While I overslept again
(till 7am that is), the temperature was below freezing and the fog along the road was
still at times so dense that it was hard to see the bison, or the idiot tourist parked in
the middle of the road without lights. I still managed to get some nice shots of elk in
the morning, joining a friendly German wildlife photographer. He told me about his
frustration with Nikon and loved my 300L/IS lens, and asked for help about where to get a
new 80-200 lens which he just crashed. Later the day the temperatures surprisingly reached
a new record high with 25c (90F) and the whole climate turned rather unsuitable for
photography, due to the strong sun. Some Park Ranger divers apparently took advantage of
this and took a dive in Lake Yellowstone, very much to the pleasure of tourists such as
myself who could not get enough pictures of this water species.
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The night was
pleasurably quiet, except for the screaming elk and the car horn that went off at close to
midnight - for about five minutes. Five minutes, in the middle of the night and in a
campground, that's like eternity, you see. And once the horn went off the whole campground
applauded to the unknown good spirit who saved the night. Which was not that long for me,
anyway, as at 5:35 my alarm went off so that I got at least THIS sunrise. The plan was to
shoot the Grand Teton, which I missed due to extreme rainfall during my visit past week.
After about an hour's drive, the sunrise was almost as perfect as seen on the
"typical" pictures - there were no clouds whatsoever, and that was slightly
lacking.
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These
days, you can find a chip in everything: your watch, dishwasher, and of course the
computer. On my way back to Yellowstone I unfortunately could also find a chip in my
windshield. Just as I was trying to pass this ugly pickup truck, it threw a rock on me and
left a minor crater in my windshield, just barely off the main vision field. Alright,
change of plans: where can I get a windshield fixed, before the crack spreads too much?
West Yellowstone was the answer. So just after lunch I visited the guys at the local body
shop, which turned into quite an experience. Very friendly and professional, when writing
up the bill soon the question emerged: "How do you spell Audi"? My folding car
key was also cause for bemusement and interest, with all the stares from all employees and
the UPS guy who was there at the moment. His feedback was that he'd never seen such a
thing before, and his father was a locksmith. The idea of heated seats and 4WD in this
small package was also taken with awe; the information that we pay $1800 for rent was
however taken with bewilderment. "I visited SF once and I still wonder why and how
people can live there", said Craig, who was doing my windshield, talking on the phone
with customers most of the time. And indeed, I do wonder about that at times, too.
On the way back to the campground I hung out
with some photographers - some from Germany, some from the US - and one of them was
actually a Yellowstone Park Ranger on vacation. He had a lot of insight into what and
where, and it wasn't till after 9pm that we dispersed to the respective campgrounds. I had
new neighbors all around again (seems that people are coming just for one day these days),
and was entertained till midnite by the loud voices of my Swiss neighbors who were talking
as if they were in a noisy subway station (oops, no subway in Switzerland). The thus
delayed rest was soon interrupted at 4:35am when the other neighbor's baby started
screaming. And I mean, SCREAMING. I'd scream too if I were 1yr old and in a tent and it
was below freezing. It took the parents till 5:30 to realize that it may be a good idea to
get into the car and leave the campground. But at that point I was already wrapping up my
things as well.