March 4, 2008

11:49 AM CST

Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Moose lying down in brush just off short trail
between Maude Noble’s cabin and Menor’s Ferry,
Grand Teton National Park.

This bull moose, along with a cow and a calf, was laying down just off a trail we were walking on. Karen spotted it, and thinking it would be a great picture, got my attention. When I saw it, I figured that we were way too close to it, even though it was laying down, so we left the trail and looped away from it to get back to the trail at a point further down where there was an old barn. As we got back to the trail we saw a young ranger gesturing to us to where she was standing, which was in the direction we were going anyway. The moose had apparently already been reported and, since they were in an area with frequent pedeatrian traffic, rangers just arrived to keep people away from the animals. Though the moose were obviously used to the presence of people, they are still wild animals… and they are big and can move very fast. As well, according to the ranger we, some boys had been throwing rocks at the moose the day before.

While we were there, the rangers strung a yellow plastic barrier tape — the kind you see at crime scenes in movies and TV shows — to keep the public at a safe distance from the moose.

This picture was taken from a window inside the old barn.

Ancient dunes covered by grass, Lincoln County, Nebraska

August 17, 2007 at 12.20pm CDT
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100

August 20, 2007 at 2.00pm CMT

Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/6.7
Focal Length: 90 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Karen and our oldest daughter went for a hike at the Bona Dea Trails near Russellville Saturday while I stayed home to do some work on the shop. We had heard that there was an alligator in the wildlife refuge that the trails wind through. Karen was always looking, hoping to see it everytime she was there. Of course, I was a bit skeptical that any of us would ever see it.

I was wrong!

Our daughter took these pictures yesterday. Karen estimates that it was 70 to 100 feet away. She has a post about it on her blog, too.

It doesn’t look like this guy — or gal? — needs to go far for a meal!

We’ve been to Jackson, Wyoming, and the Tetons many times in the past. This time, we found some areas that we hadn’t ever been to — or hadn’t seen in a very long time.

The first three photos are an old homestead on the Gros Ventre road. It reminded Karen and me of the old TV series, “The Monroes,” a show about a group of orphaned brothers and sisters trying build a life in the early days of the American West. The only thing that I remember about the show was that the backdrop was the Tetons and they had a cabin about the same size as the one below. The show only had one season, premiering in 1966. I had been to the Tetons for the first time in 1963, when I was 11 years old, which is probably the only reason I remember the show.

A view though one of the windows.

Looking through the ruins of the back of the log cabin from a window on the side opposite the Tetons.

The Tetons and a barn in the old abandoned Mormon Row community.

It was a very windy day — and cool — so Karen went back to the truck while I was taking pictures. A mini dust storm blew up while she was waiting for me.

This is a panorama view of the Tetons from the Antelope Flats area.

A view of the mountains across Lake Jackson from a part of the Colter Bay area we had never been before, even though we had camped several times in the Colter Bay campground.

Karen was within just a few feet of this bull moose near Menor’s Ferry when he turned his head. The motion caught her attention and then she whispered, very loudly, “Michael! Michael!” in a way that she has of getting my attention. She wanted us to move very quietly past on the walkway, but I said, “No, let’s go this way,” wanting to move out and away from him. There was an old wagon shed not far in the direction we were going and as we got near it, there was a young ranger beckoning us to move in her direction. We talked to her and another young ranger for a while. They were both appreciative that we had moved past the moose through the grass a ways away from it rather than staying on the path. It had gotten antsy earlier in the day because of the proximity of people and had nearly charged several, including one of the rangers trying to keep people away. The day before some people had been trying to get it or another bull to get up and move by throwing rocks at it. Really dumb!

There was also a cow and a calf nearby. We had seen another bull, cow, and calf earlier in the day between Jackson Lake dam and Moran Junction and another trio the day before in Cascade Canyon.

William D. Menor’s country store. It was his home and a store combined. Today it is part museum and part gift store, in a very rustic manner.

