Last night I stayed up a while listening to some coyotes who seemed to be arguing. After a while they sort of sounded like hyenas. I’m a little surprised I wasnt dreaming odd things last night.
This morning I woke up at 5:14, my body not realizing that I’m two time zones away now…it being 7:14 back home in Maryland. It was beautiful out and I started to hike out to the location I’d picked the night before to shoot the sunrise, but there were several bison between me and that location. I decided the bison had the right of way and hiked back to my car.
Driving the backroads out of the park requires driving up some hills which were full of fog. After making my way through the fog, the road began to decsend into a valley, and out of the fog/clouds. Just as the air cleared, two porcupine waddled across the road.
Their burrow was just to the side, so I parked and waited them out. One was shy, but the other mosied on out and began foraging. Eventually, he seemed to take notice of me and made his way towards the car. When he was so close I couldnt see him without sticking my head out the window, I had this ridiculous thought that he was going to climb in, so I started the car and startled him back off into the brush. He went back to foraging after that and I had to laugh at both my silliness and his curiosity.
After he went back to his burrow, I drove on, stopping often to photograph and wander off for better views.
Starting my day off like this…makes me a bit desperate to move out west.
I made my way to Gardiner, Montana where I stopped to say hello to a friend I’d met on my last visit, then grabbed a campsite in Yellowstone.
