Travels – Page 3 – Meanderings & Mind Munchies

Emerald Pools Trail

My hips are starting to get stiff from all the exercise we’ve been doing. This morning I lost my balance trying to get my leg over the crossbar of my bike and toppled right over. Thankfully, nothing was injured but my dignity!

Today we rode our bikes up to the Zion Lodge to hike the Emerald Pools Trail.

This photo was taken on the Pa’rus Trail.

The views along the walk to the Lower Emerald Pool were beautiful.

Below is a photo taken at the Lower Emerald Pool. The waterfall was difficult to see unless you took the photo directly into the sun. I lucked out with this one.

The trail went on from the Lower Emerald Pool to the Middle and Upper Emerald pools. However, Greg decided at this point that it would not be a good idea for him to continue.

Between the six miles of walking the day before, the 16 miles of biking, and a poor night’s sleep, he decided to err on the side of caution. I decided that I should do the same. (We need to have enough strength and energy left to do Bryce Canyon!)

Before heading back to the campground, we stopped by the Zion Lodge for a snack and a moment of rest in the beautiful lobby.

Once back at the campground, Greg took a nap while I scrolled Blue Sky. Then Greg fixed a leak in our sink (we hope).

Then it was time for our next adventure.

The Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway

No camping trip would be complete without Greg trying to terrify a few years off my life.

This time, that attempt involved a drive along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway.

The Zion-Mount Carmel Highway is another one of those mountain roads with steep drop-offs and serpentine turns. And no shoulders! It also includes a mile-long narrow tunnel.

Luckily for me, I was so busy taking pictures through the windshield that I didn’t have a lot of time to fear tumbling over the edge of a cliff.

Some of my favorites:

The colors and shapes, oh, my! I was in heaven.

The Night Sky

Once it got dark, we drove the car over to the visitor center and walked to a new campground that is still under construction so that Greg could see if he could get any good pictures of the Milky Way with his new camera.

While he worked on that, I lay on my back in the dirt and admired the starry sky. Sometimes it’s nice to remember how small and insignificant we are to the universe.

Tomorrow we head to Bryce Canyon National Park.

The Riverside Walk Trail

We were up early again this morning. This time, we rode our bikes all the way to the last shuttle bus stop at Zion National Park, the Temple of Sinawava.

There are two trails that are very popular at Zion National Park. The first is called Angels Landing, and it involves a challenging and death-defying climb.

The top left-most corner of this mountain is Angels Landing.

The second popular hike is called The Narrows, which involves hiking through the Virgin River.

Greg and I chose not to do either one of them. However, to get to The Narrows, you have to hike the Riverside Walk Trail. That was our goal for today.

It was a beautiful walk along the Virgin River.

Once we were finished doing the Riverside Walk, we headed back to the campground, stopping along the way to take photos. Here are some of my favorites from today.

Despite only doing one hike, I still managed to get 16,000 steps in today.

Once back at the campground, we did laundry and relaxed for the rest of the day.

The Watchman Trail

We started our adventure in Zion National Park by riding our bikes to the visitor center early in the morning and then hiking the Watchman Trail.

The Watchman Trail is a 3-mile round trip hike to an overlook of Zion Canyon and Watchman Mountain.

Greg did amazingly well with the rocks and sand.

I love the various shades of blue and green in this photo (This is not a photo of the Watchman).

On the way down, we saw two deer.

After stopping in at the visitor center, we hopped on the bikes and rode the Pa’rus Trail to the main road through Zion National Park.

At this time of the year, the only ways to access this road are via park shuttle or bike.

Court of the Patriarchs

We rode as far as Court of the Patriarchs before turning around.

A view of the Virgin River, taken on the way back to the visitor center

Kolob Canyons

After cooling off at the camper, we headed to Kolob Canyons, which is in the northwest part of Zion National Park. It takes about 45 minutes to drive there.

The views were stunning. Better yet, we didn’t have to do any hiking!

Snake River rafting trip

On Thursday, our plan had been to get up and out the door by 6 a.m. so that we could take photos of the Teton mountain range at sunrise from Oxbow Bend Overlook, which was about an hour away.

