Hello! While I am now back at home in San Diego relaxing on my couch in preparation for tomorrow’s 4th of July festivities, I spent the majority of the time since my last blog entry up in Yellowstone, our first National Park. Yellowstone is similar to Grand Teton in many ways - they are both at high elevation with rivers, lakes, lodgepole pine forests, sagebrush flats, and similar wildlife. However, while Grand Teton’s main geological feature is the Teton Mountain Range, Yellowstone is known for its thermal features - hot springs, vents, and geysers. A huge portion of the park is the remains of a giant caldera (the depression at the top of a volcano) resulting from a gigantic volcanic explosion some 640,000 years ago. There is still magma relatively close to the earth’s surface here (as close as 3 miles compared to the normal 38 miles) and Yellowstone is considered to be an active volcano. There are more thermal features in Yellowstone than in the rest of the world combined.

I saw a few geysers erupt, including Old Faithful (their most famous geyser), Riverside, Pink Cone, White Cone, and several that spurt almost continuously. I spent a lot of time walking around and viewing the various hot springs as well which can be quite breathtaking. Depending on temperature, they come in a variety of colors, from oranges and yellows to greens and blues. Think of a swimming pool, but clearer and much more brilliant. I found it hard to do justice to the hot springs with my camera, but here is a shot of Emerald Pool that should give you an idea of what some of them look like:

The colors of the hot springs, except for the sparkling blue ones, are created by bacteria called thermophiles which thrive at high temperatures. All around the geysers and hot springs, where the piping hot water has leaked and seeped over and across the ground, there is more color and interesting patterns to be found in what are called “bacterial mats”. Here, a photo is probably worth a thousand words:

The geysers also produce travertine deposits (a type of limestone) which can form cones (so some geysers look like mini volcanoes), terraces, and other formations. The Great Fountain Geyser has terraces which are filled with calm, glassy water which reflects the sunset beautifully:

Here is another shot that I took one evening in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone:

After I finished exploring the geyser basins, I headed toward the Canyon area of Yellowstone where the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is found. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is a deep canyon that the Yellowstone River cut along with the help of many thermal features (they make the rock more brittle and susceptible to erosion), which color the canyon walls and can still be seen spouting steam from various places. There are two large waterfalls in the canyon. Here are the Lower Falls as seen from Artists Point on the canyon’s south rim:

Also in this area of the park is the Hayden Valley, where bison herds can be found and I saw white pelicans, a coyote, and some sort of egret, not to mention hundreds of geese. It wasn’t until I headed north toward Tower-Roosevelt that I had some great bear sightings though. On the road to Tower-Roosevelt from Canyon Village is a huge meadow where Antelope Creek is, and people crowd the turnouts every morning and evening with spotting scopes, binoculars, and large telephoto lenses looking for bear, wolf, and anything else of interest. The first morning I passed through there I saw a grizzly with her two cubs down the hillside a couple of hundred yards, and my last morning there I saw her again, but about 50 yards up the hillside from the road where I watched her for about 20 minutes before she came down and crossed the road right between all the cars and people! Some people aren’t very bright and crowded her as she came through, staying within about a dozen feet of her! Grizzlies with cubs are notoriously protective and you are required by park regulations to keep at least 100 yards from bears, so these folks were being quite risky, but this bear seems to have grown accustomed to the routine as it had apparently been happening almost daily!

I also got the chance to watch, through binoculars, as a wolf taunted a young grizzly who would chase the wolf around until it tired, at which point the wolf would come back and nip at it again to elicit another chase! This went on for about 15 minutes too! Anyway, I don’t have any fantastic shots of wildlife that I feel like sharing, so instead I’ll share with you a photo of the Madison Arm Wildland Fire. It had just started earlier in the day when I took this shot, over in the Gallatin National Forest west of Yellowstone, so I was able to get a close view before they shut down the highway there. It burned about 3,600 acres and is now 90% contained:

Overall, Yellowstone was great. I think the wildlife viewing is a bit better than Grand Teton, and the thermal features are definitely worth exploring if you are in the area. I have to say that Grand Teton has been my favorite place of the trip though because of the strikingly beautiful, picturesque views that the Tetons provide, and the nearly-as-good-as-Yellowstone wildlife encounters.

In the end though, nearly three weeks on the road camping turned out to be enough, and I decided to make my way home. So that is all for now :) I’ll post here again when I have new photos of interest! Till then, Happy Fourth of July and have a great summer!