On the way back to the campground by way of a road that goes from near the Moose Junction visitor center to Teton Village, avoiding the crush and bustle of Jackson at quitting time.

September 18, 2007 — On the way over to Jackson, Wyoming, we took Teton Pass. The steep grade was interesting for towing our camper over — especially on the downhill side!

We’re camped right next to the Snake River. We walked down to the water’s edge shortly after we got here and saw a couple of boats of fishermen floating downstream.

September 19, 2007:

The new visitor center at the Moose entrance to Grand Teton National Park has only been open a few weeks. It is quite impressive, and, given the volume of visitors through here, sorely needed.

The “courtyard” going into the visitor center.

The visitor center includes a very modern museum/interpretive center. In this photo, Karen is standing on top of a set of video panels showing the role of fire in the park’s natural cycle. There were several of these floor video panels, each showing the same video, I think, but sequenced so it seems like they are all different. Instinctively, it just feels wrong to walk on the displays, but that is what they are designed for or there would be a barrier to keep people off.

There were quite a few bronze statues depicting different parts of the history of what is now the park.

The Tetons, looking across Jenny Lake. We walked a trail later in the day that goes up the notch on the left into Cascade Canyon.

On the trail, headed first to Hidden Falls.

There are some huge trees in the park.

Hidden Falls

A British couple that had road the same boat across Jenny Lake took this photo for me after I had offered to take one of them with their camera. We ran into them again later in town.

Fall colors on the way up. On this trail, it is a constant climb up to and a little past Inspiration Point, which is about a mile in. Then it levels out in Cascade Canyon. We hiked a ways into the canyon, but turned back because we were at our limit for distance and we also had to get back to ensure a ride back across the lake. We ended up doing about 5 miles all told, which is an improvement for us.

This is the toughest part of the trail — not for the faint of heat or those who fear heights. There is a long drop-off at this point. Sensible shoes highly recommended! — although we saw people with smooth soled shoes and even sandals! These folks were very tentative coming down, especially the last guy. He kept very close to the inside wall and even then almost fell when he got down to safety at the point where we were standing.

We had been there before and went up — and down — with no problem.

One of the few pictures of me — I take most of the pictures.

After we got to Inspiration Point, we continued a ways, but were planning to turn back before too long as we had already done a lot better than we had thought we would. Along the way, several people returning told us about 3 moose off the trail a ways ahead so we kept plodding along. We finally found them. They were a ways off the trail laying down. We couldn’t see them very well, but I was able to enhance this photo to bring out the rack on this bull moose.

Looking back up behind us as we headed back down the trail.

Coming back across Jenny Lake.

After the hike, we drove north a ways in the park. This is at Oxbow Bend turnout near Moran Junction.

This morning, we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin, but don’t have any pictures because we were a little out of routine getting going in the morning. As a result, Karen brought out my camera, but I hadn’t put the memory card back in it. We discovered it wasn’t in the camera after Norris. There was another smaller point-and-shoot camera in the truck that had another memory card in it that would work in my Pentax, though the card had much less capacity.

Tower Falls — another disappointment. There is a sign at Tower Falls that points to the overlook, but the part of the sign that says how far it is to the falls itself was covered with a piece of wood. We didn’t even notice, though. We had been to the base of the falls a number of times in the past, so really didn’t need to know how far it was. However, when we were about half way there, the trail was blocked by a barricade. A sign that said the trail beyond that point was closed due to erosion. So we turned around and went back. This picture is from the Tower Falls overlook.

After Tower Falls, we drove up the road to the northeast entrance a ways, had lunch and saw several hundred — maybe over a thousand — buffalo. On the way back, just before Tower Falls, we saw some bighorn sheep. This female was just stepping off a wall along the side of the road. I shot the picture from the driver’s seat of the truck, trying to compose it in such a way that the road and wall didn’t show much, if any.

