I’ve finally finished sorting and processing my photos from our Yellowstone & Grand Teton trip in May. They can be found at my Adobe Portfolio site, along with photos from many of our past adventures.
Finally! Yellowstone Photos
Tag Archives: National Park
Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin
One of the most popular spots in Yellowstone National Park is the Midway Geyser Basin. It is so popular that if you arrive after about 10:00 (earlier in the summer!) you could wait for hours just to get a place to park.
With that in mind, Kathy and I decided to make a non-peak visit to the basin, early (-ish) one morning (my first photo was taken just before 8:00. Unfortunately that meant that instead of dealing with bunches of crowds, we ended up dealing with bunches of steam. As it works, the bigger the difference between the air temperature and the springs, the more chance for steam and fog.
We knew this going in and decided that seeing it, even in less than ideal conditions, was better than dealing with huge crowds. It was still quite dramatic, and even though I didn’t get the “classic” Grand Prismatic Spring” shot (in reality very few people do get the classic shot, and to get it you kinda have to be there in perfect conditions, preferably in an airplane!), we were happy to have gotten there on a nice day with plenty of sunshine to show off the rainbow of colors.
After our morning visit to Midway Geyser Basin we headed on down the road to Fountain Paint Pots, another popular spot. That lot was starting to fill up when we got there, and by the time we got back to Midway the traffic was already starting to line up for the parking lot. But that’s a story for another day. The lesson though is that timing is everything!
Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs
We thought we had a pretty good idea what to expect. But when we rounded a curve and caught our first glimpse of the formations of Mammoth Hot Springs, our first thoughts were “is that snow???”
The first impression of Mammoth Hot Springs is that it can’t be real. It is so different from anything we’ve ever seen that it just doesn’t register. And when one gets closer it looks even stranger, as the patterns, colors and textures of the various deposits defy the logic of our memories.
After spending a little time studying the springs, it becomes a little more clear what is happening and why. Eventually it begins to make a little sense, although looking at these photos a month later I still have a hard time comprehending what I saw. It was quite an experience and one I’ll remember for a long time.
A Very Nice View
The Chapel of the Transfiguration is a small log chapel in Grand Teton National Park, in the community of Moose. The chapel was sited and built to frame a view of the Cathedral Group of peaks in a large window behind the altar. The chapel, which was built in 1925, is owned and operated by St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson. The church is open daily, and still hosts services on Sunday. On the day of our visit, an organist was playing in the chapel.
The chapel was built to serve guests and employees of the dude ranches that stretched north of Jackson along the base of the Teton Range. The land was donated by Maud Noble, owner of nearby Menor’s Ferry, predating the establishment of Grand Teton National Park in 1929 and its expansion into the Moose area in 1950. The chapel played a primary role in the movie Spencer’s Mountain, which was filmed in Jackson Hole in 1963, and featured Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara.
The chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 10, 1980.
Postcard From Grand Teton National Park
We wrapped up our western swing with a 2 day visit to Jackson, WY and Grand Teton National Park. This is a classic view of the Teton Range from an area called the Mormon Row Historic District. The photo is a bit of a cliche but I can’t imagine a photographer passing it by. Some photographs just need to be taken! We had some pretty nice clouds on this day, which helps a lot.
Along The Way: Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
On our recent trip to Texas, we made a stop at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park near Macon, Georgia. We had intended to visit several years ago, but this was one of the many parks whose visitor centers had been closed during the Covid hysteria. We got to visit this time.
The park is a prehistoric American Indian site, boasting more than 12,000 years of continuous human habitation by many different American Indian cultures. American Indians first came here during the Paleo-Indian Period hunting Ice Age mammals. Around 900 CE, the Mississippian Period began, and people constructed mounds for their elite, which remain here today.
The site was also the scene of several Civil War battles.
The largest dig ever conducted in this country occurred here at Ocmulgee and the surrounding area. Between 1933 and 1936, over 800 men in Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (ERA & FERA), and later by the Civilian Conservation Corps excavated under the direction of Dr. Arthur R. Kelly from the Smithsonian Institute.
