West Thumb. What a morning...

When I got to West Thumb it was still snowing heavily. I took a walk around the Geyser Basin and along the boardwalk near the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

I stopped at Black Pool and made images of the turquoise water and the snow falling.

A few other visitors were enjoying the weather.

It was like a winter wonderland with snow covered trees and steam from the thermal features.

It was a lot of fun standing in the snow making images, wiping the lens off and looking for more.

About an hour later there was a hint of sunlight through the clouds and I couldn't wait to see what the light would bring.

A woman from Spain told me it seemed like a different world.

It was easy to agree as the clouds started to part and the light made it through.

I didn't want to get to far from Black Pool as the water and steam made for great images, but I did walk over to Big cone Geyser as the sky cleared.

I liked how the clouds and Yellowstone Lake looked with the new snow.

This was the view as I walked back towards Black Pool.

I was smiling the whole time and glad I hadn't made it to the Tetons.

The clouds were beautiful over the lake.

It just kept getting better and better.

As the sun hit the water the colors seemed almost tropical to me.

I kept shooting as tourists walked through the steam giving the scene scale and perspective.

Nearby, Abyss Pool looked beautiful as well. 

What an excellent way to spend a morning in Yellowstone National Park.

I made it to the eclipse... part 2

I'm not sure what they meant by no services, as I drove past a crowded rest area after about 50 miles. Maybe they meant gas and such.

I had hand written directions of which roads to take to Casper. It was Newcastle, to Lusk, to Orin, to Douglas Wyoming.

By the time I got to Douglas I could tell things were a bit different due to the eclipse. Rest areas were parked full and parking lots to businesses were filled with cars and people. It was definitely a happening.

I saw a couple who parked their car on the shoulder of the expressway and were standing next to a road sign in the ditch with their dog, kissing each other and taking a selfie. I stopped at a gas station/ truck stop, on the east side of Casper and still had quite a ways to go. 

I got gas, bought a coke, and asked the lady where the exit for hwy 20/26 west was. She gave me excellent directions and I was off to Shoshone and then Riverton Wyoming. It would be about 250 miles on two lane state highways with the potential for lots of animals on or near the road before I'd get to Moran. With a little luck it'd be no problem.

Here's what my notes say from five and a half hours later after making it to Grand Teton National Park.

"That was one hell of a long and tedious drive."

"Stopped at 3 or 4 gas stations and several times on the side of the road."

"It was tough."

There were a lot more people out and driving around than I'd normally expect to see at 3 or 4 in the morning in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. They too, must have been trying to make it to the eclipse.

When I got to the Moran gate of Grand Teton National Park and started to show my park pass and drivers license, the ranger told me that no entrance fee was required. They were doing things a bit differently to deal with the expected crowds. He also told me that I couldn't park at any of the nearby parking areas until 7am or something. That wasn't good.

I had planned to drive in and park at the Oxbow Bend pullout where I could photograph the eclipse and the Teton Range during the eclipse. He told me rangers had already kicked more than 200 people out of those areas, as people were sleeping in cars or whatnot.

"Whoa, whoa", I said. "I'm not planning to sleep in the car or anything, but I was hoping to do some night photography right there at Oxbow. Would that be OK?" With that he lit up a little and said he liked to take night photos as well and he thought it would be fine, as long as I wasn't in the car. I thanked him and drove the few miles to the Oxbow Bend pullout.

There were cones blocking each end when I got there and no cars. I drove around the cones and parked right at the end. I quickly got out and realized I needed some different clothes. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, as it had been 90 plus degrees when I left South Dakota the night before. Now it was about 35 degrees with clear skies and plenty of stars. "Good" I thought, at least I'll be able to see the eclipse.

I put on jeans, boots, and an extra shirt. A scarf, jacket, and hat, got my camera and tripod and walked down to the river bank. I put a camera on the tripod and made a few images of stars above Mount Moran.

Now these images weren't going to win any prizes, but I wanted something to show the rangers if they questioned me. I was pretty darn tired and fell to sleep for awhile there on the ground next to the river. 

By the time some color was in the sky to the east I was awake and ready to make some images.

It had been a few years since I was last in the Tetons. I was glad to be back. Though I was photographing one of the most photographed and popular views in the park, I actually had my little spot down on the edge of the Snake River all to myself. 

After whatever the appointed time was, the park service did allow others to fill the lot. Then again they placed cones at both ends and rangers stayed to keep newcomers out and the traffic moving.

I stayed down by the river and kept on shooting Mount Moran and the Teton Range.

Just as in South Dakota, there was a lot of smoke in the air making for different light conditions.

About 10am I realized the eclipse would be starting soon. After making the earlier photos, I had slept awhile more on the ground where I was and was feeling pretty good.

