This morning was extremely cold. It was in the upper 30°s when we dropped off the car and headed to the airport. After checking in our bags, it was a quick walk through security. It wasn’t busy at all at this time. Since we were so early, I got an opportunity to kick back and pretty much do nothing and listen to my ipod. The small terminal soon filled up with passengers and all the seats were filled.

When it was time to board, we were lucky to get upgrades to first class and get on the plane first. Walking out to the plane, I could see that the sun had already come up and it was still quite cold.

Beautiful, cold crisp morning!

Bye bye Wyoming!

On the plane, a simple breakfast was served (corn flakes, 2% milk, strawberry/banana yogurt, raisins, cinnamon raisin bagel and cream cheese, orange juice, and black tea). During the flight the showed clips from several NBC shows including The Office, Minute to Win It, and Parks and Recreation. While on the flight, I noticed that one of the guys sitting on the aisle had an Amazon Kindle, I couldn’t figure out if it was the larger one (DX) or the smaller one until I looked next to him on the other side of the aisle where another guy had the smaller kindle.So in the span of twelve hours, I saw my first Apple iPad at the hotel the night before, and both Amazon Kindles in the wild! For companies who tout how well they sell, I haven’t seen any of them.

After breakfast, I pulled out my laptop and started watching the rest of the Castle episode I watched on the way up. I barley finished it when the captain came on and said we were landing! I’m not sure if it was because we were in first class and got food, or if it was that much shorter back that the flight seemed so short. Either way, I was glad to be back home.

Coming off the plane on the jet-bridge, I could feel the heat creeping in. Gone were the signs of winter and back was the summer heat. It was 90° when I got out of the terminal and reached 103° that afternoon! Back in Jackson, I remember them saying on the news the night before that it was going to reach the year’s high at just under 90°. Poor them! They suggested to people to open up their windows at night and trap the cold air in the houses during the day to save energy. I would totally do that here but the lowest it gets even in the early morning is 80°.

Anyways, what pretty much concludes my Wyoming trip, I have a short writeup coming about what I learned.

Texas Motor Speedway, just north of Fort Worth.

For breakfast, instead of doing the usual buffet, I ordered an omelet with all the vegetables (mushroom, peppers, onions, spinach, and jalepeños) and smoked ham. I just couldn’t take any more of the buffet as good as it tasted the first day. The omelet came with a bunch of toast and breakfast potatoes. It was very fresh and hot. It was much welcomed to the morning breakfast routine.

Now we’re talking. Does that look great or what?!?

After breakfast, we set off on our day to hike Death Canyon to the Phelp’s Lake overlook. By this time it was about 11 am, and it was getting quite hot as there were still no clouds in the sky. The Death Canyon trailhead is a little bit off Moose-Wilson Rd. There’s a turn off and a small parking lot before you get to an all gravel road which is recommended for 4×4 vehicles. Since we didn’t want to take the Prius all the way up the uneven road, we parked and walked the remaining 1 mile.

The entire hike up to the top from where we parked is a deceiving 2 miles. The first mile is an uphill gravel road primarily in the sun and the second part from the trailhead gets quite steep and a lot of it is in the sun. It was also quite tiring to lug 10-12 lbs of camera gear up to the mountain. I stupidly decided to bring my 70-200mm F/2.8 IS zoom lens along for the day since the previous two days when I neglected to bring it, we saw moose. I wouldn’t get burned today! At least not by not having it, but punished another way for carrying it. Another part of what made it so difficult were the many swarms of flies and mosquitoes that would just circle you as you walked. I don’t know if it was the sunscreen or if they were always like this, but it was really annoying.

A bit hazy today

It was a long way up, but when we finally got to the top, I was reminded why I brought all my gear up! The view overlooking the lake was pretty nice. I say pretty nice because it wasn’t the best lake of the trip (Taggart was), but it was rewarding nonetheless. Having made the ~400 ft climb, we were quite high up and could see pretty far. As I got a few shots, I turned to see a marmot sitting on a rock observing everyone at the overlook. He seemed quite curious but remained still, watching the entire time as several photographers snapped their pictures. He (she?) was a cute little fellow. I think it was a yellow-bellied marmot, but these turned out to be my favorite wildlife pictures of the trip. The shade provided good lighting and the subject was close enough to fill the frame and behaved so well!