But when Greg’s alarm went off at 5:30, he admitted that he would rather go back to bed instead. The hike around Jenny Lake had wiped us both out. Consequently, we decided to relax for the morning. There was nothing in the park that we felt a strong need to see by this point.

In the afternoon, we headed to Signal Mountain Lodge because we had tickets for a rafting trip down the Snake River.

On the way, we stopped to take a few more photos of the Teton mountains.

More *plein air* painters! These weren’t even the last ones we saw. So jealous!

Signal Mountain Lodge is beautiful. The lobby area has a huge picture window overlooking the Teton mountain range and Jackson Lake.

The rafting trip didn’t start until 4:30, so I knew that we would not be getting great photos of the Teton mountains. It is simply impossible to get good photos of them in the afternoon because of the direction of the sun.

But I love any opportunity to get on the water, so off we went.

It did not disappoint.

Our guide, Joe, reminded me a lot of Scott. He was incredibly knowledgeable.

Some of the wildlife we saw on our rafting trip included deer, a red fox, a hawk, a beaver, lots of merganser ducks, and eagles.

Those two dots in the tall tree on the left are a pair of bald eagles.

This was the third bald eagle we saw on our boat trip.

The silhouette of the mountains as we were driving back to the campground

The Night Sky

Since the park gets very dark at night, and it was a crescent moon, we decided to go back out and see if we could get some photos of the Milky Way.

This is the best I was able to accomplish with my cell phone.

On to Zion National Park!

Schwabacher Landing

On our way into the park on Wednesday, we encountered another gaggle of cars, which we instantly knew meant there was wildlife to see.

It turned out to be a bull moose, who was feeling trapped by all the tourists. He kept darting one way and then another, trying to find some way past all the people. He finally managed to dash across the street into a field.

Our first stop of the day was Schwabacher Landing, which is a popular location for taking photographs of the Teton mountains.

Maybe we got there too late in the morning, but I did not like any of the photos I took. The mountains looked like cardboard cutouts, and they were overshadowed by the foreground.

Jenny Lake

Next, we headed to Jenny Lake. We purchased tickets for the ferry ride across the lake, where we hiked to Hidden Falls.

My photos of the falls turned out terribly, but I managed to capture a photo of this artist painting the falls en plein air. He was painting in oils and was quite good. I was kind of jealous, to be honest.

After Hidden Falls, we continued our hike up to Inspiration Point.

Yes, I actually climbed up the side of that rock cliff!

Coming down was another story. At one point, I sat down because I was so terrified. Some gentleman at the bottom offered to come up and assist me, but I managed to complete it by myself. Yay!

The size of the ferry boat on the lake in the photo below should give you an idea of how high up we were. The sign Greg is standing behind says Inspiration Point el. 7200 ft.

After climbing down from Inspiration Point, we chose to hike around the lake rather than take the ferry boat back.

Another hiker asked if she could join us on the hike back since she was worried about encountering a bear on her own.

On the hike back to the Jenny Lake visitor center, we got to see another moose. Unfortunately, he was shy and didn’t want to have his picture taken.

Shortly after that, someone else we encountered on the trail told us that they had seen a moose at Moose Pond, so we took a short detour to check that out.

It was a beautiful day for a hike, but by the time we finally got back to the Jenny Lake visitor center, we were beat. Greg said he was more tired from that hike than he had been from any other hike we’ve ever taken.

Scenic Boat Tour

Back at the car, we inhaled our lunch (it was 3:00 p.m. by this point). Then we decided to head over to Jackson Lake Lodge to see whether we could buy tickets for a scenic boat tour.

The girl at the concierge desk told us that the very last scenic boat tour for the season was leaving at 5:15. We booked our tickets and then headed to the bar to relax until it was time to head to the marina.

Five-fifteen is a terrible time to take a scenic boat tour if the goal is to get lovely photos of the Teton mountains rising over the water. The first 45 minutes of the tour involved traveling directly into the sun, which made taking photos of the mountains impossible. By the time the boat captain finally turned around to head back to the marina, the sun was setting behind the mountains, leaving them in shadow.

