Motorcycle trip in Yellowstone

The Bighorn range is a bit east of Cody which might also have some areas and features of interest for you depending upon what you like.

treebound wrote in post #17463354
The Bighorn range is a bit east of Cody which might also have some areas and features of interest for you depending upon what you like.

Thanks for the information. We may try to go through that area on the way to Cody.

There are some small old towns hidden in the western foothills and at least one native american historic site around there somewhere. I rode my Buell from Milwaukee to Seattle a number of years ago and meandered a bit along the way.

Also, as you exit west of Yellowstone the main road from West Yellowstone heading to Boseman is a nice roadway that parallels the river, along with a few alternate access points into the fringes of the western border of Yellowstone park.

But, if you bust the brush and walk down to the river then watch out for the ants in the brush. I stopped for a potty break and thought the brush had stickers, but when I checked I had dozens of ants expressing their displeasure of my invading their area.

treebound wrote in post #17463871
There are some small old towns hidden in the western foothills and at least one native american historic site around there somewhere. I rode my Buell from Milwaukee to Seattle a number of years ago and meandered a bit along the way.

Also, as you exit west of Yellowstone the main road from West Yellowstone heading to Boseman is a nice roadway that parallels the river, along with a few alternate access points into the fringes of the western border of Yellowstone park.

But, if you bust the brush and walk down to the river then watch out for the ants in the brush. I stopped for a potty break and thought the brush had stickers, but when I checked I had dozens of ants expressing their displeasure of my invading their area.

Thanks Treebound. I'm not sure if we will get west of Yellowstone, but I'll check out the road to Boseman if we do. I'll also watch out for ants!

Take a macro lens along and the ants will find you.

Have a good trip, I'm looking forward to any photos you post, should be fun.

Our trip is less than a week away and I'm getting excited. I plan to take my 6D and 70D cameras, along with my 24-105 f4 and 400 f5.6 lenses. I plan to keep the 24-105 on the 6D for landscapes and general stuff, and the 400 5.6 on the 70D for wildlife. I'm debating on what other lenses to take, if any. I could use my 35 f/2 for low light indoor pics (with the 6D), and the 70-200 could be valuable for closer wildlife shots. I also have recently purchased the 16-35 f/4 and am debating whether to take it too. Any advice on lens choices would be appreciated.

I'm also wondering if I would be better off using the 400 on the 6D during the early morning/late evening shots of wildlife (for the high ISO performance), and then switch it to the 70D once the light is better (for the reach)?

fishbio wrote in post #17605281
I'm also wondering if I would be better off using the 400 on the 6D during the early morning/late evening shots of wildlife (for the high ISO performance), and then switch it to the 70D once the light is better (for the reach)?

That sounds like a very good strategy, and is what I would do myself if I were using those two bodies.

I hope your trip is awesome! It'll be fun to hear how you do, what areas you like the most, and to see some of your images!

Thanks Tom. We're headed to Custer tomorrow for a couple days, then on to Cody and Yellowstone!

See my comments about some photo ops just north of Jackson. Go to https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1432810

treebound wrote in post #17463354
The Bighorn range is a bit east of Cody which might also have some areas and features of interest for you depending upon what you like.

We drove through the area today and loved it. Awesome scenery! We were rushed today but are planning to go back through there on our way home.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #17612596
That sounds like a very good strategy, and is what I would do myself if I were using those two bodies.

I hope your trip is awesome! It'll be fun to hear how you do, what areas you like the most, and to see some of your images!

Tom,

Custer was certainly worthwhile. I got up early both days and took the wildlife loop and saw pronghorns, bison, deer, turkeys, burros, prairie dogs, and a variety of birds. Thanks for mentioning Custer! I'll post pics when I get home.

Sounds like you are having a great trip! Be safe and enjoy!

Just got home from my trip to Yellowstone and wanted to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions. Your help was greatly appreciated and enabled me to photograph many of the wildlife species and landscapes that I had targeted. I will post some more comments and some photographs tomorrow. Thanks again for your help.

I'm sitting here in a motel in Cody tonight. Drove up from northeastern Colorado today, through Casper and Thermopolis. Tomorrow I'm going north into Montana, then through the Beartooths, through Yellowstone and Teton and ending up at my brother's place in Idaho Falls ID. I know it's a fast run, but my real reason for the trip is golf, getting a few shots is sort of a sidelight this time. I've never been through the Beartooths, despite living in Montana and Colorado since 1964, so I figured it's about time.

we were just there two weeks ago. If you have enough time, like a week or more, I thought our approach was good. We first stayed at Mammoth hot springs, we rented a cabin by the hotel. Alternatively you could stay outside the park in Gardiner (spelling?) which is just minutes away. I liked the cabin, and the food at the dining room was very good and not too expensive. From there you can explore the entire upper half of the park no problem. First day we took an all day bus tour that went everywhere, to get an idea of where we'd want to go back to. Personally I'd not go back to yellowstone lake and that area.
The hot springs up at Mammoth are great, hike in from the bottom but also from the top and do the little one way loop up there. The canyon and uppper/lower waterfalls are pretty easy to reach from there, as well as Lamar Valley for tons of bison and pronghorns. I really liked hiking to the edge of both waterfalls and also the stairs down at Uncle Tom's trail. Artists and Inspiration point are also great, try to time things for morning or afternoon light. Several apps like photocells etc should be helpful. We didn't have enough time to hike much along the rim of the canyon, but that also looks really neat.

Then we stayed at Old Faithful Inn, if you don't stay there, at least go in and explore, it's a pretty amazing 74ft or so tall log building. Also great food in the dining room. Not so much in the deli, which was true for all deli/cafe places in the park. Squishy made yesterday sandwiches etc. It's a lot more crowded down at Old F, tons of buses, hundreds if not more crowding around the geyser when ever it goes off, but still fun. If you are down there in the mornings, get up early and hike around on the boardwalks all the way down to the last hot spring, lots of steam, fog, mist on grasses and good light for some locations, better light in the pm for others. I'd probably do the same again, stay up in Mammoth a night or two longer than down at Old F, just a lot less people to deal with and still lots to explore.

We then went down to Tetons and stayed for a week at Mooshead Ranch, a dude ranch next to snake river. Fantastic place. But otherwise I'd probably just stay in Jackson, we did not have much time to spend there, but it looks like a fun place, lots of kitsch of course, but some good galleries and as many cowboy hats and boots as you possibly could want. (I got my boots at boot barn with a 15% discount you can find in local magazines and some of those card stands in stores)

Great wine store in Moose at the little store there in Moose, part of Dornan's store/deli. In Tetons I'd also get off the main road, I just randomly drove down to this and that trailhead, very pretty. Jenny lake gets quite busy, so get there early if you want to take the boat across etc.
Close to that is Antelope Flats road, worth driving up to the end right now, for all the flowers. Also goes past "mormon row" with a bunch of abandoned homesteads, you'll find lots of photographers there

Currently it's full of wildflowers, amazing.

I absolutely loved it there, would have been happy to trade my house and life here for the log cabin at Moosehead Ranch and just stay there. Including the harsh winters