Touring Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Bryce, and Zion National Parks About This Page:

[Huntermom]

As usual-gorgeous shots.

Up here, I find that moose tend not to be where people look for them and most I have seen have been "in action." I love wildlife but some people don't seem to understand the "wild" part of it. I few years ago the daughter of an acquaintance was seriously injured when the cars of people looking at a bear by the side of the road, blocked the view of the truck that was coming towards her. Highways are not zoos.

[shazza]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Beautiful shots! And glad AMEX is going to pay for the MAC!

Thanks - I'm glad AMEX came through too!

Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily

I love the tree shots, so vibrant. The chapel is adorable. That moose did look old. I'm amazed how stupid people can be when seeing wildlife. We dealt with that at Yellowstone. The rangers sure have to deal with a lot of crazy people! You dog is precious! Good news about the Mac!

Thanks - yes, I wouldn't want to be a ranger. We saw even crazier people in Yellowstone.

Originally Posted by lauriep

Beautiful fall colors! That poor old moose. Not the most comfortable spot for him to nap, I'd think. I much prefer the shot of your 3-month-old beast. Hi, Natasha!

I do need to make another trip--in fall-- to that area, or at least north to Acadia. I'll have to inspire a friend to do a road trip next year, since I don't drive any more.

Acadia is always a good choice. And - only two more sleeps til we see if our puppy remembers us

Originally Posted by lfredsbo

Great pics!!! That chapel is adorable!!!!

Glad to hear that Natasha is doing well! And that AMEX hooked you up!!!

Thanks - I had to wait for a bus load of elderly to vacate the chapel so I had a few moments by myself. It was nice.

Originally Posted by rlb38

Interesting that the moose seems to have settle by someone`s campfire set up. The yellow is so vivid. Makes me think I need to get out this weekend and see some Canadian colour.

The yellows and oranges were so vivid, especially depending on the time of day - made it hard to photograph at times.

Originally Posted by Huntermom

As usual-gorgeous shots.

Up here, I find that moose tend not to be where people look for them and most I have seen have been "in action." I love wildlife but some people don't seem to understand the "wild" part of it. I few years ago the daughter of an acquaintance was seriously injured when the cars of people looking at a bear by the side of the road, blocked the view of the truck that was coming towards her. Highways are not zoos.

Yikes - I can see how that can happen. Whatever happened to common sense (and following the rules)?

[shazza]

Real Time Update: Whew, another good day. I was up at 5:30am to head over to Bryce for sunrise. Lou, as usual, slept in. Came back at 9am, had breakfast and we went back to the park until 5pm. He really enjoyed it, as I knew he would (he loves rocks). Some time in the hot tub, and now we'll think about dinner. I am "pictured" out, so not going back for sunset.


Wednesday, September 19th: Some Old Barns and Our First Look at Yellowstone

We were all in the van at 5:45am again - this time the destination was Mormon Row, at the southern part of the Park. This is another historical settlement, where a number of the original buildings have been preserved. It's another favorite spot for photographers. I should mention that there are many "photographers" who have disdain for those who shoot the iconic shots at places like this. It doesn't matter one bit to us - we are out for our own enjoyment. And, there must be a reason thousands have tried for the same shots!


First up - an old barn. With, of course, the Grand Tetons as a backdrop. Once again smoke foiled our plans to be the the next Ansel Adams, but it was still a good place to shoot.

Here's a shot of the other two gals in our group shooting the barn - they made sure they asked before getting in anyone's way. I will say this is the best group in that respect - very polite, no pushing or shoving to get the best spot. You can see it's a bit later in this shot, and the smoke is even worse.

I got a little tired of shooting the barn after an hour -- in sub 40 degree weather. I turned around and attempted a shot of the sunrise. At least the smoke made for an interesting sky.

We then went down to another area where we shot another barn. I wandered off and took a photo of one of the old houses. I could have used that outhouse about then.

It was time to pack everything up and head back to the Lodge for our Last Real Breakfast for a few days. As we were driving down Antelope Flats Road, we saw a herd of Bison running in the distant trees. If you've seen my other reports, you may recall "Road Photography" is a hobby of mine. So, here I am, snapping like crazy trying to get those Bison far in the distance while we are going 50+ mph. Of course, everyone but Lou thinks I am nuts. Perhaps I am not as serious about this as they are? The result - not perfect, but I will always remember seeing my first running herd of Bison

We had yet another fancy buffet breakfast - I should have taken a photo of the Moose Waffles (but, given how the group reacted to my drive-by-shooting technique, I can only imagine how they would have responded to food shots, "It's kind of a Disney thing ..."

