Yellowstone's Denizens

Basically, when in Yellowstone National Park, we divide our time between the geyser basins and the Lamar Valley. The geysers are the predictable part... mostly. Animals in the Lamar not so much. On previous years, I've gotten good photos of grizzlies and black bears, more at a distance of the wolves (but did get to hear their howls, which seem like songs to me), and moose off and on. 

This time we saw the bears only at a great distance and likewise the wolves. We heard of others seeing them-- when we had just left a place or hadn't gotten there. Fortunately, we have memories of other trips to help.

There are photos but you have to squint to recognize their shapes without seeing them move. If we had had a bigger telephoto, we'd have done better with the wolves. We are not professionals; paying $10,000 for that kind wasn't on our shopping list. I've read that some photograph through a scope and that might be something we can try next time.

One thing that never disappoints are the bison. The first time, over twenty years ago, when I saw the Lamar, I was amazed at the sight of the big herds. There aren't words to express what it feels like to see even a bit of the sort of thing the first explorers and settlers saw. There aren't many places to see free, wild herds. Yellowstone is one of them. This time, they were more broken into smaller herds and maybe that was the doing of park service to be easier on the grass or maybe it's their time with the young calves and this works best. Some breeding was going on, which tended to take the usual lone bulls away from their haunts to join the herds.

So these are our photos from July in the park. Some were right alongside the road-- sometimes on it...

It takes some doing to see the animals in these next photos. The first is a black bear going over the hill. Watching it through binoculars was clearer. The next was at the second kill we'd see at such a distance that you had to know it was there to see the wolves around it. Later the wolves appeared circle a bison and the antelope herd. The potential prey didn't seem worried. 

I read about the alpha wolf in one of the packs having his jaw broken by either an elk or bison. He lost his position but was able to bring down an elk calf. He was unwilling to leave the carcass when another, more powerful pack came and they killed him. To live, some must die.

Second one taken with more powerful telephoto as were the following ones of the wolves, across the valley, trying to get their dinner.

To see wildlife in Yellowstone requires some patience, careful watching for movement, and luck. We saw a coyote pretty close also but couldn't get the camera up until it was over the hill. People share what they've seen and where. There is a lot of good feeling when in the wildlife areas. It's exciting to be even that close to wild things and their very real lives.

the skies

by Rain Trueax

 Great Fountain Geyser reaching to the clouds.. or trying.

From the waters, the skies seemed logically to be next. Yellowstone is high country and that often makes for spectacular skies. This time, we were  fortunate to be there at a time when thunderheads built up several afternoons. Off and on, we'd hear the crack of thunder and some rain would fall. Awesome time in the geyser basin and the Lamar.

 

In the high country, the light is ever changing and presents constantly shifting opportunities to get that one photo that speaks beyond the images to the energy. 

There are many things that draw people to Yellowstone, but the light is one that shouldn't be discounted as to why it feels so magical when there. That light draws photographers, painters, writers, and millions of people to this super volcano that someday may erupt and change the whole United States for centuries to come. I hope it never happens as knowing Yellowstone is there is one of those things that brings joy to those who have been there or shared its beauty with others. It's there even when we can't be...

The waters

by Rain Trueax

Yellowstone is one of those special places with so much to see or take in that a lifetime wouldn't let a person know it all. Most of it is not reached by roads. In this trip, with only five days, we went to places that are, where even the old or handicapped could enjoy. Many of the photos were taken from the truck or a few feet away.

To share some of it in the blog, I decided the only way was to break it into subjects-- first the small geysers. Then the wildflowers. Today, the waters-- not so much the famous ones but ones many miss in their rush to the scenic spots. These are the ones that just are and let us just be.

Yellowstone takes me to a place of beauty and creativity, but it also is a place of violence and abrupt changes. Maybe the latter is part of what makes it so special. It's not just the pretty, innocent kind of beauty but the risky, savage kind, from which each moment could be the last. You know, the kind from which real creativity is born.

It's their season

 by Rain Trueax

July is when the wildflowers do their thing in the high country of Yellowstone. Sometimes I try to figure out their names, have books to help me do that. I had none with me this trip. The thing for me though is to enjoy beauty. These are nature's gardens and none could be prettier with their gorgeous mix of colors.

In driving and looking for flowers, it's interesting how a tiny elevational difference determines what will be where. Wildflowers might look to be scattered randomly, but they have strong requirements as to where they will grow including amount of water, temperatures, nearby plants, and soil types. It makes finding, something like Indian Paintbrush, challenging. 

When on gravel roads, with less traffic, it was easier to stop where the flowers were. On the major roads, stopping for a wildflower is not safe. These were taken in parks or not far off roads.

I think, when I get my current manuscript to the rough draft phase (a long way off), I might try to put some of the Yellowstone photos into a video with music. Something classical would suit the images best.

Even in Yellowstone, it can be the little things

Having been to Yellowstone quite a few times, enjoying each visit, this July trip, we went for the little places-- not the main tourist attractions. These don't all have names but they have the same beauty as the major sites-- just smaller, with less people watching their shows.

It had an advantage of being quieter-- well, the little want-to-be geysers did gurgle.

Photos are all in the geyser basin but not where the big parking lots are.

You look out across the horizon and it feels like another world-- a world of creation and new beginnings.

A little hot spring can also have a tiny geyser, but hey, maybe someday it might be as impressive as Old Faithful-- or will it disappear?

 A few are named-- Pink Geyser.

For me, to be in the geyser basins feels like the earth speaking out-- creation in its essence.

You wait and never know what you will see.

Contemporary novels

If you are a writer with an inventory of books, you already know that the first books out on Amazon are easily forgotten, with a new book being added every five minutes. Algorithms are slanted to make the new release stand out and have better rankings with its sales. I learned that with Desert Inferno, where a few years back, it had four sales in one month, which didn't bring it up in the rankings.

So for books, out there over five years, that have fallen into Amazon's black hole, I've been looking into how to relaunch a book to get around the problem. There are books written on this. We bought one of them, and we'll see if it helps. One option that I don't like is pulling the book, making some minor changes, giving it a new title/cover, and presenting it as a new book. To me, it seems unfair to readers, could give the writer a bad name with them, but it's not hard to understand how some might do it.

The books on the poster are the first ones I brought out as eBooks. They are contemporaries which I have long called, Romances with an Edge. They were written when I had limited interest in seeing them published. In the '90s, I did query a romance publisher on one or two of them, but the answers I received told me I'd have to change my basic plots and characters to satisfy what they felt a romance had to have to satisfy their readers. I didn't and don't disagree with them, but a writer has to also stay true to their muse.