Yellowstone & Livingston MT. Area Wildlife (Dial-up Warninig)
A great friend of ours rented a place in Livingston MT for a week in June of this year, and invited us out to visit. Having been to Yellowstone 5 years ago we jumped a the opportunity to go again! With the cooler temperatures (often no warmer than 60°F in the park, mid 40's the last 4 days!) the thermal heated pools left a little to be desired as they were almost obliterated by the steam. Although we did get some great pictures of light spring snowfalls.
5 years ago we didn't see any bears due to the fact we were in the park at the end of August and apparently the bears are much less active at that time in the lower elevations as they are looking for dens. This time we were very lucky to see many Black bears (and cubs!), and Brown bears (usually as small specks miles away). The mountain goats were a special treat on the Beartooth Scenic Highway ride.
We were also able to watch 2 wolves in the Lamar valley for over an hour. Sadly, they are what remains of a larger pack that wandered out of the park over the winter and were decimated by hunters.
Anyway here are some of the wildlife pictures we took on our 12 day adventure, in no particular order. I'm just starting to edit the landscape pictures, so those will have to wait. 
I can't tell you how grateful I am to have such a wonderful friend who invites my SO and I to so many AWESOME locations around the US, and Europe without asking for any money to help cover the costs, we just have to get there. Thank you just doesn't cover it...
Cheers,
Ray
= new reply since forum marked as read
You probably have some suitable for the August contest: Grand and Majestic!
WELCOME!
I especially love the close-ups of the mountain goats. How did you get those? Was it a long lens or were you really that close?
Anyway, thank you for these magnificent pictures, and welcome to the Photography Group!
for sharing your wonderful photos and very nice to meet you.
There are SO many pictures that I would like to share, but I must show restraint!
As to some who asked how close we were to the mountain goats? Well the mountain goats would have been closer if it wasn't for the woman that kept walking towards them with her little camera. AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! The mountain goats kept moving away, and then all we got were butt shots. Some people... Anyway the picture was taken with a Tamron 200-500mm lens, at the 500mm focal length, on a Nikon D300
The big horn sheep, which I think some mistook for the mountain goats, were pretty darn close...like this close.
Yes, the thing on the left of the picture is the car passenger side mirror. The sheep like to use the guard rails to rub against to scratch an itch, and help remove their winter coats. This particular picture was taken with a shorter lens (17-50mm Sigma on a Nikon D40) by my SO. The real close-ups above were taken with the long lens. We came upon the big horn sheep on 4 or 5 different occasions, on the stretch of road between Cody, Wyoming and the Fishing Bridge Junction inside the park.
The female big horn sheep with the lambs were much higher and away from traffic, as you can see here. Not the best picture, but they were quite far away, and the light wasn't all that good for the Tamron lens.
Anyway, I want to thank everyone for the kind words and taking the time out of their day to take a look! Hopefully I'll be able to post some landscape pictures soon.
Cheers,
Ray