Yesterday I spent a major portion of the day driving around in the rain looking for something to shoot. My travels took me to Mammoth where I had lunch and browsed in the general store. While in the store I noticed a book on CD that was a collection of Native American wisdom collected and told in the story of a converstation between a grieving boy and his grandfather. One of the main messages is that perserverance will get you through many of the curves that life will throw at you.

So while I'm driving around listening to these stories I am applying it to my search for subjects to photograph. I was pretty discouraged but I thought ya know what they are saying makes sense. I went to bed planning to apply the lessons I was hearing to today’s photography.

I woke up early and set out to photograph an elusive Great Gray Owl. I trudged out to the woods, stood there in the snow and froze while trying to avoid being noticed by the big bull elk about a hundred yards away. Well after a bout 2 hours I said they are obviously not coming out today so I moved on.

I then chased an erroneous report of wolves taking down an elk in the Yellowstone River. I did see elk in the river but they were very much alive. I also saw the wolves but they were pretty far off. So again I moved on only to find out that Dunraven Pass was closed due to snowy conditions.

So I had to hang out at Canyon to wait until the road was cleared. After lunch it was opened back up and I headed over the pass. Looking for bear I only found 2 large buck mule deer. I shot a few images and then headed to Slough Creek.

When I got there I found a nice little family of Mule Deer and shot a few images of them. Then I headed out to the main road. Where much to my surprise I saw what appeared to be a bear wondering along the valley. Some cars pulled over up the road and people racing through the sage confirmed my thoughts. I shot a few hundred images of the bear and decided it was time to start heading back.

When I got to the Canyon Junction I thought I should really go home for the day but I stopped and remembered the lessons from the cd I had listened to. So I said I am going to give it one more try. When I arrived there was no one around, not a good sign. But I went into the meadow, this time a different one than this morning and started to look around.

Within about three minutes the Great Gray swooped in over my head and landed in a nearby tree. For the next 30 minutes it was just him and I and he would fly tree to tree and pose for me. Then he would swoop down to the ground and attempt to catch his prey.

It was one of the highlights of all of my visits to Yellowstone, or any photographic experience that I have ever had. And I really owe a lot of it to the cd and the lessons on it. I don't know that I would have gone back for one more try had it not been for those lessons.

Tomorrow it’s out and about again but this time I will be ending up in Grand Teton and Jackson, WY.