In January I was able to get away for a long weekend with my friend, Larry Calof, to Yellowstone NP. Our goal was to do mainly wildlife photography and whatever landscapes we could find. We had arranged an all day privately guided snowmobile trip to the Old Faithful area one day and then were going to join a group guided snowmobile trip to the Canyon area on our second day. It turned out we were the only two on the group trip so we basically got two private trips. I think starting that second morning at about -10 degrees F. helped discourage any others. We certainly welcomed the warming areas. We left each morning about 8:30 am and got back to our lodging between 4 and 4:30. It made for some long days. The hand, thumb, foot and seat warmers were helpful both days, but were really indispensable on the second day. We saw lots of bison, some elk, a number of birds, a long long range coyote, and the highlight was this little guy below.

If you get a chance for a winter trip to Yellowstone, I highly recommend it. (But make sure you bring plenty of warm clothes.) With one rider on the sled I was able to strap my photo backpack on the back of the second seat and tie a duffle bag across the second seat. That held my Canon 300mm f/2.8 with the 1.4 extender as well as a Gitzo monopod. I was also using a new Canon 70-300mm L lens on my 1Ds Mk III which I carried zipped inside my outer shell. (Great for quick handheld shots, like the fox above). Larry had his 1Ds Mk III strapped across the back seat of his snow machine. Neither of us had battery problems. Those big Canon batteries were still going strong at the end of the day. The images from this trip are in the Image Catalog in Yellowstone January 2011.