My Visual Adventures: Sharing my Travel, Sports, Nature, and Animal Photography. With a little bit of life thrown in. I luv living life in Northern California.
Proud single mom of one beautiful daughter who shares my love of sports and music. She doesn't share my love of the outdoors which I find weird. I love photography and wish I had a better camera!! Maybe someday...
Road trippin' around the Grand Tetons National Park! Let's get back to it, but before we do, click the links below to make sure you didn't miss any of the amazing sights!
After my BEARY wonderful encounter with the mama and her cubs, I happily floated back down to my car, crossed the dam, and pulled into the boat launch parking lot. There were quite a few people there getting into boats to start fishing, and of course I had to take a very picturesque photo!
This is one of my absolute favorite shots. Oxbow Bend with a sky that was so dramatic and beautiful!
And the half-circle of the mountains along with the circle of water just makes it perfection! Or so my photography teacher would say. lol I love it though.
After hanging out here for a bit, staring around looking for a moose or bear to no avail, I got back on the road, now heading south. Lo and behold I see an entire herd of bison near Uhl Hill!
Seeing this big herd of magnificent creatures on this beautiful plain was really special. It really felt like I might be in the old west.
Birdies like to ride on the bison! It's so cute and I got an even better look at this up close and personal in Yellowstone.
Loved all the wood fences in the valley. I guess that really lends to the feeling that you are in a place that time forgot so to speak.
This is one of several private dude ranches on the valley floor - Moosehead Ranch. Very cool looking and just a tad on the pricey side for my budget. lol But their grand entrance made for a very cool photo!
This is the road by Cunningham's Cabin, and in the distance is Moosehead Ranch with several of their horses out in the field.
Last picture for this post, we'll leave off with these gorgeous horses and such a beautiful setting.
Next time, when my daughter comes with me me, we'll definitely be taking a trail ride! But for now, I'll have to dream of riding that gorgeous paint horse. :)
Next post we'll visit some Pronghorn Antelope and the famous Mormon Row barns!
Wow! Waking up to a beautiful morning in the Tetons is a great feeling! I slept really well in the back of my car (although my sleeping bag is so warm! Too warm almost.) and woke up pretty early and fairly bright - although I had no idea what time it really was since there is a time zone change from California.
I got some toiletries out of the bear box and headed for the restroom when OUT popped my adorable camping roommate. Meet Mr. Uinta Squirrel!
I felt terrible that I tried to stomp the rock into his hole the night before! I just didn't want to trip little guy. My bad.
He didn't seem to harbor any hard feelings and was happy to just hang out while I was taking photos of him. He seemed very curious about what I was getting for breakfast though.
He's so, so cute!
And he wasn't the only cutie hanging around my campsite at Jenny Lake. There were many gorgeous robins and chipmunks running to and fro in my little meadow too!
The chipmunks seemed a little disappointed that they couldn't find anything delicious around my fire pit and picnic table. Next time! I promise!
Anyway, I knew I didn't have a lot of time in the Tetons that day so I wanted to head out and figure out what's where, etc. Since my time was limited and I had never been there, I just really wanted to explore and stop wherever I wanted to stop. Usually for a photo op. :) Like this lone tree. I love trees.
I made my way back to the Jenny Lake loop road, which I had rather quickly driven the night before in my search for Jenny Lake campground.
Oh my goodness. Jenny Lake is really beautiful! Originally, when planning my trip, I had planned to do the hike around the lake and up to Hidden Falls. I'm not even going to lie...I knew it wasn't going to happen this trip because I did not get myself into the shape I needed to be in to hike 8-9 miles at just under 7000 feet elevation.
Seeing how gorgeous this area is, I really regretted my life choices that led to me standing here at the overlook unprepared.
But I did take the opportunity to walk a little bit (a very little bit) along the trail that skirts the eastern shore of the lake. The views along the overlook were simply breathtaking. The blues of the sky and the lake were almost unbelievable!
I ran into a few people who were hiking along (as well as some people in the overlook parking).
Most people were in small groups although I did see one solo hiker. But I was very bear aware after everything I read and had been told thus far. So I was a bit afraid to walk much farther than a couple hundred yards.
There is a shuttle boat that you can take across the lake (it wasn't running yet as far as I can tell) which I also want to do in future. I think I'll (get in shape!) hike most of the way and then shuttle back. We'll see. But there are definitely a lot of reasons to return!
But for today, I had to content myself with a little stroll admiring the clear blue water and breathing in the fresh air.
So dramatic! I love this spectacular place!
But it was time to get back on the road. :-)
Honestly, it's hard to figure out how to blog all the photos I took and places I saw...and that's just in about a 24 hour period spent in Grand Tetons! Imagine if I had more time there on this trip and saw all the places I wanted and did all the things I wanted to do!
