Day 1 — September 27, 2016 Tuesday
Several months ago, I had been waffling back and forth for several weeks whether or not to take a journey like the one I begin today, I finally decided to pull the trigger when I discovered a way to rent an SUV (my home for two weeks) at a reasonable cost. I also spent quite a bit of time narrowing down where I wanted the trip to take place. I decided to contact Denis, the photographer I traveled with for a week on the 2014 trip, to see if he was up to doing it again. It turns out that he was driving home from spending five weeks on the road photographing the northwest and it would be too soon for him to head back out on the road for another trip. His wife would kill him! So I had to decide where I wanted to go. The options were narrowed down to three; fly into:
- San Francisco – head north along the coast through Oregon and come back more inland eventually across the Sierras into Yosemite and back to SF.
- El Paso – it turns out it’s very close to White Sands, which I’ve wanted to visit for a long time, work my way up through New Mexico into CO for the aspens and swing west into the desert again, or
- Denver and head up to Grand Teton, Yellowstone and maybe Glacier. I haven’t been up that way since 1978 and had never gone to Glacier which I always wanted to see.
Denver seemed like a good idea since it would be a different environment from the several trips into the desert I’ve taken over the years, although the desert weather always seemed to be good and it always seemed to rain when I went into the mountains. But renting an SUV for two weeks at the Denver airport was rediculous!! Over $1300!! Add airfare and it approaches two grand even before I drive a single mile. But I made a discovery, if I rent the same car from the same rental company not at the airport, but in Denver itself, the price drops precipitously to about $550!! Now it’s less than $1K!! Just grab Uber to bring me downtown, AND I can drop off the car at the airport when I’m done without any penalty; it was a no-brainer.
So all the research was done (almost 30 Pages worth) on these three national parks, gathering detailed maps and photos, discovering some current fires, road and area closures in Yellowstone, consulted the photographer’s epheremis and loads of google maps, various destination possibilities in the surrounding areas, driving times, and so many other references, packed and headed out on an adventure that I can only hope would come close to the experience I had on the month long trip in 2014.
The planeride to Denver was good and on time, except for a 15 minute delay getting a gate. Had a little trouble using Uber for the first time (not a surprise considering my lack of intersphere talents), but met a great lady to take me into town for the rental. By the time we got there we were friends and she gave me a big hug when she left. A great way to start the trip. Ended up with a Ford Flex which was perfect with a bench seat instead of the gas-guzzling, monstrous Expedition with captain’s chairs they had planned to give me. So it will be my home for the next two weeks. Drove to Rock Springs, WY and discovered along the way that you can see 50 miles in every direction without seeing a single tree!! This is Big Sky country to say the least. There were more trucks on the highway than cars and speedlimit was 75 with 80 in a few spots, drove over the continental divide at 7000-ft. just past the Flying J gas station (with the only tree anywhere in view) and as I got close to Rock Springs, the white hot sun was setting and I was driving right into it, being blinded. Checked into Motel 6 and first room had no heat, so changed rooms, headed to McDonalds for the usual chicken sandwhich and wi-fi, then over to Walmart for supplies including $40 (ouch) worth of bear spray, only because everyone said I should carry it and I want to return home without a big chunk of me missing. Then onto Home Depot for a piece of masonite to bridge the gap in the floor of the SUV, shower and it was already 1am eastern time.
One thing I was hoping I would not experience that I always seem to do on these trips, is a nagging headache. It seems to build after getting off the plane and gets worse as the day progresses. I took Tylenol which didn’t help much, but if the past is any indication, it usually goes away by the third day. Hopefully sooner. Anyway, looking forward to some Starbucks (yes, they have one) and Orah’s cranberry scones for breakfast in the morning.
Day 2 – September 28, 2016 Wednesday – Anniversary Day
Woke up early this morning and still had the headache along with some blood shot eyes. Another cloudless day with a crescent moon rising at first light. Headed to Starbucks for some “real” coffee to stay alert and go with the cranberry scones and happened to see a photo book there on Wyoming’s Red Desert by Paul Ng. It turns out there are some desert areas that rival the southwest, including Killpecker Dunes right around Rock Springs. It made me think that I might not go all the way to Glacier; it’s over 6 hours each way, a lot of driving for only two weeks. But we’ll see as the trip progresses. Anyway, I think the Starbucks knocked out the headache, because by 10am it was gone!! Very happy about that.
Headed up 191 toward Teton and had about an hour of driving with nothing but wide open spaces for as far as the eye can see until I started following the Hogback River down a steep canyon that included some huge burned out areas. After about 3 hours, got into Jackson expecting to see the Tetons, but they were nowhere to be found. Drove out of Jackson and still nothing. Finally after climbing out of the valley, there they were…Bang!!! It’s not like you see them off in the distance and continually get closer, they just pop out.
Scouted out Schwabacker’s Landing (photo at top) which lived up to the hype as the premier morning location, but even at noon it was pretty good with lots of foreground, framing trees and reflections. Using a really wide lens makes the mountains look a bit small, but a 35mm (full frame) makes them loom quite a bit. Checked out the Snake River Overlook, the famous S-curve in the river, but 1/2 the “S” is blocked now by trees. Oxbow Bend Overlook seems to be another great morning spot from what others have told me today. But, just like Schwabacher’s, you have to get there early for your spot, and even more so at Schwabacher’s since there are limited “great spots”. I’m afraid that the morning light may be pretty flat since the range runs north/south. For late afternoon, I shot around Oxbow Bend with lots of golden aspens and cottonwood trees at peak. Then as the sun drifted down behind the peaks, I went to the south end of Willow Flats Overlook. A huge flat swath of willows and a few trees backlit by the setting sun…simply beautiful. From there, you have a completely unobstructed view of the entire Teton range. It just begs for a panorama. I may try that in the later morning tomorrow. The light should be at a good angle on the mountains, including Mt. Moran, from there. Added to that scene, you could hear rutting elk way off in the distance, mere specks in this giant landscape of gold flats and blue mountains. I tried some panoramas and zoomed in on a few trees that were together in the vast ocean of gold. I kept shooting even after we were all in shade because the same backlit scenes looked differently evenly lit. Got a camp site, just thinking it would be a good idea, but may not even use it, depending on how much I shoot tonight. Will attempt some Milky Ways and light painting of the Chapel of the Transformation near the Moose entrance. Then a few hours of sleep before I stake my claim at Schwabacher’s.