Despite that, I did enjoy the tour, and I learned a lot. Our tour guide was delightful.

Sunset

Since the sun was setting when we arrived back at the marina, Greg and I quickly hopped in the car and headed to another popular spot for taking photos of the mountains.

It was a beautiful sunset, but I don’t feel like I got very good photos of it.

I love all of the beautiful fall colors in the foreground of this photo. Fall has definitely come to the Tetons!

We encountered another traffic jam on the way back to the campground. This time it was a herd of bison on the side of the road.

When we finally arrived back at the campground at 9:00 p.m., we promptly collapsed into bed.

Grand Teton National Park

I had a rough start to the morning. When I woke at 4:30 a.m., it was 57° in the camper, which might explain why I had been freezing for the previous two hours. We had run out of propane in the middle of the night.

Anyway…

We were on the road to the national park at 6:45 a.m. to see if we could catch the sunrise.

We didn’t quite make it, but we came close.

We decided to drive the loop road around the park to see if we could get our bearings. We were finding the park maps difficult to understand, and the ranger at the visitor center last night was not terribly helpful either.

We figured a lap around the park would give us a better idea of what we would like to go back and spend more time on.

The Loop Road

Grand Teton National Park is a very different park from Yellowstone. As far as I can tell after one day’s experience, the loop road is all about scenic overlooks of the Teton Mountains.

Beyond that, there are many hiking trails, opportunities for float tours down the Snake River, horseback riding, and a multi-use trail for biking or walking.

Mormon Row

One of the most popular things to do at sunrise in Grand Teton National Park is to take a photo of the barn on Mormon Row.

Yes, I really did take that photo! Even I’m surprised.

We were lucky enough to get there just after sunrise.

We would have spent more time there, but it was absolutely freezing! I hope to go back and explore a little more another day.

Since most of what we did today was take pictures of the Teton Mountains from various overlooks along the loop road, I will post a few of my favorite pictures without giving a blow-by-blow of every stop we made.

What says “Western USA” better than bison and mountains?

The sun came and went all day. Mostly, it went.

Chapel of the Transfiguration. There is a picture window in this chapel, right behind the pulpit. It looks out on a beautiful view of the Teton Mountains. Unfortunately, it was hard to photograph.

Jackson Lake Lodge. The view of the Teton Mountains from the windows was spectacular. Greg and I relaxed with muffins and coffee while enjoying the view.

Palisades Reservoir

Greg was a man on a mission today, and that mission was to get to our campground in Jackson as quickly as possible.

As a result, any photos I wanted to take had to be done from the car’s windows, because he was not stopping, despite the breathtaking views and ample pullouts for just that purpose.

I can tell you that the Snake River is a beautiful river. I just can’t prove it with pictures.

However…

I did manage to snap a few photos of the Palisades Reservoir, which is fed by the Snake River. So here are those:

I finally realized why so many of my car photos look underdeveloped. It’s the tinted windows.

See those weird ridges in the soil (rock?) below the line of vegetation? I have no idea why it’s like that, but I think it’s cool.

The water level seemed to be really low.

After we arrived at the campground, we headed into Grand Teton National Park to pick up some information at the visitor center.

Tomorrow will be another early morning.

Goodbye, Yellowstone!

The last couple of days have been very quiet, so I don’t have a lot to post.

In addition to doing various chores, like getting an oil change on the truck and doing laundry, we’ve taken a few short trips into the park so that I could get some photos. But none of those photos have been better than the ones I’ve already posted.

Despite that, here are the best of the ones I took this weekend.

This poor fisherman had snagged his hook on a bush. I offered to untangle it for him, but he said no thanks.

I love the way the mist rises off the water.

Our very last stop of our Yellowstone National Park trip was Terrace Springs early on a chilly morning to get a look at the steam rising off the water. I have no idea why, but I think this phenomenon is magical.

The steam from the spring covers the entire area. So cool!

Goodbye, Yellowstone!

And on to the Grand Tetons!

