【2019 Yellowstone①】Yellowstone in winter time

日本語版はこちら（http://yellow-warbler.com/?p=3267）

I was just a child, about 5 or 6 years old then. I was watching a documentary program on the TV at home. There I saw a beautiful animal, walking gracefully on brown, rocks. On his head, there were swirling horns, just like a pair of ammonite. From that moment, I fell in love with this animal– even though I’m not sure if that was a bighorn sheep or not, but that was the first encounter of “a sheep with big horn”.

After a while, when reading a book by Ernest Thompson Seton, I met a bighorn sheep described there. I started willing to see this mysterious animal someday–a vague dream has spawned, and a long time has passed since then. During these nearly 20 years, I have been watching various wild animals and wild birds on each summer holidays. I visited Yellowstone National Park several times, and saw some of big horn ewes and lambs there. However, I still could never meet a male with a great horn, and my dream remained a dream.

Then I learnt that in winter time, there is a chance to see bighorn rams as they come down to lower altitude. At the same time, I learnt that Yellowstone is freezing in winter time and there aren’t so many places you could stay. So it took time for me to make decision. However, I finally decided to travel alone in the winter of 2019 to get an answer from my unrequited longing.

This is one of the reasons why I write this blog. If there is someone who is planning to visit Yellowstone in winter from Japan, I believe this blog can be a useful guide to help.