Eying me suspiciously at first.

Too tired to continue the steep trek down to Phelps Lake, we turned around to go back down the mountain. As we were leaving, a couple showed us some pictures of a brown black mama bear (I kid you not) and her two cubs that they had taken coming up just to the side of the trail. So as we were walking down, we kept looking and looking for the black bears, but we never saw them. And the people that had passed us asked us if we had seen them because they hadn’t either.

Nope, no bears here.

One of the things I did see going down though was a live tree trunk filled with holes. The tree was living too! It was like an entire multistory hotel for little baby birds. Several mother birds would bring back food and drop it off to the loud-chirping tree and then be off to fetch more food. It was quite an interesting sight.

The loudest tree you’ve ever heard!

The smallest bird you’ve ever seen, a wren!

Way too heavy to carry up on a steep hike. Worthwhile today though.

The walk down was much quicker, easier, and less tiring. Before I knew it, we were at the base and then at our car. It was about 2 o’clock or so and we decided to have lunch under the shade in the car. Our last stop for the day on the way back to the hotel was the Granite Canyon Trail. It was a short drive on the way back and we stopped to take a few pictures. It was nothing too incredible and we were too tired/lazy to do another hike.

Nope, still no bears.

When we got back to the hotel, it was about 5ish, so we started packing and I showered before going out to an early dinner. The place we wanted to go was called Trio (named after their 3 chefs). It’s this upscale, modern seafood restaurant in the middle of Jackson. We tried to make reservations but they were already full for the evening and only had some seats at the counter which you could not reserve. Luckily when we got there, they still had a few seats left next to the pizza oven.

The restaurant is pretty fancy and modern looking. It’s a dark and very festive (loud) inside. It reminds me of some place you’d see on TV in New York or something. I ordered the pepperoni pizza and my mom got a lobster salad and sweet potato fries. For dessert we got a peach and blueberry and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was all very good and was one of the best meals of the trip.

Trio, small, busy little restaurant.

Lobster Salad

Sweet potato fries

Peperoni pizza

Blueberry and peach cobbler

After dinner, we walked around the town a little bit and then drove back to finish packing and sleep. Our flight was in the morning and we had to drop of the car and check out very early.

Back at the hotel, I walked around and took a few pictures of the cute wood sculpture carvings and the pool:

Front

Back

These three were on the mantle above the fireplace in the bar

This morning was very cold. Near freezing in fact. The car said 36° at the coldest of the morning. Fortunately, I had on my winter coat and gloves and was all set. We left the hotel just after 5 AM and made our way north on Moose-Wilson Road. We saw many elk on the side of the road. I think we snuck up on many of them since the Prius is so quiet. You could see their golden glowing eyes before actually seeing them. After getting back out to Highway 89, we drove a couple miles and turned off the road to Schwabacher’s Landing, a famous spot down on the Snake River known for it’s beaver ponds and excellent sunrise photos. The Grand Tetons are built for sunrise photos. They are in the west and so when the sun comes up over the horizon on the east it paints the tops of the mountain range with this pink light that just looks incredible. They don’t call sunrise light the golden hour for nothing. This beautiful light though only lasts 5 minutes or less, so you better be ready when it comes up and quick before it disappears as quickly as it came.

First, just a peak of pink light…

Then slowly, a bit more…

Until, BAM! It hits. Beautiful orange light on the Tetons!

And, just like that… It’s gone.

When we got to Schwabacher’s there were only a few cars there. When we left, it was full of photographers, some too late to capture sunrise. And thanks to a tip from Jeff Clow, we went to the parking lot instead of the lower landing where everyone else was. The pictures definitely looked better from where I was than the other end which had less water.

After spending about half an hour at Schwabacher’s Landing, we moved about 10 miles down the street to Oxbow Bend. Oxbow bend is this unique bend in Snake River that has a nice open spot for pictures of the Tetons and moose and other wildlife. When we arrived, another photographer that I had saw at Schwabacher’s was there. “Curious seeing you here” he told me. lol. Stranger yet was running into Albert Barg and Jeff Weisberg of Marc-Martin Publishing. I had met them the previous day at Jenny Lake. Jeff was the one that suggested we try Mangy Moose since we were staying in Teton Village at the Snake River Lodge. It turns out the two are commercial photographers who travel the country photographing National Parks and their work is exhibited and sold in the various visitor’s centers at the parks. Where can I get a job like that?

