From Gorgeous Grand Tetons National Park to Amazing Yellowstone!! It's Time to Cross the Border! 5/18/2021

My too-short twenty-four hours in Grand Tetons was coming to a close!  I was heading north towards the South Entrance to Yellowstone, but still had a few more sights to see in beautiful Jackson Hole.

But first, why don't you click the links below to catch up on the drives through the amazing beauty of Grand Teton:

The Gorgeous Views of Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons with Elk Herd Cameos!

Jenny Lake and Foxes and Bears!

Wild West, Abandoned Cabins, and Bison!

Mormon Row - Beautiful Barns and Pronghorn Antelope!

National Museum of Wildlife Art - Amazing Sculptures in a Glorious Outdoor Setting!

After leaving Jackson and the National Museum of Wildlife Art, I once again traveled the beautiful Teton Park Road but this time I turned left onto the John D Rockefeller Parkway/Highway 191 to continue north towards Yellowstone.  This was previously untraveled road for me since, as stated in my previous posts, I had turned right before to head for Oxbow Bend  and South 191 to go back to Jackson.  

I was running a bit low on time as I wanted to be at Madison Campground by 6:00 in case there was anything wrong with my reservation (my anxiety kicking me in the ass as usual).  So I didn't really plan on making a lot of stops, but there were a few I just couldn't resist!

My first stop was at the Willow Flats Overlook. Such a beautiful, wide-open space filled with so many different ecosystems.  There is a trail through part of it from the Jackson Lake Lodge which is just down the road.  I really hope to do some hiking on my next trip and this will be top of the list. 

If you look just above the dip in the Willow trees on the left (just below the clump of pines in front of the lake), you can just make out a herd of Elk laying and grazing in the flats.  

If you hike the trail through Willow Flats from Jackson Lake Lodge, you end up in Colter Bay.  Obviously I drove, but was really happy I stopped in Colter Bay.  For starters, it's an amazing little village with grocery stores, a laundromat, campground, etc.  All tucked away so you don't even see it if you stay on the main road (except for signage of course). 

I pulled in as my last stop just to see what it was like.  I'm so glad I did.  

There is a "swimming beach" at Colter Bay and of course it was too cold for swimming on this Spring day.  

But there was a father and his son just checking out the beach.  The young man wearing his red shirt as he threw rocks into the blue water just popped to me - especially with the mountain towering over him.  Papa is off to the left - both just enjoying discovering nature. 

This was my last view of the Teton Range and Jackson Lake - as you get back on the highway, you find yourself in dense forest and foothills as you head north into Yellowstone. 

As I turned around near the campground, this cute little Uinta ground squirrel chewing on some grass caught my eye!  

Unfortunately, in my excitement and hurry, I didn't get the right focus.  :(  He's not perfectly clear but you can still see how cute he is with his little grass sticking out of his mouth!

So I took another.  He looked at me like I was the paparazzi.  lol  

He is not amused.  haha  So I left him in peace and headed north.  I soon reached the entrance to Yellowstone!  The line was pretty long for mid-May, but not too bad and it moved pretty quickly. 

As I'm driving up the now increasing windy, forested road, I start seeing SNOW!  So happy and excited!  This California flatlander (for the most part) doesn't get to see much snow.  And it was so gorgeous settled into the Snake River canyon!

I cannot even express how beautiful it was!  And my photos probably don't do it justice.  

And of course, I along with pretty much everyone else on the road, had to pull over at Lewis Falls, the first waterfall you can see from the highway. The sky was dramatic, the air was brisk, and the 30-foot falls and surrounding river were so beautiful and - even with the small crowd - peaceful.  I sat here for a little bit, I'm not going to lie.  

After stopping at Lewis Falls, I didn't really stop again for a bit.  I just enjoyed the windy road through truly stunning forests.  

Frankly, I was determined not to make many stops.  As I mentioned earlier, the anxiety that is becoming more and more of a driving force in my life was making itself felt.  I had received a confirmation email for my Madison campground campsite, but it only listed one night - not the two that I had reserved.  So my mind was pushing me to get there to make sure I had a place to sleep.  

I was tempted to stop as I passed beautiful Lewis Lake which was halfway covered in ice and snow.  I've never seen anything like that before and I actually do regret not stopping for even five minutes to enjoy it.  

But I didn't.  (I regret this.)

I was tempted again when I came to the turnoff for Old Faithful.  I should at least stop and see what's there, right?

But I didn't (I didn't regret this like I did Lewis Lake). 