This young male was very close to the female, just on the other side of the wall.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone — Someone wisely refrained from going after their cap - outside the barriers, too close to the edge, and on unstable, gravelly soil. Just before this, we saw an overweight man climb over the railing very close to the brink of the canyon to retrieve his cap. Luckily, nothing happened.

Looking down the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from an observation point on the north side of the canyon.

This view is from another observation point further up the canyon, again looking downstream. This is a composite of several images.

Twisted and gnarled tree roots, with a rock gripped in them.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

Steps going down to the observation point where the previous picture was taken. This was at the end of a trail with quite a few switchbacks and a bit of a climb.

Switchbacks on the trail.

 We headed back down to Old Faithful again on our drive around the southern loop of the park. Our stop at the inn was intended to be a restroom break, but, once we got there, we decided to walk a bit of the trails in the vicinity, including a hike up to an overlook above Old Faithful.

Looking down the Firehole River from a bridge over it.

Buffalo near the trail up to the overlook.

An elk along the trail.

Old Faithful eruption viewed from about 1/2 mile away.

Solitary Geyser. In 1915, the spring was tapped with a pipe with the idea of  putting some of the hot water in the park to use. The level dropped about 5 feet and what had been a calm spring became a geyser erupting every few minutes. The pipe was removed, but the disruption of the balance caused over 90 years ago continues today.

A raven that visited us at lunch.

Lake Yellowstone Hotel - a panorama. Click on image to see a larger image (it will open in a new window).

The hotel dining room.

The hotel’s “Sun Room,” adjacent to the lobby and overlooking the lake.

View of Lake Yellowstone from the shore in front of the hotel.

Churning Cauldron - The roiling of the water is not boiling; it’s huge bubbles of hot gases from deep within the earth.

This lady was way too close.  If these buffalo had started running, the could have been on her before she had a chance to react.  We’ve seen people who were even closer than this to buffalo.

This was a lazy day. We stayed in the campground until a little after 2 P.M. piddling with various projects. I got ahead a ways on the diary entries of Gideon Welles, the Union Navy Secretary during the American Civil War, which I am publishing day by day in my Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War, currently posting from September 1863. After that I set up our new wireless router so that Karen and I can be online at the same time. We also took a walk around the campground. The horses below were on the range land west of the campground.

Before going into the park, we went through a few of the shops in West Yellowstone. We saw some interesting things — many of them too expensive, in my view. But we restrained ourselves and didn’t buy anything before we headed into the park for dinner at Old Faithful Inn.

Construction on Old Faithful Inn started in 1903. The architect and construction crews worked through the winter to have it ready for guests in June 1904. It’s really hard to get a single picture to show what the inside of the inn is like. This picture is a composite created from 21 photos. The beams are straight, not curved. It’s an effect resulting from the blending of multiple images taken from one spot, but it does give a good idea of what the place is like.

We had dinner reservations for 6 P.M. and got there quite a bit early. It was nice to be able to just sit around and relax, looking at various things and taking pictures. The next photo is of the dining room at the inn. It’s taken from a second floor balcony that overlooks the room. Our table was the second one through the doorway at the top of the picture. The meal was good, but pricey.

Before supper we were treated to a long and impressive eruption of Old Faithful, which we viewed from the balcony over the entrance to the lobby of the inn.  It had been raining not to long before this, and we were reluctant to stray too far from shelter since we didn’t have any rain gear with us.

After dinner, on the other hand, there was a very short and less powerful eruption than the previous two that we had observed this trip. I had been asked to take some pictures of a group of people, using their camera, of course. After I took the first picture, Old Faithful started erupting, 4 minutes earlier than predicted and the eruption was so brief that I was only able to get a couple of shots before it started petering out. From our experience, it usually teases the viewers by spitting and sputtering a few times before it actually erupts. This time, it started erupting with no warning.

We made it back to the campground after dark. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any wildlife on the road.