We then loaded up the van with all the luggage AND the camera gear. Fortunately, the other couple with us decided to drive their jeep and follow along, giving us a little room.


Trekking to Yellowstone in a Van - with very uncomfortable seats:

Yellowstone is only 45 miles from Grand Teton, but then that just gets you to the entrance. As most of you know, Yellowstone could be a country all on it's own (maybe not, but it is huge).

Our goal was to stop and photograph interesting things along the way. We stopped at a turnout for Jackson Lake - we all had a good laugh, and decided to caption this photo of Len (the leader) and one of our guys; Well, Stan - If you could see them, you would see the Grand Tetons just over that way, right above the lake you can almost see ...

Len did find a few Aspen trees for us to play around with. The funniest part about this - after we pulled off and hopped out with our cameras, at least a half dozen other cars stopped. They looked around, and asked us, "what do you see?" When we said, "Yellow Trees," they were rather disappointed.

I had to snap the sign for Yellowstone as we whizzed on by ... this group also doesn't know you are supposed to get photos of such things for trip reports.

I didn't take too many photos of the scenery as we drove into the park - but did get more later. Here's one I did snap - amazing to still see the effects of the 1988 fire, and also see the birth of the new forest.

We stopped for a quick visit to Lewis Falls - I think Lou took this photo.

We drove to West Thumb Geyser Basin, where we wandered around the thermal basins, then had a picnic lunch. I think this was the first time I'd ever seen anything like this. It was great, even if we didn't see a huge amount of geyser activity. Some of our photos from this area:

Oops, I guess you can tell I was impressed with the Thermal Basins. I'll end this post at this point, and pick up with the rest of the day in the next one.


Coming up Next: Time to Get Up Close & Personal with Some Wildlife

[lauriep]

Not all of your photos are showing today, but what's there is wonderful! Too bad about the smoke, but it does give a kind of eerie effect as if the mountains aren't really there. It is funny that knowing you're going to use the photos in your TR makes you take different ones... you're not just a photographer, you're illustrating your trip!

Won't be long now before your reunion with Miss Puppy. She'll be wild with excitement to see you both!

Oh, wait-- I just scrolled down and the missing photos have appeared! Love the shots of the geothermal areas. The colors of the water and surrounding areas are incredible.

[chezp]

You're bringing back great memories of Yellowstone - love all the shots of West Thumb, I remember it like it was yesterday, even though it was more than a year now!

[lfredsbo]

Wow! More beauty!

Seriously.....the nerve of those people not understanding you CAPTURE everything! . I too will often get looks when I take food photos, sign photos, etc!

[Colexis Mom]

Great shots of Yellowstone and the barns!

[rlb38]

My dad would LOVE the barn photos but I think I like the shot you took of the sunrise better Speaking of Ansel Adams is anyone shooting using black and white settings. Or would you just alter colour photos to black & white on the computer these days ?
I admire the "road photography". Chezp has them in often in her TR's and I tried getting some on our summer road trip with no success. Mike kept asking if I wanted him to pull over
Love the colours in the final photos.

[shazza]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Not all of your photos are showing today, but what's there is wonderful! Too bad about the smoke, but it does give a kind of eerie effect as if the mountains aren't really there. It is funny that knowing you're going to use the photos in your TR makes you take different ones... you're not just a photographer, you're illustrating your trip!

Won't be long now before your reunion with Miss Puppy. She'll be wild with excitement to see you both!

Oh, wait-- I just scrolled down and the missing photos have appeared! Love the shots of the geothermal areas. The colors of the water and surrounding areas are incredible.

Glad the photos showed up. The smoke was definitely disappointing, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We see the puppy tomorrow

Originally Posted by chezp

You're bringing back great memories of Yellowstone - love all the shots of West Thumb, I remember it like it was yesterday, even though it was more than a year now!

Glad to bring back the memories. Your TR on your trip was a lot of help to me - I checked it again just yesterday before we drove to Zion today.

Originally Posted by lfredsbo

Wow! More beauty!

Seriously.....the nerve of those people not understanding you CAPTURE everything! . I too will often get looks when I take food photos, sign photos, etc!

