Originally posted by UncleVanya How often were you at 16-17mm vs 18+. My 18-135 is my go to wide to long zoom - I don’t own the 16-85. For me that puts more pressure on the wide end - but taking my 12-24 seems to fail on the Astro side and seems rather large compared to perhaps renting a 16-85. Next year’s decisions… I’m not sure if I’d miss the long end more at that point. Probably not if I had a long zoom along as well.
I do hike but my wife is very nervous about bears and her ability to walk on uneven surfaces has degraded over the years. So most hiking would need to be shorter and less backwoods- no camping also. Camping where bears aren’t abundant isn’t impossible with her but limited. My camping skills are quite rusty as well. The point of which is that I’ll mostly be shooting out of the car. Any rented gear would be collected in Montana as I have a friend in Butte.
I got the 16-85 to replace my 18-135 for two reasons -- first, I got a DA 18-270 superzoom, and I really enjoy shooting at the 16-17mm wide end perspective, which I think is very noticeably wider compared to 18mm. With the 16-85mm, I don't feel like I need to carry my DA 15mm with me. I do miss the 18-135's lighter weight (which is noticeable as well) and smaller barrel size/diameter, and at times, I missed having the 86-135mm range. For this trip, since I had only one DSLR body with me, I had to change zoom lenses to my 55-300 if I knew I needed more than 85mm to get a shot. I'm sure there were times when I wouldn't have had to make that lens swap if 135mm was "good enough" of a telephoto. But I think I shot a fair amount of my landscape and wider angle shots at the 16mm end, rather than 18-20mm, perhaps in part because I knew I could always crop in post if necessary. If I still had my 18-135 (or if I took my 18-270 instead-- but did not because of lack of WR and it's not as fast in autofocusing at the telephoto end compared to the 55-300 PLM), I'm sure I would have either brought my DA 15mm, or used my Sigma 10-20mm more often.
My wife refuses to camp -- she needs a real bed and real bathroom facilities. She shuddered any time she had to use a compostable toilet or porta-potty during this trip. And my daughter was constantly worried about bears during our hikes, despite the fact that we carried bear spray and my kids deliberately made lots of noises to scare away the bears. On the heavily trafficked hiking routes with lots of people walking them, I doubt any bears would make an appearance!
---------- Post added 09-09-21 at 11:22 PM ----------
Originally posted by aslyfox Old Gardiner Road follows historic stagecoach trail out of Yellowstone Park | Yellowstone Gate
I definitely plan on checking it out while there
It's worth it for the history alone -- I can't imagine doing it by stagecoach back in the day. But as for seeing wildlife, as you probably know from your previous visits as well as trips to other national parks, there are no guarantees, and it depends a lot on luck. Sometimes we saw amazing things when we weren't expecting/looking for it (big elk suddenly crossing the road) and other times, we waited for an hour at an overlook in Hayden Valley, hoping to catch a glimpse of a white wolf, but all we ended up seeing was a lonely bison way out in the distance.