First impressions is that Teton is mostly a grand landscape place. All these national parks are incredible and it would be great to spend several seasons of a few weeks for each park, but that would entail a lifetime of full time photography. You just hope for the right conditions when you’re there and try to make the most of what does occur.
Note — The image at the top of this entry for 9/28 is not from this day, but added it because the original image (similar) from the Journal has disappeared.
Day 3 — September 29, 2016 Thursday
Since it was clear and still out, after my usual dinner last night at McDonald’s, I headed to the Chapel of the Transformation, but at first, couldn’t find it because it was so dark and didn’t even see it from the parking area. But when I finally saw it, it was not very photogenic, so I took the Milky Way with a few young trees lit up with my headlamp. I used the tungsten setting because, for me, the brown coloring of the shot using the daylight white balance isn’t as appealing as the bluish tint with tungsten. I found that, when you are completely alone in a very dark place, nothing is so loud as the car alarm!! It scared the hell out of me. I managed to do this three times by hitting the wrong button on the key fob, but it probably scared off any wild animals. By the time I was done there, it was 1230am, so I decided not to make the long drive back to the campsite, but go directly to Schwabacher’s and get a few hours sleep. Finally got into the sleeping bag around 1am, but it wasn’t long before I heard the first car at about 5:20am. So it was time to get up and out to get the spot I scouted there yesterday before the photo hordes arrive. It wasn’t much later when the big groups began to arrive and one of the first decided to park right next to me so close that his tripod leg overlapped mine!! Maybe I took his spot. There were still stars out and I could see a few wispy clouds and I began to get excited in the anticipation of a good sunrise when clouds started to drift in from the south which would have been even better, but they filled in the east as well, blocking any of the first light hitting the peaks. But there were interesting clouds coming through, but best of all, there were a few rainbows. One popped up after I was heading toward the car but managed to find a spot with it reflected in one of the many beaver ponds there (I saw two beaver this morning), but no rainbows appeared in front of the cathedral group. Then it began to rain more steadily overhead instead of being further west, so it was time for breakfast.
I headed toward Mormon Row, the famous barns there to check them out. I had planned to do them at night and actually should have done so last night while it was clear and no moon. Then back to the Capel from last night to see the interior and just managed to get some HDR in before not one, but two tourist busses emptied out into this tiny church! it’s cloudy with showers, but at least it is not a continuous rain. I discovered one of my camera batteries was pretty low already, so I spent time at Jenny Lake Lodge to recharge it, but found it to be much smaller than the great lodges of Yellowstone, etc.
After the recharge, I continued on the one-way Jenny Lake Loop and stopped at the overlook. That’s when the lake went from calm to a raging sea of whitecaps, wind and the rain began, continuing through evening. Around 6pm I saw a faint lightening around Mount Moran and hoped it might keep moving east. I drove up to Willow Flats Overlook for that massive view but it continued to rain. I tried being an optimist and got out my umbrella connection for the tripod and put it on in a hurry as the light was changing for the better and I kept my fingers crossed. I did miss a good beam of light by Mt. Moran but managed to get the umbrella up and started shooting. I did some vertical panoramas with the camera horizontal. I did the flats and got a good exposure and then did the sky and will blend them together. Then I did horizontal panos of the whole range in two rows, one row for the sky and mountains and another row for the flats…all the time under the umbrella while it rained. I was hoping for the clouds to light up, but it just didn’t happen. That would have been spectacular, but what I got should be OK if I can get them all blended together.
No campsite tonight though, I drove to Jackson Lake Lodge and this is the one I was looking for: a huge lounge with massive windows and a complete view of the Teton Range. Stunning!! So this is where I’ll spend part of the evening and if it has cleared and the stars are out, I will shoot the barns and the Milky Way before heading for the sleeping bag. I just hope the rain has moved on, but the forecast says otherwise…we’ll see.
Day 4 — September 30, 2016 Friday
Last night after hanging around the Jackson Lake Lodge to kill time, when I left, I discovered that the sky had cleared and it was filled with stars. Instead of packing it in for the night, I decided to go to the Mormon Row barns to shoot the Milky Way. It was great fun mainly because there was someone else there and we talked the whole time and it was a lot less spooky than when you are alone. But the really good part was that there were a few streaked clouds that seemed to lead right into each side of the barn with the Milky Way coming down near the peak of the barn. They came out really great, although some were better than others and may have to blend two to get the lighting totally even. When I figured I had gotten what I needed, I decided to do a selfie; I stood in front of the barn, tripped the shutter with a remote and lit the barn from where I stood in front of the camera leaving a black void where I stood. (note: the Milky Way was taken with my camera as opposed to many of the others so far which were taken with my iPhone).
I was encouraged by the clear skies and hoped they continued for a few more hours for first light on the peaks. I got into the sleeping bag a bit earlier this time: midnight.
Woke up and it was totally socked in, no mountains at all, but I met Eric Bowles and we ended up driving around half the day exploring Antelope Flats Road. It started with the fog beginning to lift a bit and the sun shining through lighting up some golden cottonwoods on the vast Antelope Flats. I also photographed my first wild animal when we stopped for a small group of pronghorns.
The road was beautiful going in with loads of golden aspen trees at peak, but coming back out, it offered a magnificent view of the entire Teton range flanked by two sides of the valley with some great clouds above and some lingering fog drifting along their base. I stopped for lunch with a similar view back down on the flats. It’s very difficult to not take pictures every other minute, but sometimes you do have to stop to eat, even if it is only an apple and peanut butter.
As the sun got lower, I stopped by the Cunningham Cabin and while there with a view of the whole range, there were several rain curtains heading across the range, so I tried several panoramas and some backlit willows which I hope came out because it was difficult lighting. Then I stopped at a creek with a rocky bottom and cascades with some gold cottonwoods, Mount Moran and great clouds and quickly left as the sun was getting really low. Saw a lot of cars stopped along the highway where my first herd of bison were under some nice side lit hills and more great clouds. They were a bit far away, and the light didn’t last long on the flats, but the clouds turned every color imaginable. I figured out the right exposures for the sky and the flats and did a pano using both exposures. It looks like I’ll have a lot of work when I get back, blending and HDRing.