They don’t call it Oxbow Bend for nothing!

After I had gotten all the shots I was going to get, we went back to Jackson Village but stopped by at the famous Snake River Overlook Grand Teton’s Craig Thomas Visitor’s Center. It is this really cool looking building with a large courtyard and this large glass rotunda like enclosure on the side of the building. Inside are lots of exhibits and information about wildlife, the Tetons, hiking, and the history of mountain-climbing on the Tetons. They also have these river screen TVs on the floor that you can walk on. Fancy! One of the donors  on the list was Harrison Ford. The travel book says that you may see him eating in Jackson because he has a house and loves the area.

Snake River Overlook
This spot was made famous by Ansel Adams who took this photograph back in 1942

Ansel Adam’s. See the likeness? For such a famous photo, how did he get away with it being crooked? Ok, maybe his is a little bit better. But he had less trees blocking him!

Next, it was time for breakfast. When we got back, half the rooms were still asleep judging from the paper and “do not disturb signs” outside the doors. Lazys! It was the usual breakfast buffet. I didn’t think I would get tired of it, but I did. It gets old fast (hence, no picture). Who would’ve thought, the same old, same old. And today, the service was pretty bad. They weren’t even busy but just couldn’t seem to clear everyone’s plates and take drink orders fast enough. I hope it gets better tomorrow, it’s our last day of breakfast here at gamefish anyway.

After breakfast, we wanted to go hiking, but also finish touring the surrounding area so that tomorrow, our last full day, we could take it easy and not have to go anywhere. Our first destination was Gros Ventre Road. It was supposed to be this very pretty area. Instead of turning off left to Gros Ventre, we went right to see what was on the west side. It’s a new housing development and large golf and tennis place. The new houses going up are really nice and are several million-dollar homes. Many of the homes are made out of wood, have gigantic windows facing the mountains, and huge 2-3 acre lots.

Next, we turned off and headed to Spring Creek Ranch which is actually on top of its own mountain. The area has the ranch hotel, but also some houses. This was one of the hotels we were considering, but we found a better deal at Snake River Lodge and it turned out to be a better hotel and location anyway. Spring Creek Ranch is a nice little hotel, but it’s much more spread out and not much to do on the mountain. Plus, it’s further from everything, which also means driving up and down the mountain every time. They do have a nice view of the Tetons though.

Coming back down the mountain, we circled through Jackson and went to the other end of Gros Ventre. As soon as we turned off, we saw a buffalo crossing ahead. Further down the road we made our way to Kelly, a small town on the map. Small is an understatement for Kelly. It’s just like a few buildings and we made a U-turn and went back to Gros Ventre and then to Mormon Row, a famous historical site where I guess Mormons used to settle. The first stop we made here was at one of the barns. We thought we were at THE famous Moulton Barn, but it turns out we weren’t. Either way, we photographed the one that was in our book, and it was quite lame to say the least. I’m sure it was partly due to the lighting, but it was just a barn. At least throw some water in there to make things interesting. There were some Japanese tourists that actually drove up and seemed very underwhelmed. They pulled out their cameras with zoom lenses, snap, snap, snap, and took off without even stopping and turning off the car. In our defense, we got out walked around, but just didn’t see anything that interesting.

One of the barns on Mormon Row

After Mormon Row, we finished out the loop with Antelope Flats. It’s an area with a bunch of pretty flowers and a wide-open view of the Tetons. Again, the lighting was pretty bad, but it looked better than a barn. After a few pictures there, we went back to the park and stopped to get gas and eat lunch at Dornan‘s. After pulling out, we saw a bunch of people gathered over the Snake River Bridge leading into the park. This can only mean two things. In Yellowstone, a bear, and a in the Tetons, a moose! Driving across the river, we saw the large bull moose and made the requisite stop and photo. These animals on the side of the road are surprisingly not all that exciting. They frequently just mind their own business and couldn’t care less who was watching.

