Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

on the road

A Sunny Autumn Teton Day

October 18, 2011

September 20, 2007

Even though we had been to Grand Teton National Park many times before, on this trip we explored some areas we had not been to before in the southeastern part of the park and just outside, in the Gros Ventre and Antelope Flats areas. They which yielded quite few opportunities for photographs from viewpoints different from what I had taken in the past including old log structures and the Mormon Row settlement.

Other photos include a large plane landing at Jackson against Grand Teton as a backdrop, Jackson lake, Signal Mountain, Chapel of the Transfiguration, moose resting along the Snake River near the Moose entrance to the park; Menor’s Ferry, Bill Menor’s cabin and store, and aspen fall colors.

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References and Resources:

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Upper Mesa Falls, Idaho

October 12, 2011

September 16, 2007

On one of the days we were camped near West Yellowstone, Montana, we decided to take a drive into Idaho.  The high point of the drive was the Mesa Falls Recreation Area.

From Wikipedia:

Upper Mesa Falls is a waterfall on the Henrys Fork in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Upstream from Lower Mesa Falls, it is roughly 16 miles away from Ashton, Idaho.

Upper Mesa Falls is roughly 114 feet high and 200 feet wide.[2]

Formation

Mesa Falls Tuff, which is the rock over which Upper Mesa Falls cascades, was formed 1.3 million years ago. A cycle of rhyolitic volcanism from the Henrys Fork caldera deposited a thick layer of rock and ash across the area.[3] This layer compressed and hardened over time.

Between 200,000 and 600,000 years ago, the river eroded a wide canyon which was subsequently partly filled with basalt lava flows. The Henrys Fork of the Snake River then carved the channel through the basalt; which is the inner canyon seen today.

References and Resources:

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LeHardy Rapids to Tower Falls, Yellowstone

October 10, 2011

September 2007

mapforvideo3

In all the visit’s we’ve made over the years to Yellowstone National Park, we’ve always seen plenty of wildlife.  Though we’ve seen large mammals in all parts of the park, by far, we’ve seen the most along the eastern section of the Grand Loop Road.

Large numbers of buffalo can be seen from – and, often, on – the road in Hayden Valley, though we’ve seen them all along the route from Yellowstone Lake to where the road starts to climb towards Dunraven Pass.  Bears and wolves can sometimes be seen in the same area, though we’ve yet to see a wolf and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a bear there. We have seen quite a few of the wolves’ younger cousins, the coyotes.  From Dunraven Pass past Tower Falls, we’ve seen bighorn sheep a number of times.

There is a bit of thermal activity along this route.  The lower potion lies within the bounds of the caldera of the Yellowstone super-volcano.

The lower part of the route follows the Yellowstone River, parting from it at Canyon Village and then returning to it near Tower Falls.  At Canyon, the river tumbles over two falls, the Lower Falls the more spectacular of the two, as it thunders into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

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Yellowstone References and Resources:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources.  I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.

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Our plans didn’t include… SNOW!

October 6, 2011

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September 15, 2011 – Rocky Mountain
National Park

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October 6, 2011 – near Flagstaff

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We learned several years ago that it was advisable to make reservations in advance when planning to camp in popular national parks.  This year we made reservations for Rocky Mountain National Park (5 nights), Arches National Park (3 nights) and Grand Canyon National Park (3 nights north rim and 3 nights south rim).

We saw our first snow of the trip on September 15 when we were camped at Rocky Mountain National Park.  It had been kind of cloudy and rainy on the 14th.  We had driven across the park over Trail Ridge Road and had lunch and did a little shopping in Grand Lake.  On the way back, we ran into very heavy fog.  Around 3 pm, we stopped at the Trail Ridge Gift Store – next to the Alpine Visitor Center at 12,000 feet – for a coffee break.  Unfortunately, it had already closed and, where it had been in the 60s in Grand Lake, the temperature was 35°F.  We made it down in plenty of time, but, just a few hours later, Trail Ridge Road was closed due to snow.

Yesterday (Wednesday, October 14) morning I got online to check the weather. We were camped at Grand Canyon North Rim and were planning to travel today to the South Rim today. Unfortunately, the forecast was for rain/snow mix turning to snow with possible 1 to 2 inch accumulations. I knew that that wouldn’t be bad if that’s all that it did. However the forecast for today was for more precipitation and wind. With driving a somewhat boxy motorhome and towing a car, the overall forecast was too iffy, so we canceled our reservation at South Rim and left North Rim yesterday — the drive was still a fight with the wind, but there was no precipitation.

We heard on the evening news earlier that Jacob Lake, at beginning of  the road to North Rim, got 3 inches of snow.  Just as I thought, there was little or no snow sticking to the roads, but I’ve heard of too many surprise significant mountain snow accumulations to risk it with our motorhome.

We’re camped 50 miles south of South Rim and will go to the canyon tomorrow and the next day — it’s going to be cold and bit of a drive, but that’s okay.

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Yellowstone Lake Vicinity

September 30, 2011

September 2007

imageWest Thumb Geyser Basin is situated on the shore of Yellowstone Lake’s West Thumb, a submerged volcanic caldera within the larger Yellowstone caldera.  It was created about 162,000 years ago when a magma chamber bulged up under the earth’s surface, which it cracked along ring fracture zones, releasing the magma as lava.  Once emptied, the chamber collapsed and, later, the caldera was filled with water, forming an extension of Yellowstone Lake.

The boardwalk trails at West Thumb provide easy walks that let visitors take in the beauty of the deep thermal pools and Yellowstone Lake.

While we’ve visited West Thumb Geyser Basin over the years, before 2007 we had not looked at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, a few miles to the northeast.  The hotel is one of three hotels in the park constructed by the Northern Pacific Railroad.  Originally built in 1891, it was re-designed, expanded, and remodeled in 1903, 1922-23, 1928 and 1894 to 1990.  The building is a “relatively plain clapboarded Colonial Revival structure with two large Ionic porticoes facing Yellowstone Lake.1”

2007 09 15 251edYellowstone References and Resources:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources.  I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.

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1 Lake Hotel – Wikipedia

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Old Faithful Vicinity

September 27, 2011

September 2007

We probably visited the Old Faithful part of the park more often this trip than any place else.  We saw Old Faithful erupt at least four times that I can think of.  We also made dinner reservations for one evening.  Another day we hiked up to an overlook where you can view the eruption.  Unfortunately the eruption occurred before we got all the way to the overlook, but we were able to get a good view of it.

Old Faithful is, without a doubt, the most popular location in the park.

The Old Faithful Inn is a fascinating hotel over a hundred years old.  We stayed there one time back in the late 70s in the fall.

Reservations for lodging and camping – for those campgrounds where  reservations can be made – should be made as far as possible in advance.  In 2011, we waited too long to decide on our travel plans and campsites were not available in the campgrounds we preferred.  We had to settle for something else.

Yellowstone References and Resources:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources.  I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.

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