Sunday, August 10, 2014

We set out for a longer hike today - up to Bradley Lake and then back down to Taggart Lake and finally back around the moraine to the car. It was a total of just over six miles, but the starting elevation around 6,200 feet and our elevation change of more than 500 feet made it a pretty good challenge, especially since we had slacked off for so long.

The trails around these two lakes are some of the most popular in the Tetons, so there were a lot of folks hiking.  That, of course, meant a lot of noise to scare away any wildlife - making it a little disappointing after seeing so many bison and moose near our campground.

Joani, desperate to capture anything that moved, decided to get up close and personal with a grasshopper.  Maybe he had stopped for a nap because Joani nearly touched him with the camera lens and he still did not hop (or fly) away.  In flight, these grasshoppers made strange buzzing and snapping noises and followed very erratic and random flight paths.  There was no way to tell which way they were going.

He was alive, I promise.

He did eventually fly away revealing his bright yellow wings.

We met some veteran park visitors who told us we really needed to indulge by soaking our feet in the cold water.  I have to say it was well worth the effort of removing shoes and socks.  The icy water soothed our hot, tired feet and allowed us to enjoy some quiet time along the lakeshore soaking up the scenery.

Friday, August 8, 2014

We headed into the heart of the Tetons with no plan for the day.  There were still a lot of clouds (and a good chance of rain) and we got such a late start that hiking did not seem like a good idea.  We stopped at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center again and studied the cloud covered mountains from the terrace.  The Visitor Center is really a beautiful and unique piece of architecture.  

Since we had no other plans, we spent some time waiting to see if the clouds would open up over the peaks for the perfect picture.  The perfect picture did not materialize, but then, can you really take a "bad" picture of such natural beauty?

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Our blogging fell behind again, but this time it was technical difficulties with Picasa.  They developed a bug shutting down their e-mailing capabilities.  Since Picasa was our only (easy) tool for sizing and sending pictures to the blog, we chose to wait.  If we have not said it before, we highly recommend the free Google Picasa picture editing program.  Now that the bug has been fixed, we can finally catch back up to date (if I can remember back that far).

It had rained all night but seemed to be letting up in the early morning hours.  We headed out in the dark to see if we could capture some cloud drama.  We were not alone as we re-visited Mormon Row and Schwabacher's Landing.  The skies were certainly not ideal, but still quite beautiful.  Of course, with the sun obscured by clouds, there was not a lot of color.  Joani reduced the color saturation in a few of her favorites to create the black and white photos below.

A bit later in the morning, the skies continued to clear and Joani had the idea to return to the National Museum of Wildlife Art to capture some of the outdoor sculpture with nice clouds as her backdrop.

OK, this one captured the museum building in the background.

This guy was huge! - his back was about 7 feet in the air.

Dan Ostermiller - The Emperor, bronze, 2008

Sunday, August 3, 2014

It was a lazy day, but I resolved to get at least one thing done.  A broken drawer provided the right level of activity - not too much effort, but something substantial enough to give me a sense of accomplishment for the day!  Joani must have decided I work so little it needed to be chronicled for the blog.

I think it was pretty clear why these drawer guides failed.  Joani weighed the contents - a mere 29.075 pounds!  This needed some serious beefing up.  The guide was almost exactly 1.5 inches from the floor, so I cut a few pieces of scrap wood, secured them in place and, voila,  we were good to go again.  I guess a little shimming could have made it a better fit, but it was close enough.

David tried to carefully suggest we find a new home for the heavy provisions.

 He graciously accepted my refusal.

Shards of broken plastic said these glides were not meant to hold 30 lbs bouncing down the road.

On one of our walks, Sam led me down to the Gros Ventre River.  He took me along some narrow paths for about a quarter mile and I almost ran head first into a moose!  As I slowly backed away, it hit me we were on game trails not hiking trails, so it should not have been a surprise.  Of course, I had forgotten my camera.  

Back at the coach, I told Joani about the encounter and she was all for a hike along the river - this time with cameras.  As I rounded the path where I had earlier seen the moose, I was surprised by yet another moose!  Grand Teton National Park is famous for their wildlife, but the number of animals we had seen was still amazing (especially at the Gros Ventre campground).  We started snapping pictures keeping our distance and trying our best to keep from disturbing the incredibly shy moose.  Some rustling in the brush told us there was another moose close by and we moved to the water's edge.

We were clearly being watched by a young bull moose.

Very large cow moose was giving David her best come hither look.

Apparently, she didn't appreciate David's lack of interest.

When bull moose realized what was going on, he gave David the evil eye...

