June 10, 2013
River Otter in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The third time was a charm. It took me three hikes up to Trout Lake in Yellowstone National Park to see a river otter. People had reported seeing them occasionally over the past two weeks, so Jan and i kept going up there to see and photograph them. It's a species that I haven't photographed much, and I find them a joy to watch. We only saw one individual, and initially it was frustrating to get shots as it swam around the lake because it only came up for short breaths of air before diving back under the water. After several circuits of the lake, it disappeared. We waited, and waited, and decided to head back to the trailhead. As we walked along the lake, we spotted the otter sunning itself on a small patch of grass. We photographed it there for a while, then it swam out to a downed tree close to shore where I captured this image. The hot (bright) branches didn't make a great environment, but I like the look it gave me.