintbrush in the sagebrush area east of town. Classic Indian Paintbrush (and the Wyoming state flower) is a vivid red. We have also seen many areas that have a pale yellow variety call Sulfur Paintbrush. But these are the only 2 colors listed in my wildflower books. This area usually blooms around Memorial Day and some years are better than others, so we went to check them out. I also wanted to try some of my macro photography techiques this year. Feast your eyes on some of the most unusual colors of paintbrush: orange, pale yellow (sulfur), classic red, salmon, white, bright yellow, and pink/white combo.
Just thought I would throw in a couple of yard bird photos. For years we’ve had Yellow Warblers around, but I was never happy with any of ny photos. I also hoped one day I could photograph one in the blooming lilacs. Also we have a lot of Canada Geese around but rarely see the babies. This year one pair brought their 3 goslings up into our yard!
6/18-6/21/2024: We spent our 43rd anniversary in the Tetons. When we first arrived, the western sun was harsh causing a moody look to the Tetons, but nicely back lighting the Arrowleaf Balsamroot blooms.
The campground was alive with the music of at least 15 species of birds singing. I was particularly excited to get good photos of the Warbling Vireo and White-crowned Sparrow.
Despite this being our 11th year exploring Grand Teton National Park, we had never hiked to Leigh Lake. The first part of the hike is along String Lake which we had seen several times, but we had just never ventured farther north to see the 3rd largest lake in GTNP. The first few photos below are along String Lake.
We then reached a bridge crossing the outflow from Leigh Lake to String Lake, with Mount Saint John and Rockchuck Peak in the background.
There were a few small islands in Leigh Lake. This very tiny one had a solitary tree growing from the very center. Mount Moran looms behind. The triangular peak to the left of Mount Moran is Thor Peak.
Here Leigh Lake was calm and reflective with another small island just offshore. Mount Woodring is behind the largest tree on the island and Mount Moran is to the right while a silhouetted pair of Canada Geese feed at the bottom right.
The following day we hiked an old favorite trail to Phelps Lake. At the parking area I found one of the most beautiful lupine I’ve ever seen. It was a much larger plant with huge vivid colored blossoms. Turns out it is a different lupine species than we usually see. This one has the creative name Large-leaved Lupine!
The first half of this hike follows Lake Creek.
Here at Phelps Lake, the mountain on the left is Prospectors Mountain, and the sharp point on the right is Albright Peak.
While we didn’t find any Calypso Orchids or wild Columbine, we did see one of the most bizarre flowers…Western Meadow-Rue.
This next very small flower is called several different names: the 2 most common being Star-flowered Lily-of-the-valley or False Solomon’s Seal
Then Candy spotted the tiniest flower either of us had ever seen. I really think the flower is only 1-2 mm across. I’ve identified it as Sweet Cicely. The roots of this plant were used for numerous medicinal purposes by Native Americans.
Lately I have avoided posting wildflower photos that I can’t identify. Candy saw this at our campsite. It looks like a type of Forget-me-not, but the only ones I’ve seen in Wyoming are the alpine species that stays very low to the ground. These flowers were on a stalk 3 feet tall! (I’m going to submit photos to an online group for ID help.) UPDATE: This IS in the Forget-me-not family but is called Many-flowered Stickseed.
We frequently see moose in GTNP. However, to cap off this week, we found a cow moose with a baby! The baby just wanted to run around and play hide and seek, while mom just wanted to eat. I’m so glad Candy got this incredible scene on video.
Here are a couple more random backyard photos. Unlike in Louisiana when I had hummingbirds practically year-round, here I only get some during migration heading back south in July and August. These are usually Rufous hummingbirds with an occasional Calliope. In this area, Black-chinned hummingbirds are quite rare, but this year I had and adult male Black-chinned as well as a female. When I posted my observations to eBird.org, it was flagged as a probable error, and they asked for documentation. How dare they question my hummingbird expertise!
We also have many White-tailed deer in our backyard, but this year I was able to capture a sweet interaction bettween doe and fawn down on the river.
7/6/2024: Many thanks to my good birding buddy who gave me directions to these nesting Lewis’s Woodpeckers. I’ve been wanting to see these very beautiful and unique birds, very different from most other woodpeckers in the states.
07/16/2024: The weather forecast looked bad for our camping plans in the Snowy Range, so we went north to the Big Horns. This was our first time staying at Shell Creek campground. Our campsite was right on the creek and the area was full of wildflowers. The sound of the creek was very soothing. It still boggles the mind that this peaceful creek carved out the massive Shell Canyon and produces the thunderous Shell Falls.
8/24/2024: Went to visit friends in Colorado. Loved sitting out on the deck in Big Thompson Canyon and watching the great variety of wildlife. We had seen Steller’s Jays before but I was never able to get a good photo. This time I got what I consider the perfect bird portrait. Also was very excited to see a mink for the very first time. It was only there for a few seconds as it it very fast, but I was able to get off a pretty good shot.
9/25/2025: We camped near Atlantic City at >8,000 ft elevation to catch the changing aspens. This was probably the best we’ve seen up there
I’ve had this shot at Miner’s Delight ghost town planned for several years, but it all finally came together with good fall color, clear moonless night and the Milky Way in alignment.
9/30/2024: There have been some significant wildfires this year up on Togwotee Pass between us and Grand Teton National Park. However, the road was open, so we went there for our annual fall color trip. The first day there was a lot of smoke in the valley, but a cold front that night cleared a lot of it out. This was an unusual year where both the cottonwoods and aspens seemed to be hitting peak color about the same time.
I managed to check off another pre-planned astrophotography shot of the contellations Gemini and Orion rising over Sleeping Indian Mountain and the Gros Ventre River lined with cottonwoods.
On the way home we stopped near Dubois for this shot.
10/10/2024: A “real” photographer always keeps his camera handy. Today we drove down to Laramie and I didn’t pack any camera gear. I wanted to split up my drive into 2 days to pick up our new camper. After dinner, my aurora app notified me of a crazy high KP index which meant the possibility of an aurora storm as great as the one in May. Candy suggested we drive up to one of our favorite mountain ranges, the Snowy Range, as it was less than an hour away. It was very cloudy, but just as night fell, the clouds broke, although there was still quite a lot of high cloud haze. Still, the colors exploded. All I had was my iPhone for photos, so here they are. We were quite lucky because back home there was a lot of wildfire smoke which would have hampered viewing.
I love the blue color in the next photo, but it is not aurora. This was shot aiming south and the moon is just out of frame to the right. Just like scattering sunlight makes our daytime sky appear blue, so does the moonlight at night.
10/13/2024: I wasn’t sure we would be able to see Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS because of the wildfire smoke and bright moon. Was happily surprised it could be seen with the naked eye even before twilight ended. True nighttime wasn’t until 8:07 p.m. and this photo was taken at 7:45. Here it is over the Wind River Mountains as seen from our backyard.
10/20/2024: Took our new camper out for a short trip, staying close to home at the Wind River campground. All of these photos are from the campground. I also got another photo of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Over the past week it moved closer to the Milky Way making for a great photo op.
10/28/2024: We’ve only seen moose in the river below our house a couple of times in the past 10 years, but this morning just before sunrise we saw two young bull moose fairly close to our yard.