But when I saw the steam from Black Sand Basin?  I couldn't resist stopping.  I squelched my anxieties and pulled right over.  And I'm so glad I did!!  

We'll explore Black Sand Basin geyser area and my very first Yellowstone bison UP CLOSE and personal!  In the next post.  :)  But I'll leave you with this little teaser. 

xoxo

Nikon D600 with Nikkor 28-300 lens & D7200 with Sigma 150-600 Contemporary lens

Mother's Day Road Trip to Lake Tahoe - Emerald Bay/Eagle Falls 5/9/16

For mother's day, I was feeling a little bit melancholy.  My daughter is in L.A., my own mother doesn't know me, and I've been having so many health problems in the last few months that life consists basically of work and very little play.  

Waaah waaaaah!  I know...what a whiner!  I know how blessed I am.  And I am truly grateful for every blessing!  But that doesn't mean I am impervious to feeling blue.  So feeling blue of course makes me want to escape on a road trip.  And what better place to be blue than beautiful Lake Tahoe?

So I got up early on Sunday morning.  Like 4:30 a.m. early!  Because I was hopeful that there would be some sun and perhaps a sunrise over the lake despite the stormy weather we'd been having. 

I've been trying to learn more about the manual settings on my camera and how to use them to capture different looks, etc.  One thing I'd been wanting to try was a slow shutter speed on a waterfall.  So I headed to the west shore and beautiful Eagle Falls and Emerald Bay.  

There was quite a bit of cloud cover which was too dense for any sunrise.  But I did get some interesting shots with a silhouette feel and some with a misty look.  

I've learned that you need filters in order to really capture some of the ideas I was going for.  I don't have any.  Yet.  But I did the best I could.  I confess I did have to do some heavy post-production on some of these, but mainly to adjust lighting, etc. Especially since one of the things I had read was to shoot with the landscapes underexposed.  Which worked somewhat. 

This is Fannette Island. I was going to hike down, but it was intermittently raining so I decided against it.  This is one of my favorite shots of the morning.  I loved how the island was framed by the bare, silver branches and that I got some reflection on the lake surface. 

In this shot, you can see the teahouse on top of the Island.  I will be kayaking there this summer.  :-)

And this is Emerald Bay as seen from the Eagle Falls trail alongside Highway 89. 

Bare trees can add so much to photos!  I just love them and will use them to frame whenever I can.  I particularly love this one. 

This one I like due to the reflections on the lake, the moss on the tree trunk, and the wake from the lone boat exploring the bay. 

One final landscape of Emerald Bay before we head for the waterfall.  Again, I love the bare tree as a focal point.  And the pattern in the water is pretty cool too.  

I parked at the Eagle Falls trailhead and walked toward the falls.  There was a thin waterfall falling right onto the shoulder of Highway 89.  

This is a slower shutter speed which did result in the wispier water effect I was trying for, but also made the picture overall a little blurrier.  And also taught me just how important a Neutral Density filter is!  I need one!

This shot is of the very top of the fall. Again, with the same issues due to not having the ND filter.  

I clambered down beside Eagle Falls using the small, steep staircase on it's left side.  I had to use my tripod as a walking stick to actually reach the ground from the stairs.  There's a bit of a drop!

But I made it and it was worth it.  I climbed around the rocks and terraces of the pretty large waterfall, hoping and praying that I would not fall in.  This is looking across the falls.

And this is looking down them.  I used a very fast shutter speed to try to freeze the water to catch it gurgling and bubbling it's way down to the Bay. 

Another shot of the frozen "boiling" water, this is from another part of the fall with a thick stream that roiled over rocks at a horizontal level before falling to the canyon below.

This was with a medium shutter speed because I didn't really know what I was trying to do.  lol

At this point, I climbed back up the terrace, rocks, and stairs to the road and made my way to the other side of the wide falls. 

I then hiked my way back through the waterfall until I was somewhere kind of in the middle.  I love the tree roots in the picture below. 

The falls with a sliver of Emerald Bay in the background. 

A closeup of those cool roots. 

Meanwhile, looking back uphill, you can see Eagle Creek coming under Highway 89 through a cool tunnel into a wide, granite shelf that forms the top of the falls. 

Through the tunnel

There was a cool, holy rock in the middle. 

And, spinning around, I found myself looking over the STEEP drop of the falls into the valley below. 

I had set up my tripod/walking stick to get some with wispy water.  The next two photos are taken at exactly the same place.  The first one has a fast shutter speed to try to "freeze" the water...

And this one has a slow shutter speed to make the water wispy and soft. 

Cool!