I went back to the car, got rid of the coat, hat, and scarf and got my cameras and tripods. The plan was to shoot the full eclipse with a 700mm lens and also take photos of the classic Oxbow scene with a smaller lens throughout. Hopefully the photos would clearly show how dark it got while the sun was hidden.

I moved to a different spot on the river bank and set up the tripod for the larger lens. As I went to set up the second tripod, I promptly knocked it over into the river. 

The good news. It was just a tripod and they can get wet no problem. The other good news. It reminded me that I was still pretty tired and was going to have to pay attention to make sure I didn't dump a camera in the water or make mistakes with exposure and such.

Just then I heard people above on the road saying the eclipse was starting.

I repositioned both tripods so I could easily work from one to the other without knocking them over and got the cameras ready. At that moment, I heard rustling about 80 yards away in the brush across the river.

I half expected to see a moose or elk, when an adult grizzly bear walked down to the bank directly across from me. "No way! That's incredibly lucky" I thought. As I watched the bear, two cubs ran out and started smelling stuff right at the edge of the water. It was then I remembered I had a large lens mounted on a tripod beside me and quickly made some images.

It was the middle of the day and the light wasn't great, but there were three grizzlies right across the river from me just as the solar eclipse started. Unbelievable!

They only stayed for a few minutes and then mom turned and walked back into the brush. Her cubs didn't follow right away, I heard her snort or grunt a couple times and the cubs quickly scrambled into the brush behind her. I could hear branches breaking and some more vocalizations for less than a minute before all was quiet and it was as if they had never been there.

After they left I looked around to see if any other people were visible or near me. I could hear people up by the road, but couldn't see them. Just then a couple walked down to river about forty yards away. I walked over to ask if they had seen the bears. The man was really friendly, and very disappointed that they hadn't seen them. He and his wife had just gotten off a bus with a group of people. They were the only ones to walk down. 

I saw that he had eclipse glasses and asked if he would give me a heads up when it was in totality. That way I'd have the whole two minutes to shoot directly at the sun. He told me I'd know when it happened by how dark it was. Then handed me a pair of eclipse glasses, told me had lots, and said this was his third total eclipse.

Again, unbelievable. I show up to an eclipse unprepared and with no glasses, and a friendly stranger hands me a pair of eclipse glasses just as it starts. 

I thanked him and asked if he was sure he had extras, he pulled another pair out of his pocket and put them on. I visited with him about the eclipses he had already seen, and took a few photos of the two of them with his phone. I tried the glasses he had given me, thanked him again and went back to my spot.

With the glasses, this eclipse stuff was pretty cool. I started to make images of the Tetons in between watching the moon move across the face of the sun.

Beautiful.

The light was funky and there was still a lot of smoke in the air from the fires out west.

As the eclipse reached totality the light was very different than any I had seen. It wasn't like shooting at night, it had an ephemeral quality to it. For a brief period of time it almost seemed the mountains had a glow to them.

I then switched to the larger lens and started doing what I could with the sun itself. You can see a ring as the moon almost completely covers the sun.

It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I kept saying "wow" out loud as I continued to work. "Unbelievable."

I was surprised just how cool it actually was, and really thankful I'd been able to get there to see it.  I couldn't believe the grizzly bears just across the river and was glad I had pictures, since I didn't think anyone else would believe it either. 

After totality, I was done so I lay back on the grass near the water and enjoyed watching the sun come back out.

When it was over, I was so glad I had made the effort to get out there. I had a huge smile on my face as I put cameras away and thought of all of the unlikely things that had happened. 

I was nothing but thankful as I went to find a shower and realized just how many people were in the park and trying to get somewhere as well. Well that's a story for a different day.

  

I made it to the eclipse.. part 1

I hadn't given the solar eclipse any thought until I heard a radio program a week before it happened. The person they were interviewing had witnessed three or four total solar eclipses and sounded pretty jazzed about how cool they were.

After hearing that I took a look to see how far I'd have to travel to get to totality. The closest I could find was southern Illinois, and that would be a six hour drive. That didn't sound fun to me, so I let the idea go.

A day later I heard about local libraries giving out eclipse glasses. So the next day I showed up about ten minutes before they were to start giving the glasses away and began to realize just what a big deal this was to a lot of people. When I got there, the parking lot was full and I had to park about a quarter mile away. More than a hundred people were already waiting in line and they ran out of glasses well before it was my turn. "Oh, well" I thought, I'm probably not gonna go anywhere anyway.

The eclipse would be Monday August 21st and by Friday the 18th, my older son was encouraging me to go out west and see it. He told me I could swing by to pick him up from college on the Friday after, and take him home for the weekend. That sounded like it might work, but I still wasn't sure. After a couple more calls from my son I found myself in the car heading west at 9:30pm Saturday August 19th.