Going back to the park, we happened across a small bull male moose. It was just sitting in the middle of Snake River eating leaves. He attracted a large crowd. People were parked up and down the bridge and along the banks trying to get the best view. Again, I didn’t have my long lens, but the lighting was terrible. No excuse for this really bad picture though…

After driving into the park, we made the decision to hike from along String Lake to Leigh Lake, a recommended short hike in our book. These two lakes are two of many along the Tetons. They were created tens of thousands of years ago by receding glaciers. They leave these large valleys and hills where water settles, resulting in many clear hidden lakes. As with Jenny and Taggart, these two were extremely clear. This one had a bunch of people swimming and canoeing. On the trail to Leigh, we were stopped by a park ranger who informed us that because of a relatively small 14 acre fire, that the trail Leigh was closed. They were collecting water out of Leigh to put out the fire with a helicopter and a bucket and didn’t want a swinging bucket to take out any hikers in the area. That’s considerate.

So, after reaching the end of String, we turned around and made our way back to the car. By this time it was already 6PM and time for dinner. Told you, time flies. We decided on this Chinese restaurant. I don’t know why I would want Chinese all the way out in Wyoming, but I thought it would be worth a try since the Thai restaurant the first night was good. We ordered broccoli with chicken and some black bean beef dish. The beef dish came out sizzling and smoking out of the kitchen like they were fajitas. The beef was a bit chewy, but the pepper sauce was quite tasty. The broccoli was a bit raw tasting (sour) and the chicken was plain. As far as Chinese restaurants go, it was your very average, run-of-the-mill chop suey restaurant. Nothing to really write home about (just on your blog ;)). Oh yeah, and they charge for rice! $2/bowl. Who does that? It’s not like you’re in Hong Kong or anything…

After dinner it was about 8 something and not quite dark. This would be good because there was one more thing I wanted to do tonight. In my great infinite wisdom, I wanted to go shoot star pictures but left this to the last possible day (tomorrow wouldn’t give time to pack, sleep, and get up at 4 AM on Friday to go to the airport). A day I had already woken up at 4:45 to catch the sunrise no less.

Well, I had planned on getting 2 hours of darkness to capture some nice star trails, but only managed to get an hour’s worth because I was too tired and wasn’t going to sit around waiting for the pictures to finish taking. It was also getting quite cold outside. It’s interesting, when I was setting up my camera, it was kinda cool but there were thousands of large menacing mosquitoes everywhere. Later in the evening, it got cold, and they all thankfully went away. Anyways, so I set up my camera to take a picture every 30 seconds and then merged all the pictures to create a single image of trailing stars. This effect is caused by the earth’s rotation. It’s the same reasoning behind why the sun and moon move through the day and night. In the center of the picture is Polaris, better known as the North Star. It’s not true north, but is good enough and has little rotation.

My setup with the intervolometer taking a picture every 30 seconds, now we wait ….. for 3 hours!

Oh hey, the moon’s up!

Milky Way Galaxy

I started at about 9ish and I think, but it didn’t get dark till much later at like 10 or so, so I didn’t get as many as I wanted, but it turned out alright when stacked!

That concludes the longest day (five)!

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Further down the road, we saw a bunch of cars, so we had to stop and get out and see what it was. It was a female moose. The lighting was pretty bad and I intentionally left my long lens at the hotel because I knew we were going camping. I was really kicking myself for it. Oh well, a good photographer makes do with what he has right?

We started off the day by driving through the main gate and road of the park (Teton Park Road, how creative). Just after entering the park we were flagged into a turnout. The park rangers were conducting a survey and wanted to get our opinion about the park rangers at the gate, how knowledgeable they were, their courteousness, and friendliness. Well since no one was rude and always greeted us with a “good morning” and “have a nice day in the park,” they passed with high marks!

Back onto the road we drove through the park stopping at Jenny Lake and the dam before turned around. Jenny Lake was really pretty, but all the big lakes (Jenny and Jackson) were rough with white caps from the wind. It would’ve made for some nice pictures with reflections I’m sure.

Jenny Lake

Very windy day!

