Before I show you the wild things I want to get on my soapbox.We are fortunate in this country, we have parks and wilderness areas where we can go and experience nature. Places where we can pretend that the modern world doesn't exist. While most of public lands are open to modern vehicles and equipment, these things have been excluded from wilderness lands.
Unfortunately, my own Congressman, Tom McClintock wants to change this. His bill, HR 1349 would permit mountain bikes in wilderness lands. Not only would bikes damage trails, they would disturb the very nature of wilderness. If this passes I can't help but wonder what would be next, motorcycles?
Enough politics, let's find some wild things!
Our National Parks and our designated wilderness areas offer homes and refuge to a wide variety of wildlife. Yellowstone offers habitat to a wide variety and one can see more large animals in a day in Yellowstone than most people will see in a lifetime.
I was surprised, then, to see nothing more than some squirrels while visiting the geothermal areas with my family, but I had already made plans to go back with Jules after the rest returned to their homes and I knew where to look.
We saw Trumpeter Swans in several places but it seems fitting that this one was in Swan Lake.
My destination, though, was Lamar Valley on the road to the road to the Northeast Entrance. Our first sighting was of mountain sheep, right along the road.
Then we saw a herd of pronghorn.
I like these delicate looking animals and I was glad for my 400mm lens and new EOS 80 D which allowed me to get not great but decent images without invading their space.
Next, we encountered a herd of bison. This guy was scratching himself on a rock, not far from the road.
I was a bit disappointed not to see wolves or elk as we had on a previous visit. Many people know about Lamar Valley and the turn outs were full of people watching the animals. Most were wise enough to respect the wildness and keep their distance.
As we were leaving the park the next day I couldn't resist taking a picture of this blue heron. We have plenty of them around here but I always enjoy seeing them.
Not the best image but one of my favorites, a shot of these bison along the Yellowstone river. It is rutting season for this species and it was interesting to watch them square off against one another.
Check out Our World Tuesday to see more views of our wonderful world!
8 comments:
I'm with you Martha. The definition of a wilderness is - A large tract of land that has not been significantly affected by human activities, and/or A tract of land officially protected from development and other high-impact human activities. Your Congressman is a charlatan and a liar - tell him so.
Love that last photo of the bison grazing. That must be an amazing sight.
Love the bison ~ and other beautiful wild things photos ~ all wonderful ~ thanks, ^_^
(A ShutterBug Explores)
Hooray for you, boo for your congressman. Yes, bikes could just be the beginning of the end for wilderness areas. Once one does it, they'll all do it.
I'm fortunate, I live in Canada, where we have square mile after square mile of unpopulated wilderness. Then again, my home province, British Columbia, has been suffering from wildfires for months now. Experts suggest one or more of them could have been deliberately set. If we find out who was crazy enough to do that, we'll send them down to visit your congressman. They'd get along great!
Now, to your photos, they're wonderful, Martha, but I must admit I fell in love with that bison...I would probably have thought he was using that rock as a pillow, rather than a scratching post.
Kay
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
https://unfittie.blogspot.ca/
Wonderful shots.
beautiful country and wildlife. I hope it will stay that way. :)
Wonderful pictures! Hope it will stay wild!
oh i'm glad you two got to go back and spot more animals.... the bison shots are great, especially love the one scratching. loved every picture and your soapbox rant is perfectly fine and needed. i did not know about this piece of proposed legislation ... is there anything people can do? Anyone we can write? So much wrong with our country one doesn't know where to focus.
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