Friday, February 24, 2017

White Wolf


IMG_7067 Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), Yellowstone National Park
Figure 1. White Wolf, Yellowstone National Park.

I made a trip to West Yellowstone during the President Day weekend. To my surprise, it was so warm that it didn't just snow, but also rained. The condition was not right for a winter wonderland type of landscape picture. So I spent more time doing cross country skiing on Rendezvous Ski Trails.

Even so, I still took a snowcoach tour from West Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The weather didn't quite cooperate on that day, but wildlife was active. In addition to bald eagles, we saw a white and black wolf on the road.

I've seen many wolves before. Most are gray and some are black. White wolves are rare and seeing one is more than just lucky. From the snowcoach driver, this white wolf was active recently between Norris and Madison Junctions. She is not shy from people and even walked on the groomed road.

While we saw her first time when we were headed for the Grand Canyon, we saw her again when we were back. Although she was not far from the snowcoach, it is challenging to take a clean shot because she were in the lodgepole pine forest and at the same time I needed to find a hole from the passengers on the snowcoach. Fortunately I got the window of couple seconds for some clean shots through the snowcoach window glass. The quality is good and I don't complain the bad weather.