Road Trip... The Animals

As many of you know, my business took me to Wisconsin in May.  So, instead of booking a flight and making a miserable trip to the cheese state (as I did back in January), I decided to make it a road trip and take my family along with me.  Along the way there and back, we would see what that part of the country had to offer.

One of the aspects of the road trip that we were particularly excited about was the animals.  We knew we were going to see some animals because we knew we would be driving through Yellowstone National Park.  However, I believe we totally under-estimated what we would see and how much we would see when we originally set out.  For example, the antelope above... We didn't expect to see them - especially in the numbers that we saw.

We saw chipmunks in Minnesota.  A rest stop at the border between South Dakota and Minnesota had several of them, and I was just waiting for them to stand up on their hind legs and start singing, "We're the Chipmunks... Alvin, Simon, Theodore..."  No such luck.

We came across this beauty in the Badlands National Park.  This bighorn sheep was simply walking in the grass beside the road - not at all bothered that I was driving about 5 miles per hour next to him, so I could snap about a dozen shots.

Of course Yellowstone had the buffalo.

 Lots of buffalo.

And elk.  This female elk (tagged with a tracking collar) was lounging by the Yellowstone River - perfectly happy to pose for my camera.

Then there was this flock of wild turkeys. 

I'm pretty sure they were running from this guy.  He was right by the road, but by the time I got my camera out - he was already on the other side of a wire fence.

And I got to see what I wanted to see... A bear in Yellowstone.  Granted, this fuzzy one was a long way away, and I had to use my super telephoto lens to capture him.  I wanted to get out of my truck and get closer, but Mum quickly put a stop to that.  She can be a real party pooper.

There were lots of elk...

And even more buffalo.  Mum loved the buffalo.  I just loved that they stood still long enough for me to photograph them.

As you can see... There were quite a few animals for us to see.  We're heading back to Yellowstone in the fall, and I'm hoping to see more.  I really want to see more bear, moose, and wolves.  Fingers crossed!