In winter, the roads in the park are not plowed, so the only ways to travel are on foot, by snowmobile, or by snow coach. Traveling on foot will not get you far in such a large park, traveling by snowmobile is not appealing to me, and snowcoaches generally travel fixed routes on a schedule (not really suitable for a photographer). When I saw that Joseph Van OS Photo Safaris was holding a one week trip here, with travel on rented snow coaches, I jumped at the chance.

I expected that I would get magnificent photos of large animals (bison and elk) and a few scenic photos. As often happens, I was surprised when I saw my pictures. Although I did get some nice photographs of animals, I also got a number of landscape photos I really like; waterfalls, snow mounds, steaming thermal areas, and desolate trees. One of the advantages of going with a group is learning from others; snow mounds and winter trees would probably not be especially attractive to me, but our trip leader (John Shaw) had us spend time photographing them. I now have a new appreciation for them, and have hopefully broadened my ability to see a wide range of subjects.