Along the hike from the north to south end

Coming back we made a stop at the Chapel of the Sacred Heart (they have mass there twice a week, Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings) and Signal Mountain. The drive up takes a few minutes and is full of tight turns and narrow roads. Once at the top, I realized why they called it Signal Mountain. It had a large cell site tower and my phone had full signal bars :), a rare site sight for T-Mobile in Wyoming. After taking in the view, we sat down at the only picnic table and had lunch, a ham and cheese sandwich and Pringles.

Chapel of the Sacred Heart’s View

Signal Mountain

So that’s why it’s called Signal Mountain…

The view from the top is pretty spectacular!

After lunch, we came down the mountain and headed to the Taggart Lake Trailhead. Taggart Lake was listed as one of the short hikes I had read about in the Best of the Grand Tetons guidebook. Its a few mile hike that takes you in a loop through Lake Taggart and back out the other side to the parking lot. Out of the entire trip, I think it was my favorite hike. It wasn’t to steep going up and there was plenty of shade, beautiful mountain and waterfall views, and the lake itself was gorgeous. It was unbelievably clear and calm, especially for such a windy day. It was well sheltered by all the trees, truly a hidden gem in the forest.

During the hike, I lost my sunglasses. They had fallen of the strap of my bag where I was holding them when I took out my camera to take a picture. I backtracked probably half a mile in panic. You know that feeling you get when you lose something important and you have no idea where it is and you go crazy? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. It’s not a good feeling. I was literally looking for a needle in a haystack. I was about ready to give up when I calmed down and found my sunglasses in the spot I was standing when I noticed they were gone.

Dropped it when taking this picture….

At the lake, we ran into a few groups of people who were taking in the view. On our way out, one of them had mentioned in passing that they saw a black bear (which are apparently “more curious” than vicious) on the way up from the other end which we were about to go down. I was a bit concerned but also a bit excited at the chance of seeing one up close. On this side of the loop coming out, we only saw one other person, a trail runner who ran passed us and then a little while later, passed us again going back again towards parking lot, the same direction we were headed. I joked the first time that she was running away from a bear and then again that she was for sure running away from a bear to have switched directions. Unfortunately (maybe?), we didn’t get to see said black bear. We did our best to lookout for it, but it must’ve gone somewhere else.

Taggart Lake

Short hike back around the loop along the trail leads to a beautiful overlook of the lake,

When we got back to the parking lot, it was about 7PM and it was time for dinner. As for time, we were doing extremely well given the past 2 days of 10 o’ clock dinners. We went back to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and went to the Mangy Moose for dinner. While chatting with some photographers at Jenny Lake, they had mentioned that they liked the steak at the Mangy Moose.

Look who was still there in the evening!

Finished!

The Mangy Moose is a pretty fun place for dinner. When you go up the stairs to the restaurant, the bar area is to the left where they have live music and the main restaurant is to the right. The restaurant itself is pretty big with two large rooms and an upstairs overlooking one of the dining rooms. The decor is pretty crazy with lots of old movie posters, antiques, working traffic lights, and even an old airplane. Unique for sure. For dinner, I ordered the prime rib and a salad with mango vinaigrette. The salad with dressing was excellent. I have never had anything like it before but since I love vinegar, it was perfect! The steak was pretty good as well. I’d say not as good as the prime rib I had at McGuire’s in Destin. I only say this because that one had a better sauce and better color and texture. I ordered medium, but it came quite rare and almost mushy soft, but seemed cooked enough. Maybe I just like it cooked more firm?

After dinner, it was early to bed (11ish). Not as early as I wanted, but because I wanted to do my sunrise pictures the next morning.

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First stopped to refuel, not something you average 50mpg.

The view from the gas station, the nicest I’ve ever seen!

This is our second full day and yesterday we went to Yellowstone’s northwestern end to see the geysers. Today we went to the northeastern side which is less than 50 miles away, but has a dramatically different scenery. There’s different trees and rock formations on this end. On our drive past Yellowstone lake (north of West Thumb) is Hayden Valley. The valley and road follows Yellowstone River north to the cliffs, more on that in a minute. The valley itself comes out of nowhere (as do most scenery changes in Yellowstone) and is just the most lush green place you have ever seen. You know that old Windows XP green grass hills and blue sky with cloud wallpaper? It’s like being there, but in real life. At the valley, I saw a heard of buffalo just wandering around the side of the overlook and just leisurely crossing the street (one by one) backing up traffic. No one seemed to mind. They were eager to get out of their cars and get pretty close.