I left too late to feel comfortable that I'd be able to be in Badlands National Park, South Dakota by sunrise, but that was my hope. I drove straight through, stopping only for gas and made it to the park by 7am mountain time. I was about an hour late, but there were no clouds or dramatic skies, so I didn't feel too badly about it. I made a few images of the eroded rocks, sky, and shadows in the morning light and then headed back to the car.

I had seen several Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep rams as I was driving into the park and planned to walk over and see if they were friendly. 

The group consisted of seven rams, all of which seemed really tired.

When I first got there they were walking and eating, but it wasn't long before they started lying down and some fell asleep. Like the ram in the back in this image. Seems they had a long night.

This young ram's head is falling forward as he falls asleep. You can see the cool rock formations of the badlands in the distance.

This was probably the largest ram in the group. You can see the antenna from a radio collar he's been fitted with by park personnel.

By 10 am it was hot and the light wasn't very good for photos, so it was time for me to go. I left the rams resting in the badlands and headed back to the car.

I drove west to Rapid City and stopped to move photos from the camera to my computer. I got some gas, ate something, and drove south towards Custer State Park. It was 90 something degrees and there was a lot of smoke in the air from forest fires in western states and British Columbia. The plan was to photograph bison and pronghorns in Custer and then leave in time to get to the Tetons by sunrise. I took another look at a map to get a firm idea how long the drive to Wyoming should take. 

About a month earlier I had been in the Black Hills for a couple of days and saw this mural of a bison in Hot Springs, South Dakota. I loved the mural, but the day I was there it was incredibly hot and shadows were already falling on some of it so I hadn't stopped. Today, I decided to drive about fifty miles out of my way to get some pictures of it.

I'm glad I did. When I got there a woman was taking pictures of her son and dog in various poses in front of the mural. I made a couple of images and then waited for them to be done. 

I got all of the pictures I wanted and headed to Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave borders Custer State Park to the south and is connected by several roads.

I stopped at the Wind Cave visitor center to enjoy the air conditioning and use the rest room. I stayed until 4:30pm so I'd have better light and hopefully it would be a little cooler. Then I drove into the park looking for animals to photograph.

I found some pronghorns, including this buck exhibiting rutting behavior. I watched him chase another buck away from the three does he was with and chase those does to keep them in a group.

I've always really liked pronghorns and was glad to find them.

It was almost 7pm when I got done photographing them. The sun was in and out of clouds and the light was questionable. I planned to drive to the town of Custer S.D. and go to Sylvan Lake if it looked like there may be a decent sunset.

When I got to Custer the light didn't look promising, so I decided to start my journey to the Tetons. I stopped for gas and asked the guy at the register which way to Newcastle Wyoming. He pointed me in the right direction and asked if I was heading to Casper for the eclipse. I told him I was hoping to make it to the Tetons and asked if he was going. He said if he could get out of class on time he was going to Casper on Monday.

With that I started west. I had never driven those roads before, so it would all be new to me until I reached Dubois.

I made it to Newcastle Wyoming before it was entirely dark. As I turned south just out of town, strong gusts of wind pushed the car. There was a thunderstorm with lighting to the west and the wind continued to build. A road sign warned me there would be no services for the next 78 miles. So far so good.

Devil's Tower....

My sons and I visited Badlands National Park and the Black Hills in South Dakota for a few days. One afternoon we made the short drive to Devil's Tower in northeast Wyoming.

 

It snowed a few inches the night before, but little remained on the ground by the time we arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

Devil's Tower is popular with rock climbers and the park service requires anyone going above the rock pile in the foreground to register in the office.

 

 

The kids climbed on the rocks and explored while I used quaking aspen trunks and ponderosa pine trees to frame the Tower.

 









There were a few clouds when we first got there, but only sun and blue skies for the rest of the afternoon.

 

Geologists say Devil's Tower is an igneous intrusion made of cooled magma. Essentially the core of a volcano that didn't erupt.

 

 

There's a 1.3 mile paved loop trail around the base of the formation.

 

 

The trail affords both obstructed and unobstructed views of the 867 foot rock formation.

 

 

Devil's Tower is an important cultural and spiritual place to many Native Americans.

 

 

 

According to the national park service website " a sense of place dominates the religion of American Indians, as opposed to the sense of time that dominates many western religions. Instead of a focus of chronological events and the order in which they are presented, American Indian religion focuses on a place and the significant events that are connected with that location. Although western religions have their important places, they do not hold the level of sacredness associated with the important places of American Indian religions."

 

 



After spending time there, it's easy to see why the location holds such importance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a clear sky, I focused on shadows and light.

 

 

 

 

All in all, another good night.