Coyote Afternoon
October 16th 2024
We started this afternoon traveling through Yellowstone Lamar Valley around 4pm. There were several large herds of bison but they were all poorly positioned for photography with the light behind them. For this reason, we decided to keep going and look for better opportunities. We found some lovely mountainscapes in Slough Creek.
After Slough Creek we moved further into the park until around 5:45pm when we decided to turn around and head back. Just past the research station in Lamar Valley, Marcia spotted a coyote female. There was no place to pull over so Marcia dropped me off near the coyote and went further down the road to a pull through. We did this to avoid creating a traffic jam.
It was a little awkward getting my gear out on the side of the road as there are steep drop offs on both sides of it there. As soon as I got setup with my tripod, two other people joined me and we proceeded to follow the coyote as she traveled over the grassland. After a while she seemed to change her mind and climbed to the road crossing it with easy.
After the coyote crossed the road she purposefully headed for grassland and started to hunt. One of the photographers would spot her between the bushes from time to time. She was obviously hunting but finding nothing unfortunately. I was hoping we would photograph her leaping to catch some prey but we were disappointed. Eventually she disappeared and I walked back to the truck and Marcia. Another good day in Yellowstone National Park