So in the space of one day, I did two wildlife shots, a first for me, although the bisons were pretty far away so it was less portraits and more a sense of place.
As the light faded, I headed to the Jackson Lake Lodge and actually had a real dinner at an old time counter, like Nedick’s used to be. I needed to charge my camera battery again, and again couldn’t find the charger and ended up making three trips to the car and back to the lodge searching for it! But it finally showed up in the blue carry-on I brought in with me so I can download the first memory card onto the laptop. So, after dinner, I’ll hang out in the huge lounge, do some computer work and pass some time before returning to the Cunningham Cabin for some star shots if it’s clear enough. Otherwise, I’ll just turn in early, although it’s 11pm already as I write this.
One interesting thing I noticed here, is that the lodge has a veranda overlooking Jackson Lake and the Teton Range, and people were outside having dinner with a fire at each table to keep warm. I would love to do that on a beautiful sunset night someday. It seems like it would be pretty cool. Hoping for clouds like today for tomorrow, except for sunrise.
Day 5 — October 1, 2017 Saturday
The Cunningham Cabin was pretty spooky last night. Maybe because it was pretty far off the road without much in the way of a build up…just a parking lot and then you had to walk to it through some bushes, so I was a bit apprehensive to say the least. I could hear elk bugling as I was setting up the shots. I tried to illuminate the inside of the cabin and combine with an outside shot lit with my headlamp, and of course the Milky Way. Luckily, I got the illumination in the cabin pretty quickly, so I didn’t linger much, but then tried to get the stars with the silhouette of the range. I kept looking around with my flashlight and never did see anything, but for some reason I was spooked last night. Even with the quick session, I still didn’t get into the bag until 12:30am.
Surprisingly, mine was the only car overnight at Schwabcher, but only until about 5am when the Photo Hordes started rolling in! I got up with my alarm set for 5:30am and made my way to the spot hoping the clear skies held until sunrise. There were others there already and I had to pick a new spot, but I started shooting when there didn’t seem to be any light on the mountain, but it came out in the image, but no clouds. So I learned that you need to start shooting as soon as you can see the peak! But one of the guys packed up saying he’s going to another spot and I followed. We ended up at the other more wide open spot I scouted and we took separate spots and miraculously, some clouds appeared above the peaks and sure enough, they lit up a beautiful pink and the color worked it’s way down the peaks as we both shot almost continuously. I bracketed +/- 2/3-stops with a soft 2-stop ND filter and it seemed to work. So away we blasted until that magic light was gone. The other guy was almost hyperventilating and seemed pretty serious, switching between a Nikon D810 and a digital Mamiya!! A lot of money in that gear.
A friend if mine from work once told me, “I take a shower every Saturday whether I need it or not!” So I did the same today and felt good afterwards. Headed to Yellowstone and along the way stopped a few times when I saw something. Once where there was some recent fire damage and I shot the edge of the damage: black trees and ground, partially scorched trees and then untouched green trees. The next was Moose Falls, just inside the entrance to the park. An easy 1-minute walk. Then I spotted some bright red huckleberries that had a few young evergreens growing within it. The next stop was an unnamed pullout for a much needed 1/2-hour power nap, and finally Kepner Cascade which was a very narrow and deep gorge that wasn’t even on the map. It would be good on a cloudy day. Got into the Old Faithful area and found it to be like a zoo; crowded and noisy, especially after the peace and quiet (mostly) of Teton. But luck would have it that Old Faithful went off within 3 minutes of when I got there. Unlucky was that it was cloudy, so the steam and water blended right in with the sky and it began to rain as the geyser started. Then it started to pour and continued to pour with thunder as well. Since they have a cafeteria here at the lodge, I decided to kill time having an early dinner in hopes that things will change for the 6:20pm eruption. It would be a great time to shoot it against a blue sky since the sun will be pretty low yet not blocked by the hills to the west. So as I sit here in the big lounge hoping for the rain to stop, it hasn’t. A lot of characters have passed through as I sit out the storm; they help pass the time. It turns out Castle Geyser should go off somewhere around 3:30am which would have been perfect for stars.
I have a campsite reserved for two nights in Madison several miles away, but I think there is nothing there like here in the way of a place to hang out. This is always the bad side of a trip like this is that you have nowhere to retreat to when the weather turns bad. Nowhere to kill some time except your car or a grand hotel lodge. I went to the Old Faithful Inn and it is truly amazing. I was lucky enough to get a chair in front of the blazing fire of the truly epic stone fireplace. The entire place is wood and stone and workmanship is extraordinary. Even though it was built in 1903-4, the main lobby included electricity, yet you don’t see any wires anywhere on the logs or branches that are the only things used around the lobby. What made it even more amazing was a woman was playing the cello with beautiful sounds wafting throughout the space that at times made me very emotional. It was a joy to experience a place and space that so many others have enjoyed for well over 100 years. I stayed longer that I originally wanted because it was just too enjoyable to leave, battle the weather, driving in the dark some 16 miles to Madison to crawl into a sleeping bag.
I chatted with a couple from Michigan who had to reserve a room 14 months in advance!! It would be great to take a trip and somehow staying at every great national park hotel.
Day 6 — October 2, 2016 Sunday
Well, after I bundled up for the cold rain and left the Old Faithful Inn last night, I was stunned to find the sky full of stars!! The storm must have cleared quickly because everything was still soaked and there was a lot of mist/fog around. As I headed toward Madison, I contemplated going back to shoot Castle Geyser at 330am but decided against it because so much moisture in the air would probably fog the lens. But for some unknown reason, when I came to Firehole Lake Road, I decided to take the turn. I don’t know what drew me in, but I came upon what I found out later was White Dome Geyser. Although it was a bit spooky out there, I set up as I usually do now (ISO6400, 25-sec. @ f/3.2 for a 17mm 2.8 lens, manual focus and exposure) and was ready to start taking shots for fine tuning the focus, when the geyser started to erupt!! I hurriedly tripped the shutter and lit the water/steam with my headlamp. I hadn’t even checked the level or what was actually in the frame. This was truly winging it… and it actually came out decently!! It stopped pretty quickly and took a few more of the steam, but I began to get edgy, threw the camera in the car and shut my door. I used the headlights to see if anything was out in the night, but never did see anything, so I thought I’d try some more, lighting the steam and, it erupted again!! How fortunate was I!! Someone made me stay longer at the inn and turn onto that road at just the right time. On the drive to the campground later, I was scared out of my wits by a bison popping right out of the forest!! I thought they only hung out at huge meadows…I guess not! When I returned to the geyser later today, I spent some time there recording times and found it erupts about every 20-minutes, some eruptions were longer than others. Today, in spite of the constant rain, showers, downpours, with a little sunshine thrown in, I photographed at Terrace Spring and the Firehole Lake Road but not much at either. Huge traffic jam today, twice. I drove through Firehole Canyon and then headed south only to find a herd of bison walking on the road!! They went by me eyeball to eyeball, and when I headed back south later, there was a several mile back up caused by the same herd! Luckily a park ranger managed to get them off the road. Back to the Old Faithful Inn to recharge my camera battery and arrived just 2 minutes before an interesting, scheduled historical tour of the place. While the camera battery charged, I kept nodding off in a chair overlooking the lobby. Sleep deprivation is mounting.