Passing through the valley, you quickly come upon some bigger mountains and before you know it you’re winding your way up to the canyon of Yellowstone. One of the biggest mountains you pass is Mt. Washburn and there’s several pretty waterfalls coming off the side.

Our first stop was at what our guise book called the most forgettable visitors center in Yellowstone at Canyon Village. We made a brief pit stop for lunch and continued north towards Tower Roosevelt.

The northeastern end of Yellowstone is full of steep grassy mountains and narrow winding roads. One wrong turn and you could find yourself plummeting to the base of a mountainside. Toward the base of the mountain was our first stop at Tower Falls. Continuing another coupe of miles was Calcite Springs which looks over the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”.

Sharp turns going down.

Tower Falls

Calcite Springs, a must see!

Heading back south, we made stops at the upper falls and then at the lower falls and Artist Pointe. On the way there there were two traffic jams. The first was a small black bear on the side of the road just minding his own business looking for food. Several cars had pulled over to the side of the road and gotten out to get up close pictures of and with the bear. Smart. No wonder there are people getting attacked by bears because they act so stupidly.

Waterfall on the way back, near Tower Fall

Traffic backed up for a black bear.

Luckily since traffic was moving so slowly, we were able to get close without getting out of the car. Further up the road on the next bend was another backup. This time it was a grizzly bear! This one though was way at the bottom of a large hill and it was so far away. This little brown blob had caused an even bigger fuss than the black bear. This was probably since there were two large overlooks with lots of parking. I have found that attractions along the side of the road attracts crowds in waves. I’ve also noticed that there’s a heard mentality at play here. You might find something interesting on the side of the road and stop and suddenly there’s like 5 other cars stopped to look at the same thing.

What else can you do in traffic besides get out and take pictures of bright yellow flowers on the side of the road?

And of your nice rental car!

This caused so much excitement, yeah, that brown blob down there.

How much excitement you ask?

People were just waiting for it to do something, but it didn’t.

Back to the falls. The first we hit was the upper which is along this one-way scenic drive along the canyon. The overlook is quite small and is on the west end of the canyon. After a quick few pictures, we made our way through the scenic drive back to the highway and the lower falls.

Upper Falls View

Approaching the lower falls, we came across a large bull elk just resting in the shade behind a row of trees. There were only a few cars that had stopped. But a large four-legged animal requires a stop, so we dis. Before long, flocks of people were showing up. It’s like magic I tell you!

The lower falls lookout, just down the street, had a large parking lot and many tourists. There was even a large tour bus full of Chinese people. This seemed to be the most popular destination of the day. The lower falls has a nicer wider view of the falls. It has a nice overlook and vantage point from a couple of different angles. From the lookout, you can see several other lookouts including the upper and one right above the falls. I didn’t notice the one right above the falls till I zoomed in and noticed some tiny looking people standing over it.

Lower Falls View

See the tiny people? It’s a LONG way down!

As we were leaving, we passed by the Elk who was still on the side of the road. This time there was only a couple cars, and example of the the magic wave of people concept at work. I did stop a the Yellowstone River on the way out, it made for some nice pictures of rushing water. No surprise others slowed down and wanted pictures as well.

Yellowstone River

On the way back, we didn’t make any stops. It was already quite late and we didn’t get back to Jackson and dinner till about 9:45ish, just in time to have dinner before everything closed. Time really flies in Wyoming. You go about enjoying your day and it’s 2 or 3 in the afternoon and you check the clock later and it’s like 5 or 6, and just like that, your day is nearly done, especially if you’re up in Yellowstone and have to drive 2 hours back!

For dinner, we stopped at an Italian restaurant called Calico’s Italian Grill and Bar. I ordered the Chicken Parmesan since I was really hungry. We also ordered garlic bread but since also ended up eating all the other bread the gave us. Who knew driving around could make you so hungry? The pasta was really tasty. The sauce had a bunch of tangy chunky tomatoes and the chicken was very tender.

And I think that’s it for day 3!