Tai

The Southwest, and specifically southern Utah where I spent my first week or so, is amazing (the rock formations are awe-inspiring and gawk-worthy), and I love living in San Diego (how can you not like living in a beach town?). I think my heart lies in the mountains though. I’ve spent the last four full days here in Grand Teton National Park (in Wyoming), and I can’t get enough of it. I love the mountain lakes, streams, and rivers, and miss them when they are not around… I guess it must have something to do with growing up in the coastal mountains of northern California.

Grand Teton consists of the large, flat valley of Jackson Hole where the Snake River winds through wetland meadows and sagebrush flats, and the Teton Range which rises sharply and dramatically from the valley floor on the west side of the park. The valley floor with several lakes, including large Jackson Lake sits around 7000 feet or less while the peaks of the Teton Range rise into the 10,000 to 12,000 foot range, with Grand Teton reaching all the way to 13,770 feet.

With the sun setting behind such a large, close mountain range, I’ve found that most of the good landscape shooting tends to be in the morning. Photographers are serious about getting their shots too! On Friday, on the advice of someone who had done it the day before, I rose at 4 AM, put on my clothes, and drove about 45 minutes to the spot I wanted to shoot, down on Schwabacher Road. As I pulled into the parking lot, there was one car there already, and a van was pulling in behind me with about 15 people from a photographer’s workshop! So, I got there just in time to nab the spot I had picked out the previous day before I was crowded by the rest of the people :) Unfortunately, I’m not terribly excited by any of the photos I took at Schwabacher that morning. Not until my fourth evening here did I capture a shot of the Tetons that I’m happy with (which is ironic, since I think it is tougher to shoot in the evening):

That 4 AM morning was a great one though (better than the 5 AM one the day before!). The car that was in the parking lot before me was a photographer (by hobby) named John and his brother Mike, who were fun, friendly guys. After shooting at Schwabacher, we all headed up to Mormon Row to shoot a couple of old circa-1890 barns. I thought I brought a lot of equipment with me (two camera bodies, 4 lenses, tripod, polarizing filters, two flashes, flash clamp, cleaning supplies, bags, and of course batteries, cards, etc) but let me tell you, plenty of other photographers brought a lot more! That morning, John lent me a level (and gave me his old one to keep!), a split-grad neutral density filter, a flash, a 100-400mm lens, and more! Plus, he gave me a good lesson on the Depth Of Field Preview button. It’s operation, I’m ashamed to say, perplexed me before, but now it all makes complete sense and I used it plenty yesterday :) Anyway, while we were shooting the second barn with the Tetons as the backdrop, we noticed the local bison herd getting closer and closer, till Mike and I decided to scram back behind the fence while John stood about 50 feet from the herd with one of the big bulls eyeing him as if to charge! Eventually John retreated too and we shot from behind the fence while the entire heard passed through the 50 yard space between us and the barn :)

The wildlife here, all-around, is amazing. In the four and a half days I’ve been here I have seen bears, bison, elk, antelope, moose, mule deer, coyote, geese, ducks, marmots, chipmunks, toads, butterflies, and numerous other birds and small animals. Some, like the moose and most of the birds are pretty timid, while others, like the bison and some deer don’t seem to mind your presence much at all. Last night I had two mule deer wandering through my campsite, grazing on the local vegetation, not more than 30 feet from me, until they got territorial and chased each other away! This morning, it was two big bucks doing the same :) The generous amount of wildlife here is because Grand Teton, together with Yellowstone National Park and two large national forests, combine to make up the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), the largest protected and mostly-undeveloped wilderness in the contiguous United States. It is really just a small pocket showing us a bit of what the entire west used to be like when millions of bison and other animals roamed the plains a hundred years ago.

When I left Arches in southern Utah nearly a week ago, I drove up to Eden Valley, Utah and stayed the night with my aunt and uncle’s friends’ who graciously put me up in their gorgeous new home that they just moved into. It was great to have some company for the evening, sleep in a real bed, and have a home-cooked meal for a change :) I had only been to Eden during the winter (I definitely plan on going back then) but the summer there is beautiful as well. The rolling hills and ski-resort mountains were all spring-green and the lake looked enticing. From there I drove up through the Cache National Forest, by Bear Lake (stunningly blue), and on up to Jackson and Grand Teton.

I spent the first few days roaming around the park in the mornings and evenings looking for wildlife and shooting landscapes, and swimming in Jackson Lake (cool, but refreshing) and exploring downtown Jackson during the day. The town of Jackson has a historic downtown area with a town square/park, lots of galleries, restaurants, and shops. Because of the scarcity of land here and the attractive qualities the area has, real estate has become very expensive. It is nice to visit though. I had some good food and beer at the Snake River Brewery, and met some folks from Minnesota that I almost went rock climbing with. I slept till noon instead though and then went white water rafting down the Snake River!