Had Bison Meat Loaf again tonight before heading over to Biscuit Basin to check it out even though rain was threatening again. I was taking mostly abstracts but one area that looked really promising had steam blowing onto the boardwalk making it impossible to do any photography in that area; I’ll have to return when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. When shooting one of my last shots, I turned around and there was a single thin cloud from the total overcast that was lit pink by the setting sun! I ran over to where there was a line of green leading to some steam and the sky with the pink cloud above. They always say to look behind you and that surely applied for this one because I took maybe 15 seconds to run over, set up and click off a few shots and it was gone!! Got lucky again because the rain began right after that and I sought shelter at the Old Faithful Inn. Downloaded most of the second card onto the computer and will eventually make my way back to Madison and my awaiting camp site.
Day 7 — October 3, 2016 Monday
Made it back to Madison Campground around 10:30pm last night, climbed into the sleeping bag and went right to sleep. Woke up around 6 having had a good night’s sleep, was pretty cozy in the bag and so stayed in until 7. Another dreary day though but no rain until around noon. Three elk in the campground this morning, all females that didn’t seem to care I was watching them; just looked up and then kept eating. Got the campsite again for tonight, shot a few pics near Terrace Spring of the beautifully colored autumn grasses, then headed to Midway Geyser Basin and the the Grand Prismatic Spring. I got there kind of early, managed to get a parking spot, but it was a circus!! Busloads of tourists jammed the boardwalk all the way around, all taking multiple pictures of themselves every few feet, always striking some sort of pose like “it’s all about me” and seemingly uninterested with what’s there, only that they were there. I made a complete trip around the boardwalk using only my 50mm feeling at the beginning that I was somehow missing the colors until I found a thin bright orange line through a field of taupe, and then the colors started to appear. Since there was so much moisture around, the steam blocked quite a bit of anything in the distance, so I had to stick with what was close to the boardwalk. It was an abstract morning of all the different lines, colors textures and patterns. I wanted to take another turn around with the 17-35mm, but I had had enough of the throng. There was a funny moment though. On the way out, I stopped by the entrance bridge to photograph a small multicolored waterfall that spilled into the Firehole River from the Grand Prismatic. There was no one there photographing it when I entered and no one there when I started to photograph it; I even tried a pano there. When I was ready to leave the spot, now there were some 30 bus people taking pictures of themselves there…it was truly a circus. I counted no less that 8 busses there and I had a hard time trying to get out of the place. Freeze dried Pasta Primavera for lunch at a picnic area and luckily, it started to rain just as I was packing up; and it never stopped after that.
I headed up to West Thumb Geyser Basin and it was snowing there with a driving wind. I figured I’d just walk around just to see what was there before I even attempted photography in these conditions. Well, the bus people followed me and there was a throng on the boardwalk along the shores of Yellowstone Lake, all with umbrellas taking a million selfies!!! After walking the circle, I decided there were two spots I wanted to photograph, but felt a tripod with an umbrella was out of the question. So, I ripped open a plastic bag and attached it to the lens with a rubber band and put that inside another plastic bag, boosted the ISO to 800 and braced on railings. I did the Black Pool and Fisherman’s Pot all in a driving snowstorm, but at least this time the hordes were mostly gone. Drove on to Yellowstone Lake Hotel as it continued to snow and had dinner there. A more upscale type place but without any high ceiling main room like the Old Faithful. Driving back, the snow had gotten worse and had to drive carefully, but did stop in the fading light to shoot some fire damaged trees I had noticed on the way up. I tried handholding out the car window, but that wasn’t as sharp as I would like, so out came the tripod and umbrella since the wind wasn’t nearly as bad there.
Day 8 — October 4, 2016 Tuesday
Well, today started out the same, cloudy and dreary, so not in any hurry to get out out of the sleeping bag. Slept well again, and when I drove out, there was a dusting of snow on the ground, with much more at higher elevations…really pretty but cloudy, so not much drama. Headed out to Porcelain Basin near Norris and spent a lot of time there using the umbrella because it was snowing a bit, but it gradually stopped. Some good color there, especially a wild lime green stripe, but mostly bright tan or white with lots of steam vents. Of course it was the usual circus there. Then headed to the Canyon area to see the falls again after 38 years. An even worse circus there, but I just planted myself in one spot and did my thing, both abstracts and the falls. at one point, I was waiting for the light while the circus surrounded me when a woman starts looking through her camera, moves closer, looks again, moves almost on top of me, looks again, then actually puts her camera in front of mine!! I said, “Do you want to use my tripod?” These tourists are amazing to watch and listen to. It was mostly cloudy, but the sun did peak out once in a while, and I waited for a while for some sunshine of the falls and canyon. It is a pretty steep canyon with colorations a bit like Bryce, but with a big river running through the bottom.
I figured I’d end up at West Thumb Geyser Basin since it had begun to snow again and I thought I could do some of the steam pots along Yellowstone Lake in a mysterious way. But I needed the whole set up with the umbrella and plastic bags, and the snow was a few inches deep in the boardwalk. Got what I wanted and called it a day photographically, and headed toward Old Faithful in time for something to eat at the bar and maybe catch the debate.