After a big breakfast, we started the ~100 mile drive north to Yellowstone’s eastern side with the geysers. We made MANY stops on the way up taking pictures back at the Tetons or whatever else we came across. There were many quick scenery changes along the way.

Yellowstone Lake

Nearing Old Faithful, one of the stops we made was at the West Thumb Geyser Basin right at the southern point of Yellowstone lake. Unlike Old Faithful, this one was much more compact and full of color. They are both equally as smelly!

Back on the road after a lunch break and short detour at West Thumb.

Once we got to Old Faithful, a bunch of people were walking back to their cars. I made a joke to myself that the show must be over and then I realized that yeah, the show, Old Faithful had just spewed. Its on a roughly 90 minute interval so we walked around a bit. At first it started to slightly drizzle, but then started pouring thunder and lighting all! We took refuge in the car as we waited for the storm to pass and the next show to begin. About 10 minutes before the next show, it cleared up and blue skies were back! It’s so crazy here how the weather can change in an instant.

Heavy rain followed by sunshine.

Yellowstone’s Old Faithful

There was a huge crowd gathered in anticipation for the next show. I think the show only lasted no more than 5-10 minutes and it was honestly really lame. I guess sometimes it goes higher and lasts longer but it really seems overrated.

After the disappointing show, we hiked around for a litter bit and toured the rest of the geysers.

Bumped into this curious little guy

One of the geysers we came across was called Beehive. There were a bunch of people gathered around what looked like nothing. It was just spewing a little smelly steam which seemed to follow me whichever side I was on. The sign for Beehive said that it can get 2-3 times higher than Old Faithful and spays people with water since you can get so close. It also said that it had an interval of 5 hours to 10 days. Somehow, people seemed so sure that it would blow at any second. Whatever, I thought. As I was leaving, smelly gas still following me, beckoning me to stay, it started erupting! It quickly grew to a really tall spray and before I knew it, I was getting drenched in COLD water. A bunch of us ran down the planks trying to get to a safer vantage point, but it was no use. The spectacular one hundred eighty foot spray was still following me making sure me, my cameras, and bag were thoroughly drenched. Running way back to escape its wrath, Old Faithful was beginning to erupt again. Beehive and definitely stolen the show and made the trek here worthwhile!

Everyone got a good soaking. We just couldn’t run far enough.

Old Faithful starting up again

Now it was time to head back south towards Jackson making more stops that we missed on the way up. It was getting close to sunset and so the lighting was perfect!  Our last stop was near Oxbow Bend and that’s where the following were taken.

Drove through rain and sun (again).

Same spot as one of the above shots earlier that day.

Oxbow Bend

Camera in lower left.

Neutral Density (ND/GND) filters for sunset (picture below).

When I finished up, it was about 9pm, getting dark, and we were getting eaten alive by giant  blood sucking mosquitoes. On the way back it was so dark that we missed the turn to Moose Wilson road to get back to the hotel that we ended up going all the way back to the town. Fortunately, we found that The Merry Piglets Mexican restaurant was still open. They were closing at 10 and we were the last ones they let in. There were a bunch of people who kept coming up to find that they were closed, despite the restaurant being full of people. I ordered the recommended spinach and chicken enchiladas off the Tex-Mex section. It didn’t even occur to me that we weren’t in Texas anymore and they had “fake Mexican” food all the way up here. Real or not it was excellent! It had a lot of chicken and fresh spinach in a creamy tomato and cheese sauce. I couldn’t quite finish the entire thing because there was so much white meat chicken left.

After a large filling dinner, we drove the ~13 miles back to the hotel. On the way back, I looked up out the window and saw so many stars. Since we’re pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there are no streetlights, it’s perfect for nighttime star observing. I will definitely want to get out and see what I can get one of these nights.

That concludes day 2!

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The flight this morning for Jackson Hole, Wyoming left the gate on time which was nice. As we were taxing out to the runway the captain came on and said there was a problem with an instrument panel and we had to return to the gate. Ugh I thought. About 5 minutes back to the gate, the captain came back on and announced that they had fixed it. I can just see the captain and copilot just banging on the dashboard till it fixed itself (because that’s what guys do). After an hour long delay, we were off.