Lol - yes, what do they think photos are for? Art? Like I said, most of these folks were far more serious about it all than we were.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great shots of Yellowstone and the barns!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rlb38

My dad would LOVE the barn photos but I think I like the shot you took of the sunrise better Speaking of Ansel Adams is anyone shooting using black and white settings. Or would you just alter colour photos to black & white on the computer these days ?
I admire the "road photography". Chezp has them in often in her TR's and I tried getting some on our summer road trip with no success. Mike kept asking if I wanted him to pull over
Love the colours in the final photos.

Thanks - about shooting B&W - I know everyone in our group shot color, but we were all using Digital Cameras. So it's possible to do the B&W conversion when processing. One thing we didn't have much time for is to look at each other's shots. We shared a few interesting ones, but that was always just on the display on the back of the camera.

I get a kick out of road photography. Some friends asked me to make a small guide on how I do it - maybe Cheryl and I can put something together sometime and share it here.

[shazza]

Real Time Update: We drove from Tropic, Utah (near Bryce) to Zion National Park today. It was a short drive, and then we entered the park. Enough said - I'll save my impressions for when I get to that part of the TR. Back to "home" in Arizona tomorrow.

Wednesday, Sep 18th - The Rest of the Story:

After our picnic lunch at West Thumb, we drove around and stopped a few times for photos - nothing too exciting. I have some waterfall pics to process, but it was really too bright to do much with the photos.

We were headed into the Madison Area, working our way towards the West Entrance to the park, since we were staying in West Yellowstone. Here's a map - we came in the South entrance.

Len knows this area well, and drove down a little service road where he had seen elk before. And, guess what???? There were some. Elk, that is. I was excited. I've seen elk before, but it's been a long time and I'd never tried to really photograph them before. We were the only ones here, so it was nice not to have hordes of people.

There were a few cows and calves. No bull that we saw. They looked at us, but kept on eating. They sure do graze a lot!

Just as I was going to put a better lens on my camera, everyone else decided to pack up and move on. What????? This is my first elk. It turned out the "light wasn't right, there was no Bull elk, and we'd find better next time." Who knew? Certainly not me. Turns out most of these folks have been on photo safaris in Africa and other places to shoot wildlife, so perhaps they had higher expectations than I did (note - Lou isn't all that interested in wildlife photography - he prefers landscapes and stuff like the geysers and rocks).

So, we drive around some more. Then we spot some Bison out in the meadow - pretty far out, actually. But, since the afternoon was running out, we stopped for a photo op. The guys in the group hiked out closer to where the Bison were, while the gals stayed back by the car.

In the meantime, the other Bison decided to come over our way. First he crossed the river. Note - he's not as close as he looks, I had changed to a larger telephoto lens.

We kept an eye on the big guy, and also watched what was happening where the guys were. You can see in this photo, how many people joined them in the half hour or so they were in their spot. It looks like the Bison is right next to them, but that's because of the angle. Soon after I took this photo, the boys decided to head back to the van.

It was getting late enough now, that we were going to head to the hotel in West Yellowstone. As we were driving, we spotted some more elk. And, this time, there was a Bull elk. And the light was better. So my compadres decided this was worthy of their effort, and we hiked out a ways to shoot some elk.

He sure was a noisy guy -

We watched this group for about 45 minutes, but nothing too exciting happened other than the young Bull announcing his intentions to the world, and making sure his harem didn't run off.

This was good stuff - I thought it was a successful day. Could it get better than this?

We drove into West Yellowstone and checked into the Brandin' Iron Inn - basically a motel that is a couple notches down from a Hampton or Best Western. The rooms were clean, so no real complaints. The reason we stayed here is because they are the only ones who provide breakfast at 6am (and there isn't much choice in West Yellowstone).

We walked a short distance downtown to Bullwinkle's for dinner. Food was fine, but service was sooooooo slow. Took over 2 1/2 hours to finish dinner. We were all worn out by this time.

Coming up Next: Can we top today?

[rlb38]

I would love some tips on road photography.

My little pocket canon camera has a black/white setting that I like to mess around with. I have yet to do any "post processing" on my photos.

[chezp]

Wow, love all the wildlife shots! You did so much better than us with that - I think literally all we found was (admittedly lots of ) bison.

[dutchdisneyfamily]

I love all the shots! Every single elk picture I have is always their backsides. It's so annoying! You got some good ones! We actually drove through a herd of bison while there. Like I could have reached out the window and pet them as they wandered past the car. They are so massive, just pure muscle. Amazing memories you are bringing back!

[Colexis Mom]

Great shots of the elk and bison!

[lauriep]

Fantastic shots of all the wildlife! Too bad the hotel for the night was a notch below, but glad the food was at least good! That was a really long day.