Well, as usual, the plan fell by the wayside since the snow was much heavier than I thought, so I had to drive slow on the completely snow-covered highway. Things slowed up a bit when I saw emergency flashers ahead and found an SUV in the trees. Two Asian guys said they were OK, and I said I would let the rangers know when I got to Old Faithful. Drove two more miles and saw more emergency flashers, but this time with a line of cars not moving. Figures something was up, and just settled in for a long wait. One guy who walked up ahead said they were dragging a car out and it shouldn’t be much longer. In the meantime, two idiots decided they would just go around the entire line, so I blew my horn and they cut in front of me!! I don’t know where they thought they would be going; we’re all stopped for a reason, not just to watch the snow come down. After a while, we finally did move and the Tesla I saw at West Thumb was being dragged out of the ditch and another car was in there too. So I learned real quick how to manually shift the Flex and very slowly made my way down from the Continental Divide, but noticed after a while no one was behind me. Don’t know if they were going really slow, or they ended up in the trees as well. When I got to the Inn, I called home even though it was late just to let Orah know everything was OK. Then went into the bar for something to eat and recharge my camera battery. I hope the 16 mile drive to Madison Campground is easier than what I had just gone through.
Day 9 — October 5, 2016 Wednesday
Didn’t sleep very well last night, woke up around 3:30 with a headache that wouldn’t go away until I took Tylenol and had my breakfast bar when I finally got up around 6:30. Probably the beer I had with dinner. Shot the Gibbon River in almost darkness just for the graphic of the river figuring it will probably be a B+W, if anything. It was still cloudy and snow was on the ground for the most part so I was just heading to the “Bobby Sox Trees” between the entrance and exit to Firehole Lake Drive, but was waylaid by Nez Perce Creek which had a nice bend in it with snow covered banks, but mainly the sky seemed to be brightening with reflections in the creek. So I pulled over and began to shoot and the sky, just got better and better. It was too late for a pink sky, but the sun rimmed clouds looked pretty good. Maybe it was that I hadn’t seen a good sunrise since last Saturday, or have barely seen the sun at all. I had to use both a hard edged and soft edged split Neutral density filters to balance out the bright sky with the ground even though it was snow covered. I was trying to get it as white as I could. Then went on to the Bobby Sox Forest which proved tough. Most were surrounded by snow, but others were not.
There was a neat little S-Curve in the grasses that I tried and unfortunately stuck one tripod leg into some hidden bison dung! Then onto, a huge flat that was snow covered, and I noticed a lot of snow trails in the grasses from the bison that I thought were a good graphic, but I think I lost the sun there which would have made it better.
Went to the Fountain Paint Pots and had to share the area with a herd of bison!! For a while no one could walk on the boardwalks; they were pretty close but didn’t seem to care about our presence. At one point me and a few others were trapped between bison blocking the boardwalk in front and in back of us. It was the only time the throng (yes, there was a throng there too) was quiet. Photographed Clepsydra Geyser there as well which seemed to erupt continuously, unless it was just a very long eruption. Took way too many pictures of the eruption. But I also started the day of abstracts of the bacterial mats, here and at the Grand Prismatic. It is so much better with a bit of sunlight. Had a lot of fun doing it; I’ve always wanted to do the abstracts ever since I was first here 38 years ago! I guess these abstracts are the aspen blurs from two years ago. Just a different obsession. Ran into Eric Bowles again (the guy from Teton), this time leading his group. He said with the storms, the road from Teton to Yellowstone had been closed and after last night I can understand.
Sunset didn’t pan out tonight. I tried a flat with a perfectly side-lit curving river, but the sun disappeared behind some clouds before I even got out of the car to set up. Just called it a day and headed off for some bison meatloaf, but the lodge with the cafeteria had closed!! I knew something was up when there were no cars parked there. So I had to eat at the Old Faithful Inn bar again tonight. Not bad though, I got my burger comped because they forgot the cheese, so the bill was only $2.95 for a glass of pineapple juice. No beer after last night’s headache. So the usual: hang around the Inn while the camera battery charges then onto Madison. Tomorrow, I plan to get in a shower here after any morning photography. That should line me up until Sunday when I may actually get a motel to see the second presidential debate.
Day 10 — October 6, 2016 Thursday
Well, I never set the alarm last night because the weather was to stay the same and I figured I’d get up in plenty of time as I usually do, and so amazingly, I slept until 7am and noticed a hint of a break in the clouds. I dashed to a spot on the Gibbon River and managed to squeak off a few pics before the light lost any hint of color and then sped off to the same spot as yesterday on Fountain Flat Drive where Gibbon Creek winds it’s way through the flats. But when I parked by a small depression with water in it and some grasses with snow lit by the low light, I had to squeeze that in first before running over to the bend in the creek. I managed just one shot with the sun still out and then it went behind some clouds. It was a hectic morning but at least I gave it a shot. After paying for camping last night, I headed back to the Bobby Sox trees again since they had snow on them again feeling I just didn’t get them the other day.
I finally did my first motion blur of the trip there but had trouble with the sky being too bright even with the split ND. Finally got something I may be able to work with and it was time for a shower at the Old Faithful Inn (only $4.74) and shampoo, conditioner and soap was supplied. The only thing in question was the hot water which took several (10) minutes to appear! I found out today that the only building with wi-fi was the Snow Lodge, so I went over and discovered that yes, they had wi-fi available, but it was $4.95 for one hour! I passed on that option. The plan after the shower and lunch was to go to the visitor center to see if roads were open to get to Mammoth. Found out snow tires were required on the open road while the other was still closed for construction, so I’ll spend another day here and hope for the best tomorrow. If roads are still closed (a lot of snow at the higher elevations) I’ll head for Craters of the Moon using the west entrance. I hope not, because I really wanted to see the terraces at Mammoth.
I wanted to hike around the Upper geyser Basin anyway, which has so many geysers and fountains it’s amazing. I took some shots of bacterial mats and some springs (named and unnamed) on the way to Riverside Geyser having a window from 405p-505p, but scheduled for 435p. So I sat down next to a guy (Ted Olafson – Lt. in Everett PD) and we chatted while waiting for it to go off, and sure enough, at 435p it went off for a good while, along with a side geyser which was phenomenal! Even better was that the sun was directly behind us, which is not what you usually would want, but with it we got some rainbows!!
Click any photo to view full size.
