bflood Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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My wife and I took a couple of snow coach tours in Yellowstone in February 2008. On each tour, someone asked the coach driver for his recommendation for the best time of year to visit the park. Both gave the same very specific answer of the third week in May. Asked why, they said that it was late enough in spring that the hibernating animals will be out of hibernation, hungry, and therefore feeding a lot, most but not all the year's newborns will be born, making for lots of little ones to see, the risk of snow won't be zero, but the risk of vacation-ruining big snowfall was so small that it shouldn't be an issue, and it's before Memorial Day, so schools will still be in session, limiting the crowds. I don't know about the school schedules these days, but I went the third week in May 2012, days after I retired. I saw and photographed more bears on that trip than on all 6 other trips to the park combined. I photographed an elk calf being born, walking minutes later, and swimming across the Madison River and hour later. You are definitely going at the best time!
I recommend taking both lenses. I have a Cotton Carrier holster that I can hang one camera on while carrying the other on a tripod over my shoulder. I'd put the 200-500 on the D500 for the more distant subjects, and the 500/4 on the Z for best low-light shooting around dawn/sunset.
I can't imagine leaving either lens at home while I'm in Yellowstone.
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