After leaving Jenny Lake, I drove north on Teton Park road until it met 191, then head back south on 191/26/89 to Jackson for supplies/gas. I figured I would see where things were (mainly Oxbow Bend, Schwabacher Landing, and Mormon Row for animals & photo ops) and stop for exploring/photos as time allowed. I also wanted to stop at the National Museum of Wildlife Art before heading back north on Teton Park Road to see Willow Flats and Colter Bay before heading on to Yellowstone.
This is pretty much what I did. And I was SO LUCKY to see a lot of wildlife on my way!
After pulling over to take a couple shots of Mount Moran (which really, REALLY looks like Jabba the Hut to me), I stopped at the Chapel of the Sacred Heart.
Just me?? Okay. lol I really see it though.
I wasn't sure I was going to stop at the Church even though I usually stop at every picturesque church-type building I see when I'm on my road trips. I actually thought it was closed due to Covid and, being on limited time, I figured I could just see it next time.
But at the last minute I decided to pull into the parking lot. There were a lot of people around and, as I was pulling out again, I saw people parked on the street in "I see wildlife!" pose. So I pulled over to the shoulder and looked where they were looking.
Except I saw nothing. Nada. I was just about to give up when a cyclist pulled up behind me and started looking. I asked if he could see anything and he very kindly came to my window and pointed to the beautiful, tawny fox! It took me a minute but I finally saw it, just as it started trotting through the church parking lot towards the wilds.
I flipped back into the parking lot pretty quickly (after profusely thanking the kind cyclist!) and jumped out of my car just in time to snap off a few photos before Mr. Fox went out of sight through the bush.
There were two people who were quite literally chasing the fox through the brush, but I didn't want to do that so I contented myself with the shots and the experience. I was soooo happy! I had seen signs at the campground asking people to not feed the foxes and others had told me that they were "nuisances" but I hadn't seen any at Jenny Lake.
I ended up seeing two more foxes on my trip - one near Cottonwood Creek picnic area and the other one in Colter Bay. I wasn't able to pull over quickly enough at either to get a shot, unfortunately. But it was so cool!
I headed out again and, just as I got to what I think is a Ranger station before the Jackson Lake dam, I caught a glimpse of brown fur on the green lawn! Bears!! I was so excited, I automatically turned into the Ranger station, but it was roped off. I considered parking right there, but realized that it put me about 50 feet away from a mama bear and her two babies! Oh my God!
So, me trying to be a good girl, decided not to stop in the middle of the road and pulled down the little hill until I saw a turnout just before the dam.
I quickly parked, curbed my wheels like a good Californian, grabbed my D7200 w/600 Sigma lens attached and ran my fat ass back up the hill towards the bears!!
By the time I got back, there were about 15 cars blocking the road and people milling about. The bears were still there and didn't seem too concerned, but they did move just into the tree line for shelter as they slowly lumbered south alongside the road.
I was able to snap 3 pictures - 1 decent, 1 bad, and 1 very bad - here they are in reverse order:
This first one, I greyed out everything except exactly where the bears are. My camera of course focused on the tree closest to me and I was huffing and puffing too much to try to manually focus.
But! You can clearly see one of the bear cubs on the left walking behind it's much bigger mother who is obscured by the branches of the tree. But! You can see her brown fur in spots. lol
Here's another blurry shot of the other cub! But you can see most of it. This cub looked older and bigger, but not as big as mom.
And finally, here is the best shot of the three! Mom's whole body - in focus!! But missing her face. But! Look at those cute ears! Anyone able to identify a bear by its ears??
Maybe a grizzly? They definitely seem rounder...
And there you have it. My first ever bear sightings!! So freaking fun and exciting! And I got a little bit of exercise in the process, so that's always good.
Next post we'll continue the trip around Grand Tetons National Park with more animals and amazing places. Stay tuned!
In my last post, I was on my way from California through Nevada and Idaho to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone! It was a fun and uneventful drive (unlike the drive home, but more on that later) and soon I was in Eastern Idaho approaching the Teton Range.
So exciting!!
My route was from I-15 to 26 to 31 to 22 - taking me through the beautiful Swan Valley where I saw my first Sandhill Crane and up into the mountains on 31 where I came around a corner and saw a gorgeous, huge deer just off the road. Then I headed over the summit and down the mountain on 22 where, much to my surprise, I saw a MOOSE!
My first moose ever! I was driving downhill just coming up to the town of Wilson when, out of tree line on the right side of the road came what appeared to be a baby (maybe a yearling?) Moose. It was still pretty huge, but it had the look of a baby and definitely not as big as adult moose I've seen in video's and pictures. So freaking amazing! Of course I couldn't stop or pull over right at that moment, but the memory will always be with me.