The site was declared a National Monument in 1936. In 1937 the National Park Service, along with U.S. Congressman Carl Vinson, General Walter Harris, and Dr. Charles C. Harrold, completed a list of needed development projects including construction of a museum, restoration of archeological features, access roads and parking, tree planting, and fence construction – all to include the detached Lamar Site, where a levee was also needed.
Postcard From Vicksburg, Mississippi
Kathy & I are enroute to Texas for the first leg of our winter travels. We made a long overdue stop in Vicksburg to visit the National Military Park there. It is a solemn reminder of the price many have paid over our nation’s history.
We visited on a cloudy and overcast day, but thankfully with no rain. The whole time I photographed there I was envisioning the photos in black & white, in an inadequate homage to the photographs that were made in the heat of the moment. The battlefields as they exist today are a distant reminder of the horrors of battle, but the tribute paid in the form of monuments and memorials is moving.
Mine, All Mine
Copper mining plays an integral role in the history of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and there are remains of these mines scattered throughout the land. A few of them have been partially preserved for tourism, including the Quincy Mine, part of Keweenaw National Historical Park near Houghton.
Kathy & I spent a few hours visiting the park and touring the buildings that are open to the public. They offer a tour into one of the mines using one of the former mining cars, but I’m a little squeamish about underground and enclosed spaces so we decided to pass. Perhaps another time, he says…. 🙂
The most fascinating aspect is the size of the machinery that was used to move both man, equipment and materials in and out of the mine. But they produced a lot of copper over the years the mines were in operation. Once the copper ran out, the mines were abandoned and left to the elements. Fortunately there are a few of them still remaining, as reminders of the importance of copper to the area.
Postcard From Voyageurs National Park
We capped off our road trip with an unplanned visit to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. Unplanned, because when I first thought about visiting the Northernmost Point I never even bothered to see what else there was to do near International Falls. Rookie mistake!
When we drove into International Falls and saw the signs for Voyageurs, I did a forehead slap and said “you dummy – how did you not remember this was here?!?!?” We were able to book a boat cruise on Rainy Lake and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. Fortunately for us, Rainy Lake was not rainy on the day we visited, and I got a bunch of nice photos. We didn’t see much wildlife, but we did get to see lots of beautiful scenery. The lake is dotted with thousands of little islands like this one.
I’m posting way out of order, but we have begun our final leg toward home, so I wanted to post one final photo from the road. I’ll have more photos and stories once I get home and am catching up!
Truly Grand…The Canyon, That Is
It’s a bit of a paradox for me – it’s hard to make a bad picture of the Grand Canyon. But yet, it’s hard to make a really good picture of the Grand Canyon. Not because it is one of the most photographed places on Earth and has been done a bazillion times and a bazillion ways, but because it is so darned BIG!
Of course it is impossible to imagine what something like the Grand Canyon will look like in person. I’ve been to Niagara Falls, and it is big. I’ve been to Alaska, and places like Glacier Bay, College Fjord, Denali? Indescribable. But the Grand Canyon? I’ve seen it from the air and didn’t realize what it was, because it is so vast. And down on the ground where you can only see a small part of it, while that part was so big, well. Words fail me although it doesn’t stop me trying. 🙂
We originally weren’t planning to stop at the Grand Canyon, figuring it would be overrun with people, with no place to park, overlooks and shuttle buses crowded with people. But no. We arranged our schedule to get there on a Monday in early May, which turned out to be a great choice. We got a good place to park, never had to wait for the next shuttle, had very few people at the overlooks, and relatively light crowds in the Grand Canyon Village. We even got a reservation for lunch at the El Tovar Hotel and a table with a canyon view. Sweet!
We only had a day, so we made the most of it. We didn’t try to get there for sunrise or stay until sunset, partly because I knew that early and late in the day, when the canyon is all in shadow, is generally not the best time to photograph it. The middle parts of the day provide good, even lighting, while the hours before and after can provide some dramatic shadows. It’s also important (I think) to have some nice clouds to provide an interesting sky. We sort of lucked out on all those counts.
It was a good day and we were both very glad to have made the effort. There are a lot more parks that we want to see, and once we finish up our 50 states project, getting to those parks is going to be one of our priorities. The list is long! 🙂
As I’ve been doing, for those who are interested or just bored 😉 I’ve added a Grand Canyon gallery to my Adobe Portfolio site.