And here's one of the pool and tunnel with a slower shutter speed. 

And to finish off our first post from Lake Tahoe, one can't get enough of the cool tunnel!  Especially with bare branches!

And a look through the "tunnel" in the holy rock. 

Bye Eagle Falls!  Thanks for being my guinea pig!

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Yosemite Firefall! Horsetail Falls at Sunset in February 2/20/16

So I saw this article about a rare occurrence happening in Yosemite National Park.  

It looked intriguing and I thought to myself "well, if I wasn't worried about inclement weather, possibly icy roads, and my car's general well being, I would TOTALLY go and try to see it (and of course, take a picture).

It just so happened that I had been thinking about heading to a wildlife refuge to try to capture some bird photos and I knew there was one in Merced.  I also knew that the "friendlier" road into Yosemite ran through Merced.  Very tempting to add this to my weekend itinerary.  But did I mention that I'm scared of driving on ice?

Then I saw a notification from my dear friend Tutu who had posted a photograph of the "Firefall" and said that I should try to see this sometime in my life.  :-)

The thing is, there is no guarantee that I would ever get to experience these conditions again.  I read beaucoup articles about the Horsetail Falls firefall and learned that it requires several converging circumstances:

1. The angle of the setting sun has to be right and only occurs in mid-to-late February and October.
2. There has to be sufficient snowpack in the meadows atop El Capitan.*
3. The temperature has to be warm enough for said snow to be melting and feed the fall.*
4. The sky cannot be overcast to the West.

*These two reasons are why this doesn't work in October.  Usually no snow/water atop El Capitan so therefore no waterfall.

So I decided to go...further impetus being a picture of gorgeous, orange daisies growing alongside Highway 99 in Atwater and Merced that was posted on Instagram by Cindy Buenrostro.  I LOVE photographing flowers and when she told me the location, it seemed like it was all meant to be. 

So, without further ado, here are my photos of the Horsetail Falls "Firefall".  You can see how the color of the fire goes from gold at the start of sunset to the deep orange of lava at the end. 

It's worth mentioning that I do wish I had gotten there earlier (but couldn't because of the amazing time I spent at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge) so I could have scoped out various spots and claimed dibs on a good one.

However, I did not and was made even later by the oily smoke billowing out of my engine while sitting in a fairly long line of cars waiting to enter the park.  It was quite alarming

I pulled into the nearby parking lot after yelling at the ranger that I was afraid my car was going to explode.  He waved and said to come back when I got it sorted out, which I did by leaving my car i the parking lot and walking back.

My car did not explode.  I think it was just really angry at me for driving it all day (including a lot of time idling).  After my car rested for about a half hour, I drove up to where I saw a lot of people parked on the side of the road, setting up tripods and staring up at a cliff face waterfall. I parked and wandered around talking to other amateur photographers until I determined that this was the right waterfall, but probably not the right place.

This is Horsetail Falls head on as it appeared at my arrival.

I got off the rock on which I was sitting when I figured this out and pulled my car back into the ever-increasing traffic.  It soon became obvious where the main viewing spots were when there quickly was no further parking to be had along the road for miles.

I parked when I could and began walking as quick as possible towards the viewing spots.  It had gotten quite dark in the valley and I was afraid I would miss it.  There were literally hundreds lining the road and Merced River.  Some intrepid photographers were actually standing in the freezing water (which still had snow and ice floating in it in places) or had waded to the other side.

I found a spot.  In a bush.  Actually beside a bush for my chair, but my tripod was in the bush hanging slightly over the edge of the raised riverbank.  I was a little worried about it falling in, but felt fairly secure that the bush would help prevent it.
  

I settled in and took a series of photos at slightly different settings for the next 30 minutes (photos 1 - 3 above).  When it seemed that the orange glow was fading, I packed up and started heading back to my car.

When I reached the higher road, I realized that the new angle allowed the water to still refract the light into orange, even though it was fading where I originally was.  I snapped a couple picture sans tripod to capture the final fleeting minutes of what now looked like a lava flow (photos 4 & 5 above). 

Then I made my way back to my car and was on my way...only to be stopped in traffic that did not move for over 40 minutes.  I. Kid. You. Not.  I do not know why.  But it was quite clear that the park was not meant to accommodate hundreds (thousands?) of cars trying to leave at almost the same moment.  It took over an hour total for me to be on way. 

But it was worth it.  Here is a pretty cool video from someone who did arrive early and hiked to a primo location.  Stunning. 

Hopefully, next year we will have good conditions again and I can do the same.  

xoxo