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...
So, way back in 2021- in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic - I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to go to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. Road Trip!! I love them.
Unusually for me, I posted several posts regarding my trip within three months of the actual trip! Then I got derailed by my mental health, namely anxiety and depression, and didn't post again until January 2022. At that point, I got derailed kind of permanently by those same issues; I just had a photo editing block and a writing block. I just couldn't do it even though the memories and reminders of my trip brought me great happiness and pleasure. It didn't help that my computer was getting older and was less and less able to handle my photo editing software...and just life in general I guess. Just like me.
Well, I'm back. With a new computer and a healthier mentality, I'm ready to revisit one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
It was on the gorgeous, bright morning of May 19, 2021, when I decided that I was going to hike the Artemisia Trail from Biscuit Basin to Morning Glory Pool.
I decided to try something slightly different for me and video the sights along the trail. Mainly, as I mention in the video, because I was hiking solo and this gave me a reason to talk to myself which helps scare off bears. Not that I was too worried about bears as this hike is pretty popular and suitable for many skill levels. Including overweight and out of shape level - like me! And it's about .9 mile each direction although you can walk all the way to Old Faithful.
Here is the sign at the trailhead which shows most of the trails, geysers, and pools in the Upper Geyser Basin which includes Old Faithful, Black Sand Basin, and Biscuit Basin.
I mostly took video on this hike but did take a few pictures on my Nikons. This is Gem Pool - a lookalike to Morning Glory but both beautiful in their own way.
Gem Pool closeup:
Not sure what this pool is called... I have the picture labeled Blue Pool with Yellow Border. Descriptive!
This is the Firehole River which runs parallel to the trail from Biscuit Basin to Morning Glory Pool.
These next two photos are from the bridge over the Firehole River after is turns left to cross the Artemisia Trail. First view is downriver and second is upriver.
And now...the famed Morning Glory Pool! Simply gorgeous.
Some closeups... Including what I called the "galaxy inside the pool" - the sparkly blue-green center.
And one last shot of the Firehole River. This is the view from the highway. I ended up walking along the road so I could get this lovely shot. haha
After the hike, I decided to drive to West Yellowstone. I saw some animals on my way there! Yay! Including some Red Dogs - AKA baby bison.
On the road to the West Yellowstone Gate, I saw some elk in a meadow in the woods. I pulled over (of course) and got out of my car to have a look see. I noticed the elk were looking away from me, further towards the tree line. As I looked, I saw that there were a couple of coyotes and the elk were keeping a watchful eye on their movements.
Amazing. I love coyotes and I was happy to see them. I would see a whole pack later in my trip. But we'll save that.
I headed into West Yellowstone to go to the Grizzley & Wolf Discovery Center. I stopped at a market in town and bought an air mattress for my tent and a 6-pack of Huckleberry Honey Ale of which I drank a can later in my campsite. It was yummy!
I also bought dinner at a restaurant that I can't remember four years later (eye roll). I wish I could. I tried to search on Google and there are a few restaurants that look similar to what I remember but I couldn't see the dish I remember. But all I remember was meat with a Huckleberry bbq sauce. Delicious.
I spilled the sauce in the front passenger seat of my car and on the floor which caused me to have a panic attack about bears. I cleaned it the best I could but you could still see and smell it quite a bit. I went up to the Madison campground headquarters and talked to a ranger about it. She could obviously see how worried about it I was and I explained that I neglected to bring bear spray with me and now that my car smelled like a restaurant, I was panicking.
She was so kind. She talked me off the ledge and gave me a can of bear spray and explained the do's and don'ts of bear spray. She really reassured me and stopped me from hightailing it home.
On that note, I'll end this post. I do have some photos from the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center but I'll put those in a later post. But I will say that it was really informational and cool to see the rescued animals. I definitely recommend.
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!
The Pacific Northwest! Awww, what a great land of beautiful animals! Beaches you can drive on! Bald eagles! And family of course.
My niece happened to see a large herd of elk just of the road near her house and, bless her heart, ran home to get me so I could see it too!
Look closely at this next picture...it's a little family!
Baby was nursing and we tried to stay as still as possible so as to not disturb them. Mama was the last elk near us with baby feeding, but as the rest of the herd meandered further into the brush, she got nervous and off they went.
And now they caught up and feel much safer.
Later that night we headed out to watch the sunset at the beach. We were hoping to find some bald eagles, but we got distracted by the beauty so we parked and walked around.
This is Lee being a real trooper. You will NOT believe this, but we found a small American flag in a dead porcupine on the beach (no, I did not take a photo). Sabrina and I talked Lee into taking the flag to the water line because we thought it would be a cool addition to the photos. And of course WE didn't want to touch it.
While Lee planted the flag on our newly claimed territory, we watched the kids (especially Logan) run around on the beach.
LOL! So the flag is backwards and doesn't look as cool as I thought it would.
Meanwhile, Lee took pictures of the love of his life. No, not my gorgeous niece. His gorgeous truck!
He had the bright idea to capture the sunset in the window, which I thought looked pretty cool so I joined in.
My beautiful great-niece found a bunch of sand dollars, and I took one of my favorite photos of the day!
As we were driving down the beach, I actually saw what we had originally came for! A bald eagle!
I hollered and Sabrina backed up, but then he flew away just as I started to take his photo. lol
I call this "Abstract of Eagle on Waves".
Yay! And that's the story of the only eagle I saw. haha
