Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.
While Yellowstone National Park is globally acclaimed for its beautiful scenery, it is perhaps even more well-known for its wildlife.
According to the National Park Service, the park is home to 67 different species of mammals, 300 species of birds, 16 species of fish, five species of amphibians, and six species of reptiles. Among these, the gray wolves, bison, grizzly bears, and moose get most of the press. Naturally, I had high hopes to see at least a couple of these on our trip to the park in late July. I made sure to rent a large lens for the trip: Sony’s FE 200-600mm, a lens nearly as large as my 2-year-old and that weighs about as much.
We saw a couple of elk near Mammoth Hot Springs on our first day out, but beyond that, we wouldn’t see a ton of wildlife until the end of Day 2, around Grand Prismatic Spring, and Day 3 in the Lamar Valley and Cascade Lake. The first animals I got some great shots of are the always fascinating Sandhill Cranes. These tall birds can be found during migration across most of the country, but strongly prefer cooler climates and can even be found in Siberia. They can grow over 4ft tall and make a sound that is quite unmistakable. They sound more like bugs than birds to me, but when you hear it, you’ll know for sure what it is.
Bison are by far the most prolific large mammal in the park, and we saw countless (likely several hundred) of them on our trip. On our drive through the Hayden River Valley, we came across several, including this fellow that we watched for a while. After spending some time creekside, he wandered in our direction and found a good place for a dust bath. Bison do this for the same reason as many other animals: to help discourage insects and mites.
We made an attempt to catch the wolves early on our third morning in the park in the stunning Lamar Valley. Here, we saw hundreds of bison, numerous pronghorns, several adorable prairie dogs, and numerous birds. I’ll be sharing those photos in a separate post about the Lamar Valley and our exit from Yellowstone next week.
Our real fun came on our second camping night in the park. It had been a very long day of hiking, and we were both exhausted before even leaving the truck to hike the 2 miles into our campsite for the night. I decided to leave behind my giant telephoto lens as it was getting dark, and I didn’t want the extra pounds in my pack. I would shortly regret that decision.
The hike into Cascade Lake was absolutely beautiful. The sun was setting as we hiked in, and dusk was falling over the beautiful rolling fields full of wildflowers. After fighting off thousands of mosquitoes, we finally got near our campsite. About 1/4 mile away, I noticed something moving in the trees. We both froze, my buddy got out his binoculars, and I peeled my eyes. I was almost certain I knew what I had seen, but I wanted to be sure. After a tense moment, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR grizzly bears emerged from the woods about 100-150 yards ahead of us and to our left. Where was my telephoto lens again? In the truck. The bears moved slowly as they meandered among and munched on the huckleberry bushes.
We quickly determined this was a mother and three cubs, although the cubs were likely a year old or more and nearly full-grown. They showed very little interest in us, though one of the cubs did stand up to get a better look. My telephoto was in the truck, but I did have my lightweight long lens on me. It isn’t made for shooting at dusk and doesn’t have image stabilization, but I still managed to snag some shots. It was simultaneously one of the most terrifying and exhilarating moments of my life, being so close to these beautiful animals. They crossed the trail only about 50-75 yards ahead of us and kept on moving up the mountain. To our knowledge, they never visited our camp overnight despite us being so close by.
When we got to the lake, we were greeted by a pair of trumpeter swans, but it was far too dark to take any photos by this point. We camped along the edge of the woods with a great view of the trail leading into the lake, and that was when we got our second big surprise of the night. I have no photos because it was getting very dark by this point, but we saw a giant bull moose making his way to the lake for a drink. There was just enough light to get a decent look with binoculars, and let’s just say he was far more scary than the grizzlies.
When we left Cascade Lake the next morning, we saw this beautiful crane flying across the lake, but I wasn’t close enough to get a species ID.
I’ll have more images of wildlife to share next week, but nothing will top our evening with the grizzlies near Cascade Lake.
Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series:
- Go West, young man: To where it started
- White Mountain
- Bunsen Peak
- Norris Geyser Basin
- Star light, star bright
- A ‘Faithful’ meeting
- Shattering Earth
- Isn’t She Grand?
- Canyons of Time
