Well, my consensus is that I'll look for the 55-200 STM version lens and forget about becoming a world-renowned wildlife photographer. From my reading there are so many reasons to have a telephoto other than impossibly far off shots, and I need to pick up a wide angle, too. Any prints I do will be for me and family . Most will just stay digital. I really should get a good print of some of my best to see what they look like on paper. Meanwhile I'll be trolling this forum frequently for tips and to see what's possible.

Thanks, jeep daddy. I guess I should go rent a telephoto at the camera store and see what the smaller telephotos can do for me. I really want to be judicious on what I buy for my new toy as I learn more and more. Buffalo are more cooperative - they come up way too close, but the wild horses stay far away and I'm a road warrior, not a trail warrior.

I have a Canon EOS Rebel T2i with a 18-55 macro EFS kit lens. I confiscated it from my son after he took a college photography class and parked the camera in the corner afterwards. So I'm trying to learn how to do more than point-and-shoot photos, even taking an online course. It's fine for most of what I do but I'd like to add some telephoto for the occasional times I wish I were closer. My budget is limited so I want to get a lens that's good enough. I found a refurb one that's around $200 from B&H.

Here's a pic I took on a trip last year to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND. There are horses up on the ridge but I really would have liked to get closer original size pics. Second pic is after I cropped it using Windows Picture Tools. Would this 55-250 give me a close enough pic of the horses or do I need a stronger one? Obviously, a tripod is needed, too. I have a fairly sturdy one but it's showing its age.
Pic taken with auto settings: 1/200 sec. f/9 27mm, ISO 100

The Iron Road was built to show off the scenic views in the Custer State Park area and the engineers and builders of the bridges had to be creative in their construction. Many of the roads are corkscrews with lots of tight curves and the bridges had to accommodate the terrain. The bridges were built from timbers cut in the local area and engineered to fit in with the natural terrain. Obviously they've been repaired and enhanced over the years with metal straps and other repairs and the road covering the original surface has been improved. "Pigtail" apparently is a local name for these bridges.

Pigtail bridge on Iron Road in Custer State Park, SD