During the flight, I was able to watch one and a half episodes of Castle, a new TV show I just started watching. During the flight, the lady next to me started painting her nails. Really? You couldn’t do that the night before or later at the hotel? You can just imagine the noatril-singing smell that just kept circulating over and over. Yummy.

As we were approaching Jackson, mountain started creeping up on the horizon and it started getting bumpy. As we were landing, I looked out the window and saw the Tetons to my right. Wow they were really tall and we were coming in right next to them! After we landed we deplaned on the tarmac. The mountain air was so crisp and fresh and it was beautiful. It was unbelievable landing and coming off so close to the Tetons.

After collecting our bags, we headed to the hotel. Our “mid-sized” Carolla car rental was upgraded to a Prius! I have never been in one before but it’s a pretty cool little car. It’s loaded with features and high tech display HUDs for battery read outs, power consumption, mileage, and fuel economy. It starts with a push of a button and it’s dead silent, like a golf cart. Step on the gas, and the motor propels you instantly forward, like a golf cart. When your climbing or really accelerating, the engine kicks in and you can hear that humming along. To park, you simply press the park button, instead of shifting a gear, and press the power button to turn it off. Another cool feature is the regenerative braking which charges up the battery when you brake.

Leaving the Airport

About to turn off to Moose-Wilson Rd.

Waterfall on the side of the road.

Two way narrow (in some places), dirt/unpaved Moose-Wilson Rd.

Certainly different scenery than I’m used to!

After checking in, getting our room, we dropped off our bags and headed into town to fins something to eat, look at some photographer’s galleries, and find the church.

The first gallery we saw was Images of Nature by Thomas Mangelsen. He’s got some incredible wildlife images from all over the world, US, Canada, Africa, and India. He also has some nice large sweeping landscapes from all over. The next gallery we saw was David Brookover who specializes in “grandiose” lanscapes. His pictures are so impressive that even something as large as maybe 6 by 8 feet retains so much detail in the leaves and flowers. David uses a large format 8×10″ film camera to produce these unreal results. Film of that size doesn’t even begin to compare to modern digital SLRs in terms of resolution.

After that we had a quick bite to eat, a coconut lemon bar and it was off to of the Mountains Catholic Church. The church is beautiful. It’s situated at the base of the mountains and has a bunch of wood inside. As they were starting, they welcomed us to their service and I thought to myself, service, which he later corrected as Eucharistic service, hmmm this is a Catholic mass right? But yeah, it was, the one and only!

At church, the homily over The Good Samaritan was excellent. I haven’t heard such an enthusiastic priest in a while. It’s just so neat to have the same readings all around the world, universal.

During church, it poured heavily and then after church was cloudy and began to clear up. Later we would learn that storms often build up in the afternoon, release their fury and move on, leaving a clear night.

Next, we walked around Jackson and came upon a gallery by local Henry Holdsworth who had a bunch of Tetons, Yellowstone landscape and wildlife pictures. Talking with his assistant, I got some tips of some good places to shoot.

Around Jackson, we came across town square. In the middle of square is a small park with 4 entrances gated with large antler horns. Its pretty cool looking up close.

By this time we were starving and looked up this place for dinner called Teton Thai. It’s this highly rated outdoor restaurant that is probably like something you’d find in Thailand and many parts of Asia. As usual, I got the pad thai and Tom ka gai (coconut chicken soup). It was really good. I’m sure part of that was I was really hungry, but also it was very authentic and just yummy. Walking back to our car, I couldn’t help but notice where our car was parked and how pretty it looked, so I couldn’t help myself when I took these.

Teton Thai, Pad Thai for Dinner

After dinner, we drove down to the local Albertson’s to get some necessary groceries, food, and a forgotten toothbrush (in my defense, I brought the holder but just forgot to stick my toothbrush in it). As it turns out, this Albertsons is the largest selling store in the nation by a wide margin. And it shows, the store is huge and well stocked for anything a tourist or  local would need. It’s surprising that they don’t have a Walmart here. I can see that bringing in lots of business.

After we got what we needed, it was back to the hotel to sleep. The next day was a long drive out of Jackson north into Yellowstone (Old Faithful and the geysers).

Just to make doubly sure we didn’t get lost in the darkness going back to the hotel! LOL.

The recurring scene every night (or morning) where I would download my pictures and back them up to an external hard drive.

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