Then Ted and I went over to Grand Geyser scheduled in a little while and sure enough it went off even greater than Riverside, but without as good a rainbow. The light this afternoon was really good and it looked like we would be able to get back for Old Faithful for a 6:12 eruption. But while passing Castle Geyser, we saw some water coming out and Ted said he thought it may be going off at 550p and it had really good side lighting. But someone passing said it had gone off at 1 this afternoon, so we hotfooted it to Old Faithful with the light still great. We still had a way to go to get into position and would probably make it in time except Old Faithful decided this time to go off almost 10 minutes early!! So it was an environmental shot of the eruption with great lighting and if you look really closely, the small white speck is Old Faithful; probably the only shot of it from my time in Yellowstone. After all, who wants a picture of a gray geyser against a gray sky?
I figured I had about 90 minutes to go out to the flats for some side-lighting and back for a dusk Old Faithful. So off we went and the great lighting turned into a snow squall and heavy snow falling, so back again for the dusk shot of Old Faithful but it was all clouded. So bust at then end of the day, but bonuses with the late afternoon geysers. I can’t complain. So the usual evening of dinner at the bar and sit around the Inn listening to the music of the cellist who tonight, for the first time played the Pachebal (?) She made several electronic loops and played a solo with all the different parts playing electronically, it was just wonderful and I stopped writing just to give my full attention to the music. It brought back memories of a honeymoon so long ago.
Day 11 — October 7, 2016 Friday
Woke up this morning with the alarm and of course it was another cloudy day, but on the bright side, it wasn’t completely socked in, but rather some interesting clouds. I headed to the Perce Flats hoping the sun might break through, lighting up the grasses, but the clouds were too thick for that. So I continued south and stopped at a group of dead trees I had filed away and wanted to try a very long exposure to show some movement in the clouds and to blur the steam from the many steam vents off in the distance. You’d think that with the clouds being so dark, and the grasses being pretty bright, I would have no need for a split ND grad filter. But, it just didn’t work so I put the hard edged in front of the lens to properly balance what I had thought was already even toned. And of course…I was waiting for a car to pass, which was traveling slowly, to take a shot and stopped in front of me and asked, “What are you shooting? I don’t see anything.” So I told her there were some bison grazing just ahead and she moved out of my shot. The clouds were pretty neat, so I thought I’d give White Dome Geyser a shot and I managed to set up within 5 minutes of its eruption and I liked it, so I decided to wait for the next one in about 20 minutes if things go according to plan. I changed my spot to include a kind of s-curve in the formation and sure enough, in 20 minutes, off it went again. Then it was time to start the drive up to Mammoth on the road scheduled to open today at 7am. I saw the same sign “Road Closed 5-miles Ahead” and figured it was just left over from the closure and they hadn’t gotten it down yet. But of course, when I got 5-miles further, it was still closed. The woman said a federal inspector said it was too rough and wouldn’t let it open, and she said the other detour road was still closed. from the snow!! I had already stayed an extra day for the opportunity to get to the northern sections of the park, but the roads were not open, so I opted to go to Craters of the Moon NM in Idaho and begin my way back toward Denver. When I got to West Yellowstone, I filled up with gas and set the navigation for Craters of the Moon, and it said to immediately turn right at the light. But while it was red, I saw a McDonald’s to the left. So I stopped there first, and when I walked in, who was sitting there but Ted from yesterday!! Boy was he surprised to see it was me when he looked up to see who slid in opposite him. Another chance encounter with a person for the second time, and it has happened twice on this trip. So we talked while we had breakfast and when he left, he said he was headed for Ketchum to see Hemingway’s grave. I stayed a bit longer and used their wi-fi. After the 3:10 drive from West Yellowstone to Craters of the Moon, I checked into the visitor center to get some info and get a camp site, but before heading out into the park to scout some things, I stopped at the rest room. And when I was washing my hands there, who pops in but Ted again!! This is a first; a third chance encounter with the same person. he was on his way out of the park, not staying long, but he did give me permission to use his name here in my journal.
I hiked the short Devil’s Orchard Trail and took a few shots of backlit sage bushes, but nothing extraordinary. Then I checked out the Spatter Cones before I headed to the tall Inferno Cone. This park is an area of ancient lava flows and is totally black, even the sidewalks are black, with quite a few obvious cinder cones of ancient volcanoes. A pretty unique landscape, which is why I had it on my list of things to do. The hike to the top of the Inferno Cone was steep, but thankfully short, and the reward was a 360-degree view of a snow capped mountain range to the north and cinder cones to the east and south. Also, some bright red rocks at the top along with a large tree and a few downed snags. With the low light, I had a lot of opportunities, but sometimes side-lighting can be difficult to handle and I found that out in a hurry. I think I shot 1-2/3 stops below middle and had to use a split ND filter for the sky. As it is, I will probably have to blend at least three shots together. The bad news was that the wind was howling up there, so I boosted the ISO to 400 to try to stop the movement of some sage and other plants that I used in some shots, including a beautiful Double-tree.
It looks like it would be a good spot for a sunrise as well and will probably try it. And as an added bonus, skies are clear and will probably attempt some Milky Ways after the moon sets around 11:40pm. Made a backpack dinner tonight, but had difficulty with the “old” stove; probably because I over filled it. And now just writing and waiting for the moon. This may be the final attempt of the Milky Way during the trip as the moon sets later and later, and unless I get up pretty early, I would venture that I won’t be out in the middle of the night on this trip any more.
Day 12 — October 8, 2016 Saturday
#%$!?&!!!!!!!!! Here it is, 10pm and just about ready to crawl in the sleeping bag, and somehow the whole day’s journal I was writing disappeared!!!!!!!!!!!!! This would never have happened when I used to use pen and paper!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I’ll write it again. The moon didn’t set until around 11:30pm last night, so I just sat in the car until around 11pm to begin looking for an interesting snag facing the right direction for the Milky Way. Found one in the Devil’s Orchard, but its best side didn’t face right, but I used it anyway. It didn’t work out well, so I headed off to the Spatter Cones where I wanted to light the rock using the daylight white balance and shoot the stars in the tungsten white balance to have the interplay of warm and cool tones when the two are blended later. The stars were the easy part, but lighting the rocks seemed problematic. I finally did get a few right and finally crawled into the sleeping bag around 1:30am! After a few hours sleep, I got ready for the hike back up the Inferno Cone for sunrise. I figured I would use the same solitary (only) tree up there with simply the light coming from the opposite direction as last night’s sunset. It turned out that shooting south was totally wrong and the best lighting was to shoot toward the north!! So much for scouting locations and pre-visualizing. Anyway, managed a few using the red rock up there and I found a partial tree trunk lying on the ground without any of the other parts of the tree anywhere around. Made me wonder where the rest of the tree ended up.