My route, above, in purple with notations where I saw the wildlife. And the blue line is the short drive I took from dusk to darkness on Moose - Wilson Road. We'll get into that more later.
I really liked the town of Jackson - and Today I Learned (TIL) that the valley is called Jackson's Hole (now Jackson Hole) as it is a hole in the mountains (okay?) and the town is called Jackson.
I think I'm going to drag my daughter with my next year and spend a day or two in Jackson. :-)
I drove slowly through the town and headed up the "Hole" towards my campground at Jenny Lake. The views were absolutely stunning. I am not kidding. There is just something about mountains that seemed so tall and abrupt! I read later that it is because of their age (relatively young) and that because they are so young, they haven't had time to form much (if any) foothills.
For instance, the Sierra Nevada's certainly look imposing and beautiful from the Sacramento Valley floor, but they just don't have that stark feeling of rising straight up from the valley that the Tetons do.
I got to the valley at about 2:20 p.m. and the sun was just behind the mountain peaks. The cloud formations were amazing and the combination was unbeatable.
And, yes! the sky really WAS that blue! I did very little enhancement - only brought up the vibrancy a bit, but not much, and added some contrast. Didn't touch the saturation at all.
This next one I desaturated a bit because I wanted to focus on the clouds and the mountain top.
I drove through Jackson and up to Jenny Lake Campground. To be honest, I never saw a sign for a campground, so I passed it. There are two signs for the Jenny Lake area (North and South I believe - I could be wrong). The first one said something about the Visitor Center (VC) but I don't think it mentioned campground (I could totally be wrong!). But! You can never have too much information, so even if there is a sign that says campground and my brain could not see it, now you know that it is the same road as the VC.
And to further cement it in your mind, here are some maps:
The campground was beautiful! I absolutely loved my spot, #4. Close to the bathroom without being right next to it (kitty corner, across the little road, with one campsite just between), and behind was a gorgeous meadow with a view of the Grand Teton peak.
I made a little video so you can see the campground and the view. I don't normally edit video so please forgive me.
Video Cameo by Uinta Ground Squirrel!
After I got familiar with the campground, I headed out again as it was just about dusk. I wanted to see if I could spot any animals. An elk herd nearby made sure I was not dissapointed!
So awesome! They are so freaking big! And beautiful.
After stopping for awhile with the elk herd, I headed towards Moose-Wilson Road because in my research for places to find animals, this one came up a lot.
I got there probably just a bit too late. It was just starting to get dark and, because you are actually in the trees on this road, it seemed even darker.
I did see a few people with spotting scopes pulled over at the ponds (although some people were just pulling out), so I pulled over to check it out.
Just as I got out of my car, a large bird sailed in, wings spread, gliding over the beautiful ponds and landing on the far side. It was a Sandhill Crane! I love these. I took out my camera and snapped off a couple shots (not the greatest because 1. dark 2. handheld 3. far away).
To be honest, I feel like there is something to the right of the Sandhill Crane in the photo above. I saw it at the time through the lens but couldn't tell what it was and it didn't seem to be moving, so it may be a stump (I got fooled by a LOT of stumps on this trip). But it also could be something?
Anyway, after that I headed back out towards the town of Wilson (which is where I had seen the baby moose on my drive into Jackson). It's a fun road - twisty, narrow, very rough in some places (standing water, mud, dirt, etc.) - through beautiful woods and ponds with at least one creek running through it.
The road is actually much longer than I suspected. I went until it got completely dark and then turned around. I did not see any other animals, although I did see a group of humans staring into the trees with one dude vehemently stating that he saw a "grizzly bear halfway up a tree about 30 minutes ago". We all looked for awhile but didn't see anything. He said he had to go back to camp and get his binocs so he could see it better and now it wasn't there.
Moral of the story: Always have a spotting scope/binoculars on hand (I personally have a monocular that I got off Amazon for a BTS concert. It was $20 and works amazingly both to see bands on a stage and birds/animals in the wild! I keep it in my car center console at all times.)
[edited because some people asked what kind of monocular I have & it's a Gosky. I looked it up on Amazon and they aren't $20! But I swear when I bought mine about 3-4 years ago, it was not more than $30 at most. Probably got them on sale.]
After darkness fell, I headed back to the campground and got settled for the night. It was really wonderful. I slept soundly and peacefully in the back of my Jeep (a little warm thanks to my zero degrees sleeping back). Woke up once to the sounds of a gentle rain, but didn't think much of it. Oh how that will change later on in my trip!