Yesterday, I went looking for wildlife just after sunrise and found this lone bison out in the sagebrush flats, far from the main road:

After that, I went on my first serious hike here in the Tetons, up into Cascade Canyon. To get to the canyon, I took the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake to the trailhead (you can walk around the lake, but I ended up hiking 17.4 miles total, so I’m glad I took the boat). The trail goes up a steep canyon, past Hidden Falls, and Inspiration Point, along Cascade Creek. After 4 1/2 miles the trail splits and I headed up toward Solitude Lake, at which point that canyon opens up considerably and there were beautiful fields of tiny yellow flowers (there are quite a few flowers blooming all over the park), and looking back down canyon gave you a view of Grand Teton peak. Eventually I made it to Solitude Lake, up at 9000 feet, and hung out with a group of soon-to-be school teachers from North Carolina who I hiked back down the trail with. The lake was a balmy 41.6 degrees (their group guide, Dave, had a thermometer with him), but I took the plunge anyway! Dave was the only other person brave/smart enough to get in the water (it was very cold, but I’m glad I went in).

On the way up the trail I had my telephoto lens on and was keeping my eye out for critters. I saw a couple moose, lots of marmots, and chipmunks, but no bear. It really pays to know your camera equipment well, because I missed a money shot of a chipmunk munching on a flower only because I didn’t get the proper focus quickly enough… instead of wasting time changing my focus point, I should have just pressed my shutter button halfway and manually overrode the focus with my left hand. Oh well, live and learn. Instead, I got this shot:

This morning I packed up my campsite and am heading up to Yellowstone. I’m expecting to be there for about a week, but I don’t think there is any internet access in the park, so I’ll probably be out of touch for a bit.

Take care,
Tai

Hi again! I’m hiding out in a cafe with free wireless here in Moab, UT, attempting to avoid the heat of the day. I got up at 4:45 AM this morning to go shoot in the Windows area of Arches National Park, then hiked out in the Devil’s Garden section of the park until around 11. My endeavors at napping failed miserably, so I guess I will push through till the evening when I’ll head back to the park… tonight I will sleep well! Here is Turret Arch looking through North Window with South Window off to the left, shot at 6:01 AM this morning:

Last night I hiked up to Delicate Arch (one of the most famous arches here) at sunset and it was gorgeous! I hung out until the sun went down and the cliffs in the distance turned a nice pink color and the breeze picked up, and it was just fabulous :) Here is a shot of the arch from before the sun went down:

Overall, Arches is a very cool park. Most of the arches are found in large “fins” of reddish sandstone that stick up out of the ground in clumps. Aside from the fins though, there are huge blocks of sandstone, lone monolithic spires, petrified dunes, and more. The park is relatively small, but there is a lot to see, and more than ample photographic opportunities. Moab is a nice little town too with a quaint section of main street where there are art galleries, cafes, etc. Not a bad place to kill a few hours during the middle of the day.

Anyway, when I left Monument Valley the other day, I decided to take a scenic route from a Scenic Highways and Byways book that I have, so I drove through the Valley of the Gods (sortof like Monument Valley), stopped by the Butler Wash Indian Ruins, went to Natural Bridges National Monument (try saying that 10 times fast!), and eventually ended up in Capitol Reef National Park, since I would have arrived in Arches too late. Anyway, the drive was very nice. The whole section of Hwy 95 from Hite (at the top of Lake Powell) on up to Hanksville has some great scenery, as does Hwy 24 if you continue north of Hanksville up to I-70. Here is a tree I found off of Hwy 191 (there was dirt side road conveniently located so I could grab this shot :):

Capitol Reef turned out to be a nice stop as well. The “Reef” is a huge rift in the earth’s crust 100 miles long… I can’t recall the specifics now and I’ve been kicked out onto the sidewalk bench (the cafe closed), so you’ll just have to look it up yourself :) The part of the park which has the campground where I stayed is called Fruita though, because Mormon settlers planted a bunch of fruit orchards there back in 1880. It is right along the Fremont River, so there is plenty of water and the campground even had grass! There was an old barn, schoolhouse, and turn of the century farm equipment/wagons as well, all interesting photo subjects. This was shot just steps from my campsite:

You know, the heat here in Moab isn’t nearly as bad as the previous places I visited… hot during the peak of the day, but not so bad in the shade by 4 PM. Nevertheless, I’m going to get out of this oven tomorrow and begin my journey north toward Grand Tetons. But first, I’m going to check out a couple more of the 1700 arches here at Arches NP :)

Peace, Tai