A grizzly bear lolls on its back, its front paws held aloft as if examining his claws, while reclining atop the dirt it has thrown over a partially submerged bull elk carcass.
A pine marten peaks curiously around a tree, its brown-eyed gaze piercing.
A Yellowstone cutthroat trout leaps to clear a rapid as it swims upstream to spawn.
Any one of these photos would be a once-in-a-lifetime shot for most people, but for Addy Falgoust it’s just another day at her office in Yellowstone National Park.
“I feel so fortunate to be working in interpretation in this park,” she said in a phone interview.
Year-round Falgoust is ensconced in the park’s interior at Yellowstone Lake and Fishing Bridge, where she has worked as an interpretive ranger for four years. It’s a long way physically and culturally from Louisiana, where she grew up, and southern Mississippi where she attended college. Yet her photos demonstrate a woman at ease in one of the wildest mountain regions in the Lower 48 states.
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Bear jamming
It was after helping to police a traffic jam in 2020 that Falgoust took the photo of the grizzly bear. The location was the Hayden Valley along the Yellowstone River. The bear, a 9-year-old male weighing an estimated 600 pounds, had charged into the river after an injured bull elk and brought it down.
Once the elk was dead, the grizzly floated the carcass to the shore, about 100 yards directly across from one of the main roads in the park, in full view of slack-jawed tourists driving past.
“I spent a lot of time there managing the jam,” Falgoust recalled. “It took at least eight days for the carcass to be consumed.”
The food source also attracted other bears, wolves and ravens. To defend his food source, the bear would rebury the carcass after feeding and lay atop the mound, napping away much of the day.
To protect the bear, Park Service personnel established a no-go zone directly across from the river marked off with cones. It was also a way to protect visitors, Falgoust said.
“We didn’t want another bear coming up behind the crowd,” she said.
Overlooked species
Although large animals like bears, elk and bison are some of the biggest attractions for visitors to Yellowstone, Falgoust finds some of the smaller species just as interesting.
While hiking on Storm Point one afternoon, she saw one of her favorite animals, a marten. She and a coworker excitedly pointed it out to other hikers coming up the trail who seemed confused by their enthusiasm. At first they suspected Falgoust had spotted a bear.
“Then we showed the marten to them and they were like, ‘Oh,’ and were kind of confused and kept going,” Falgoust said.
Martens tend to be more visible in the winter, she said. Although often shy, she occasionally finds one that is curious and will pause long enough for her to snap some photos.
Another small mammal that caught her attention was a striped skunk that crossed the road in front of her while she was snowmobiling near LeHardys Rapids last March.
“It’s a pretty common animal in a lot of places, but not so common here, so that made it special,” she said.
LeHardys Rapids on the Yellowstone River is also where she captured a photo of a Yellowstone cutthroat trout attempting to leap over a rapid as it migrated upstream to spawn. It’s the type of image more commonly associated with salmon or steelhead than a trout, yet another testament to the uniqueness of Yellowstone National Park.
Gear and tactics
Falgoust uses a Canon camera with a 600mm lens for much of her wildlife photography. She’s also a stickler for following park rules, since she wants to set a good example for visitors. That means staying a minimum of 25 yards away from most animals and 100 yards or more away from wolves, grizzly and black bears.
“Although a lot of people get excited about wildlife photography, it’s really important to remember that we don’t want to disturb these animals or encroach in their space,” she said.
After all, Yellowstone is not a zoo where animals are secured behind cages. These are wild, free-roaming creatures that deserve respect, Falgoust said. So don’t try to pet the bison.
“I also think the shots are a little bit more meaningful when the animal is in its natural habitat doing its own thing, and you’re just a bystander, not changing its behavior,” she added.
Using pullouts for parking vehicles rather than stopping in the middle or along the side of the park’s narrow roads is also important to avoid causing traffic jams or accidents.
“A lot of my photos have occurred opportunistically,” Falgoust said. “A lot of it is luck and being in the right place at the right time. But one way you can increase the chances that you are in the right place at the right time is by putting yourself out there. So spending time in the field and routinely going to the same spots.”
Scenery locales
Although Yellowstone attracts many wildlife photographers, it’s also a scenic wonderland. One of Falgoust’s favorite spots for such photos is Gull Point Drive. The two-mile spur road is between West Thumb and Lake Village along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.
“There’s a nice sandbar that goes out into the middle of the lake and you have a beautiful view of Stevenson Island and the Absaroka Mountains,” she said. “It can change throughout the seasons as well. Not a lot of people tend to go out there. It is facing east, but in the evenings you can often get a nice alpenglow during sunset.”
She also said the Fishing Bridge area is often overlooked by wildlife watchers.
“There’s a lot of good waterfowl you can photograph from the bridge,” she said, including eared grebes with their long, golden feathers fanning out behind their eyes. “Trumpeter swans are frequent and common there in the winter.”
“I’ve also actually gotten some photos of cutthroat trout coming up to catch some insects as well. And I think I’ve seen wolves, bears and otters from Fishing Bridge.”
While in college, Falgoust’s senior thesis focused on “Young People’s Perceptions of Nature and Interactions with National Parks." She sees the posting of photos and videos on social media, like hers, as one way to engage young people with parks, as well as those who may never get to visit places like Yellowstone.
In addition to its Facebook page, Yellowstone also has Flickr, Instagram and X social media accounts where Falgoust’s photos and videos can be found. It’s also where two of Falgoust’s favorite photographers, coworkers Jim Peaco and Jacob Frank, often post their photos.