a Yellowstone bison resting by the side of a road near a classic car — In Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley a classic car slows down to take in a classic scene: a bison resting in the sun by the side of the road. Large numbers of bison congregate in the area during the rut season in August.

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Photographer David Guttenfelder on Yellowstone

An award-winning photographer returns home to the U.S. to capture the beauty of Yellowstone.

Photographs byDavid Guttenfelder

9 min read

David Guttenfelder is one of six photographers who contributed to National Geographic magazine's special issue on Yellowstone. Learn about the other five at natgeo.com/yellowstone.

After college David Guttenfelder left his native Iowa and spent the next 20 years living, working, and winning photojournalism awards (including seven World Press Photo Awards) around the globe. In 2015, he says, “I moved back to America specifically to work on this important Yellowstone story.”

For his first year as a National Geographic Society photography fellow, Guttenfelder worked throughout the ecosystem. He regularly posted Instagram photos of his long, scenic commutes “to bring others along—and maybe rub it in that I got to drive through Yellowstone every morning."

“After exploring the world my whole adult life,” he says, a year in this iconic American park “was the perfect homecoming.”

participants in a rodeo parade at the Teton County Fair in Jackson, Wyoming — A cowgirl queen carries the American flag for a rodeo parade at the Teton County Fair in Jackson, Wyoming.

Nic Patrick, who was mauled by a grizzly — A cowgirl queen carries the American flag for a rodeo parade at the Teton County Fair in Jackson, Wyoming.

a Yellowstone bison being tested for brucellosis — A Yellowstone bison held temporarily at Ted Turner’s Flying D ranch is retested for brucellosis. When two of the ranch’s own commercial bison recently tested positive— infected by wild elk grazing the same pastures—they were euthanized and then necropsied at a lab in Bozeman.

a man shooting a diseased bison — A bison raised on the Flying D ranch near Bozeman, Montana, is put down after showing possible signs of brucellosis, a serious disease transmissible to cattle. Whether Yellowstone’s wild bison pose a similar threat is a matter of heated controversy.

a bison fetus — A fetus was removed from a bison that tested positive for brucellosis at Ted Turner’s Flying D ranch.

people butchering a Yellowstone bison, removing its heart — At a ranch in southwestern Montana, Robbie Magnan and other Fort Peck tribe members ceremoniously butcher a Yellowstone bison, removing its heart. Surplus park bison were kept at the ranch before going to the Fort Peck Reservation. This male was too dangerous to transport.

bison near Yellowstone being herded into a chute on a ranch — At a ranch in southwestern Montana, Robbie Magnan and other Fort Peck tribe members ceremoniously butcher a Yellowstone bison, removing its heart. Surplus park bison were kept at the ranch before going to the Fort Peck Reservation. This male was too dangerous to transport.

a dead elk and its antlers transported by mule — The side of a harvested bull elk and its prized antlers are transported the old-fashioned way—by mule. More than 72,000 hunters came to the lands around Yellowstone and Grand Teton in 2014, many enlisting guides to equip them and lead them to their quarry.

an elk recently shot by a hunting party — The side of a harvested bull elk and its prized antlers are transported the old-fashioned way—by mule. More than 72,000 hunters came to the lands around Yellowstone and Grand Teton in 2014, many enlisting guides to equip them and lead them to their quarry.

a sign covered in bullet holes near Yellowstone National Park — Kids having fun with guns, just north of Yellowstone National Park, or a sign of the times? The Yellowstone region, like much of the West, is uneasily divided over a fundamental question: Who should manage the land and its wildlife, and how, and to what end?

sheep grazing in Montana — This band of 1,400 sheep spends the summer grazing season in the Gravelly Range of Montana. They’re tended by three ranchers along with a sheepherder and two Akbash guard dogs. Constant vigilance replaces bullets as a way of deterring predators.

a Wyoming state wildlife manager checking on a tranquilized grizzly bear — A state wildlife manager in Cody, Wyoming, checks on a problem grizzly that’s been tranquilized so it can be relocated away from people. Wyoming and other states around Yellowstone argue that grizzlies have recovered enough for trophy hunting to be allowed.

visitors at a Jackson, Wyoming, curio shop posing with stuffed animals — At a curio shop in Jackson, Wyoming, visitors pose with stuffed animals, including a brown bear—a Kodiak from Alaska, not a grizzly from Yellowstone. The desire to touch the wild, preferably without threat to life and limb, endures in many of us.

You can still catch a rodeo in the region around Yellowstone. Ranchers still gather at saloons to two-step on Saturday night. And the sight of a pickup with a dog and a rifle in the back may never go away. The economy and culture of the region, seen in the following set of images, are changing fast.