...followed by a raspberry.

If he saw what the cow moose did in the river, just moments earlier, he wouldn't drink that water.

I've learned that moose are in the deer family.  They shed their antlers every year, usually in the late fall, but sometimes not until early spring.

This is probably a two or three year old.  His antlers lack eye guards (small points curling toward the eyes for protection) and have minimal paddling.

A bit overexposed to try to see the details in the shadows.

Another guy came along and I could tell he was going to startle the moose, so we were ready when both of them bolted away from the shoreline. 

We really are a good distance off, standing like statues behind the tall grasses.

It must be confusing for our European visitors. There, Moose are called Elk and our Elk are called Red Deer.

This is what they are trying to run on.

Bull moose carefully maneuvered to the far side of the river, only to be harassed by two young boys.

Now I have had my high noon moose sighting, I want more...

...bigger paddles and even better lighting (will I ever be content?)

I have to say there are some pretty clueless people out there.  The guy who startled the moose then walked out onto the small island with them at the same time two boys snuck up on the moose from the other side of the river.  We couldn't watch the stupidity anymore and we had more than 200 pictures so we backed away from the scene and headed home.

Friday, August 1, 2014

We needed another hike (it felt like we had gotten just a little bit lazy) and the Taggart Lake trek, at just over 3 miles round trip, seemed perfect.  It was a beautifully clear day - not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the mid-sixties.

We met our ranger guide, Zoe, at 9:00 at the trailhead.  There were a lot of people with the same idea, so we were a pretty large group.

Grand Teton National Park (and most NP's) have various ranger-led walks.  Visitors Centers provide a schedule.  We learn something every time!

Zoe said she was a park naturalist.  We stopped many times along the trail to learn about the flora and fauna in four distinct eco-zones in the park.  I think we can now identify sagebrush, snow brush, fireweed and bluebells.

We also learned that bison are not buffalo.  Buffalo are similar to Bison but only live in Asia and Africa.  Joani resolved to correct all of our blog entries and replace the erroneous references to Buffalo. 

Eco-zones: sagebrush plains (foreground), sub-alpine (forest), wetland (not seen in pic-behind moraine), alpine (above the tree line)

Taggart lake (and several other lakes) were created by glaciers.  The glaciers pushed rock and dirt (glacial moraine) ahead of them as they traveled down the valleys.  The glacial moraine remained as a natural dam when the glaciers retreated, creating the lakes.  Our hike would be up and over the glacial moraine to the lake.

The Teton Range (some of the oldest rock on Earth) is one of the youngest ranges in North America - thrust up 9 million years ago (Rockies - over 70 million years ago).

Overflow from the lake created a stream that ran down the hillside along most of our hike.  It was pretty (not especially photogenic), but the real treat was the sound of the stream as we were hiking. 

The lake was beautiful.  It was nearly perfectly still reflecting the mountains and forest behind it like a mirror.  In some of the pictures, it is evident just how clear the water was. 

Zoe left us at the lake with several options for our return trip.  We chose to return along the same trail we took up to the lake because there were several photo ops we skipped to keep up with the group.

As we were hiking back down from the lake, we noticed the clouds (along with a bit of thunder) that were blowing in from the west over the mountains started to get a little angrier and dark.  We just ignored them and continued on.

I was leaning toward Blue Penstemon, but the leaf says no.  Any ideas?

This stand of Quaking Aspen will be spectacular (golden glow) in a month or two.  They are connected underground by spreading root systems (all one organism) and therefore all change color at the same time. 

Looking back over our shoulder, we can see the storm a-comin'.

Across the little creek, we saw a cow moose just slowly walking along munching on leaves.  She allowed us to take a few pictures and stayed so we could point her out to others along the trail.

This cow moose was following the creek on the hillside, nowhere near a marshy area.  So this is where they are when the sun is high!

Back at the car, there was a lot of commotion near the parking area.  Sure enough, there was another cow moose.  This one ambled by a creek just below the roadside and it was not alone - there was a calf moose in the brush with her

Mama moose was causing quite a car jam.  Her baby was camera shy.

On the road back to the campground, we saw more bison crossing the road.  One posed in front of the sign below just so it would be clear he was a wild and dangerous guy!

Bison or Buffalo!!! Wiki tells me they have been called American Buffalo longer (since 1625) than they have been called Bison (since 1774).

Bison are among the most dangerous critters in U.S. and Canadian NPs and can easily outrun humans (40 mph).

Although the sky became completely overcast and dark, it never rained.  We decided not to push our luck any further though and spent the afternoon editing our pictures and catching up on the blog.