Headed back into Arco, ID (pop. 973) for a late breakfast and to do some grocery shopping. I stopped in Mel’s for breakfast and what a great place it was; just full of character and characters. Wendy was going 90 mph all the time preparing and cooking meals for customers, waiting the tables and running the register, all at the same time carrying in a conversation with everyone. She even shredded the potatos for the hash browns I ordered right then and there! “It was one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in my life!!” A great place; I’m glad I stopped in and met Wendy, it was the best part of the day. Made Motl 6 Reservations in Rock Springs, WY for tomorrow night’s Presidential debate and took a few architectural pictures while in Arco, who’s claim to fame is that it is the first town in America to have electricity provided by nuclear power.
One turned out pretty neat. I saw an old filling station garage door with some “character” in the shade and decided to shoot it with a sunlit building across the street reflected in the windows. I liked it, but it got even better when to people walked by and I caught their reflection in the window as well.
Got some groceries at the A&A Market in town before heading back the Craters of the Moon. I did some hiking to a lava tube and some caves, taking some shots, but thinking that the enormous lava field might be better when the sun has gone down and the lava reflects the blue sky. So I returned there again after deciding that sunset may not be too good because of some thick wispy clouds moving in, but then they also blotted out half of the blue sky. As it turned out, the clouds did actually part at sunset lighting up the mountain range to the northeast, and then to make it even better, lighting up the entire sky beautiful shade of pink, purple and red pastels. I clicked off a few panos using only a small thread of land on the bottom of the frame, so being up high may not have been any more advantageous. I really lucked out on that one. Finally got back to the campsite and the stove seems to be working, but just not puttingn out enough btu’s. It seemed to take forever to get the water to boil; but then again, I was watching it quite a bit! Another camp dinner of Pasta Primavera which is probably my favorite. Then the fiasco of having to rewrite the journal!! Probably won’t shoot the stars again tonight unless I get up later and shoot it as it sets. We’ll see….
Day 13 — October 9, 2016 Sunday
(2nd Presidential Debate)
Finally got into the sleeping bag after having to redo my journal and fell right asleep. I have to admit the new pillow I bought for this trip has been great; not cold to the touch like the old one and much softer. I had to wrap the old one in my fleece jacket to stay warm.
I set the alarm so I don’t sleep through sunrise even though if there are no clouds, it will just be a repeat of yesterday and figured if I woke up earlier, I would make another attempt at the Milky Way. Woke up around 4:10am and would normally just roll over, but I got up and out and went back to the Devil’s Orchard to that tree to see if it lined up better 4-5 hours later. And it did; the profile of the tree was much better. I did the same tungsten and daylight white balances and went down as far as f/4 to try to keep the tree and stars all in focus. Glad I crawled out of the bag this morning. Headed over to the Inferno Cone parking lot to wait until it became light out. Dozed a bit but realized as the horizon lightened, that the light would be the same as yesterday and I thought to go on the caves trail instead since it is a wide open lava field and should get some good cross lighting. It was good light, but difficult to record. I eventually put a hard-step ND filter over the sky to keep it from blowing out and the gradual split over the bottom to keep my foreground subject from getting overly bright allowing the dark lava a bit more light in the middle ground in order to have some substance there, otherwise it would probably be just blocked up. It was a good experience watching the light work its way into all the nooks and crevices within the lava field, and how it brought out so many of the colors and textures. With all the small plants struggling to survive in the cracks and placing them within the frame of lava without eliminating the sky’s reflection, there was the opposition of warm vs. cool. Afterwards, I stopped in at Pickles Place for breakfast and it couldn’t light a candle to Wendy at Mel’s. A whole different atmosphere and attitude. I did take a few shots of the bright green outside that seemed to have fewer flies than inside. Went across the street snd photographed the Lost River Hotel which was painted bright colors. Then began the long trip to Rock Springs. The area around Arco is pretty desolate which is probably why the government set up an atomic plant there, just in case there were a mishap. Finally got checked into Motel 6 around 5pm, and the kind woman behind the desk gave me a magazine with many of the places I saw on the morning of the second day in the book in Starbucks, all listed and a map of where they were. I took a quick shower and blasted out the door to try to get to the Little Firehole Canyon Overlook along route 191. Managed to just get there in time before the sun went down. Unfortunately, the canyon below was in complete shade so I used the same double ND filter set- up that I used this morning at Craters of the Moon. I knew I would miss the first portions of the Presidential Debate tonight, but managed to listen to the first 20 minutes on NPR radio and watched the rest at the motel. Then went to McDonald’s to have dinner and to try to straighten out the mess of the journal entries on their wi-fi. Still conflicted on what to do tomorrow: either move on to Rocky Mountain National Park, or stay here in the Rock Springs area for a day now that I have a good local map. One final note, although not the usual type, my back has felt tender today but in a different spot. Hopefully it will clear up tomorrow.
Day 14 — October 10, 2016 Monday
Got up early enough to try to get a sunrise shot somewhere near Rock Springs, but there were no clouds and I had an almost 6 hour drive ahead of me to Rocky Mountain NP, so I opted to just get in the car and drive. Stopped across the street this time instead of going back to Starbucks and for $2.99, I got a breakfast sandwhich and a 24-oz. coffee!! About the same as a medium coffee at Starbucks. Managed to get in touch with Laurene about visiting Tuesday, and I talked to Denis to ask where he was, and found he was already back home in CA. Sounds like he had much better weather in CO than I did in WY.