Another try at Hayden Valley

On Thursday, we decided to try Hayden Valley again. We went slightly later in the day in the hopes that the fog would have cleared by then.

Shortly after entering the valley, we encountered a gaggle of tourists.

We quickly grabbed our binoculars and joined the throng. They were observing a black wolf.

We arrived a few minutes too late to see it ourselves (we got to see it later), but on the way back to the car, we saw two eagles and an osprey.

Next, we headed to Mud Volcano.

The mud is created by sulfuric acid breaking down rocks and soil.

Photos of steaming muddy potholes aren’t terribly interesting. Videos are more representative.

Then we stopped to check out LeHardy Rapids.

And Sulfur Cauldron, which wasn’t particularly impressive. However, I walked a little further down the trail and got to see something pretty cool. The river was boiling!

Okay, it was probably steam, but it was still cool.

We ended the day at Mount Haynes overlook.

Lamar Valley

On Wednesday, we headed to the Lamar Valley, where a lot of wildlife at Yellowstone National Park hangs out.

I don’t feel a strong need to see animals in their natural habitat, but Greg enjoys it. I was basically along for the ride and to see the scenery.

And look at the scenery!

I did not edit this photo other than to crop it. Aren’t those mountains gorgeous?

This photo is quite representative of the Lamar Valley.

Pronghorn. We saw them a couple of different times.

Since Greg was driving and my eyesight is not good enough to pick out tiny little animals far in the distance, we relied on crowds of parked cars to identify where the wildlife was.

This crowd of folks standing on a hill were looking at a herd of bison and a family of wolves.

I don’t have good pictures of the bison or the wolves because they were too far away to capture on camera. One really needed a high-powered set of binoculars to see them, which we did not have. However, some of the folks who did were kind enough to let us look through theirs.

I often have to take my photos through the windshield of the car because Greg is so focused on his driving that he doesn’t hear me express interest in pulling over to take a picture until it is too late. But I got lucky with this photo (above).

Greg had turned off the car so that he could get out and take a photo of a herd of bison across the street. Unfortunately, he left the windows open and this mother bison with her calf started wandering in my direction. At one point, she got so close I was afraid she’d stick her head in the window. I was scrunching down and trying to make myself look as invisible as possible!

Over the course of the day, we got to see black bears, pronghorn, bison, elk, and wolves.

After Lamar Valley, we headed back to Tower Roosevelt. The plan had been to eat lunch at the lodge there. Greg’s fishing captain had recommended it. Unfortunately, they were closed for the season.

The photo below is of Petrified Tree (a short detour from Tower Roosevelt). It is 50 million years old.

Next, we headed to Calcite Spring. I had been wondering why I was still smelling sulfur since I hadn’t seen any steam rising anywhere. I didn’t wonder any longer after I saw the geyserite on the walls of this gorge.

This photo was taken looking in the other direction from the photo above. Can you see the line of basalt columns near the top of the cliff on the left? Very cool.

Still at Calcite Spring, just further down the trail.

On the way back to Tower Fall, we stopped to take some photos of this basalt cliff. The size of the cars should give you some idea of how massive this thing was.

Our next stop was Tower Fall, where we had lunch and ice cream floats at the general store followed by a walk to the Tower Falls overlook.

Then we took the Tower Falls Trail down to another overlook. Greg stayed there while I followed the trail all the way down to the bottom of the gorge.

Greg (in the light blue shirt), patiently waiting for me to finish taking pictures.

Then looking in the other. Greg told me that while he was watching, this fly fisherman caught two fish.

And another photo taken from around the corner. A storm was moving in. Hence, the dark clouds.

After Tower Fall, we headed back in the direction of the campground.

We detoured to view the Virginia Cascades, but we were unable to stop and take pictures. The road was barely wide enough for the car. One side was a rock cliff, and the other was a steep drop off into the river below. It was edged with temporary cement barriers that wouldn’t have done much to keep us from tumbling over the sides into the river far below. I was terrified.

We did get to see the cascades, which were impressive, but I wasn’t willing to find a spot to pull over and take photos.