Made it into Rocky Mountain NP after driving through the awesome (in engineering too) Big Thompson Canyon and asked about any aspens in the park and the ranger told me to turn off in about 2 miles and there should be some aspens. Well, there were very few and not in any way like the stands I saw in CO two years ago. Mostly evergreens. So I headed up Trail Ridge Road, the highest regularly maintained road in the US. The temperature kept dropping as I got higher and higher going from the mid 60’s to the mid 30’s!! Above treeline there were 360-degree panoramas of weather systems moving through the Rockies. Snow squalls, various types of clouds, sunshine glistening off the new snow dusting the mountains. It was simply beautiful…but super windy!! No busloads of self-absorbed tourists, but still plenty of selfies to go around. At the Gore Range Overlook, the weather went from sunny, to a completely socked in white-out, to snow blowing sideways, to some crazy clouds clearing the way for sunshine again; all in about 20 minutes. Glad I waited it out as the scene that developed was nothing short of spectacular!! I did a lot of shooting in hopes of getting the raw power of what occurred in both single shots and panos. I just hope something comes of it because it would be a shame to have not recorded it properly. But it was just a great moment in the trip watching it unfold across the entire range of mountains before me.
I returned to the same location when sunset should have occurred, and there were still plenty of clouds around as well as plenty of wind. It sure looked like the pink was trying to make its way through, but just never did to any degree. If it had, it would have been two spectacular events in just a few hours; too much to expect. But I waited in the gale with my camera, completely ready with split ND’s in place in case I got really lucky.
Drove back down to Estes Park, gateway to the park, and was amazed at how commercial it was. I found a McDonald’s and wrote out the journal tonight, just like any other homeless person…just killing time before heading back up to find a spot to crash for a few hours. I don’t think the skies will be clear to try any star shots tonight with the moon setting pretty late now, and if it remains as windy and cold as when I left, I think I’ll skip it and stay warm. I’m amazed that this is the first and only night I don’t have a specific place to stay because the only campground is in the opposite direction of where I want to be in the morning. But after tomorrow morning, the photo part of the trip will be over. I hope it is a good one since I haven’t had a single great sunrise, or sunset for that matter. Time will tell…
Day 15 — October 11, 2016 Tuesday (Decisions)
Whenever I’ve taken these road trips in the past, I’ve always tried to take the safe course mainly because I’m traveling alone and in some remote areas where help may not be coming for quite some time. Well last night after leaving McDonald’s in Estes Park outside of Rocky Mtn. NP, I literally came to a fork in the road and decided on the wrong fork. I was hoping for one last chance at a great sunrise in the mountains and wanted to be up at an overlook on Trail Ridge Road above the tree line for first light. I also thought about some star shots with or without the Milky Way, and maybe some night shots with some movement in clouds of the partially cloudy sky I saw. It was a half moon and I thought it would light the clouds and the snow on the mountains. So when I came to the choice, right or left, I rejected going left towards the campground at a lower elevation, which was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to be in the morning that was much higher at around 12,000 feet. I chose to go right up to where I wanted to be in the morning and possibly do some night shooting. Well, when I got up to 12,000 feet, above tree line, the wind was still howling like the afternoon, so the idea of long, 25-second or longer exposures was out of the question. So I decided to spend the night at the Alpine Visitor Center a few hundred feet lower in elevation, down the road a bit on the west side of the mountain. There was a pit toilet there and I would be very near the overlook I figured would have good side lighting on the range across the valley when the sun came up in the morning. All very optimistic conclusions without a shred of information (weather reports, angles for sunrise, etc.) for them to be based on.
So I climbed into my sleeping bag and listened to the wind howl for a few minutes before falling asleep. At times during the night I felt the car shaking from the wind and just rolled over and fell back asleep. But when the alarm went off at 6:30am, it was all white outside the car and there was a blizzard going on!!! It slowly sank in that here I am, all alone on top of a mountain in a blizzard. I had food, water, half a tank of gas and barely any cell service if I had any at all. I was weighing my options whether to stay put until the snow stopped, having no idea when that would be, or head down in the storm, and if I head down, in which direction do I go: east or west? Should I wait until they plow the road later? having no idea if that would indeed happen (I saw some equipment to do that at lower elevations) or would they just say the season is over and the road will be closed until spring? Lots of things going through my mind. Even “Will I make my flight tomorrow?” But I did make the decision to hit the pit toilet first and go from there.
Back in the car, I started it up to get some heat going and have a granola bar for breakfast while I weighed my options, feeling just a little insecure about the predicament. Suddenly, through the storm, I saw some headlights coming from the east side, down from the highest point on the road. I kept turning my headlights on and off to get his attention and he came over to the car. He said he had come from Estes Park and that further below it was rain and that I could make it and he drove off. Well, I decided to give it a go and drove out of the parking lot heading up over the top toward the east side, but the snow was blinding, barely able to see the road and pulled back into the parking lot. I felt trying to go east and up higher, conditions would be worse before they got any better while the poor visibility and going uphill made that option sketchy. I also knew that most sections of the roadway had severe drop-offs without any barriers whatsoever. That’s what gave me pause to drive out in the first place. I did feel a little confident after handling the car in the snow in Yellowstone and taking manual control of the transmission, so I decided to head down the west side even though it would mean a long drive around to get back to the east side of the range. It was getting a bit lighter out and I kept the car going at 20mph or less, following the road and tracks of the guy in the truck I spoke to earlier. If I had waited a few more minutes to decide, the tracks would have been covered, making it that much more difficult. But I was determined to be patient and always be in control of the car, no matter how long it took as I headed down, but found I had to drive a very long time before I saw any improvement or decrease in the snow falling and wind. The more I drove, the more I realized that this was no snow squall that would be over in a flash, and when I finally felt I was off the mountain and feeling quite relieved, I looked to my right and saw some of the blackest, most ominous clouds I have ever seen in my life!! The picture above from my cell phone does not, in any way, truly show the menace in those clouds; and that is where I came from!!
I counted my blessings for getting down the mountain safely and for being uninjured during this trip as well. There is truly some guiding force that propels me to places where I photograph the unexpected, and it is the same force that watches over my well being. For that, I am thankful. After the long drive to get back to the east side of the mountains, I spent the afternoon visiting with a former Cary neighbor who moved to Colorado Springs about a year ago into a lovely new home, enjoying lunch and dinner there before heading toward Denver for the flight back home tomorrow. There were times this morning that I felt I would have missed my visit and possibly even my flight tomorrow while not being able to communicate my whereabouts to them, or anyone, of my predicament. Thankfully, that truck passed by and gave me the courage to try to wrestle myself out of the predicament in which I so foolishly put myself. I’m just happy he didn’t pass by while I was inside the pit toilet!!
j.j. raia 