Tag: Milky Way

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.

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.
Sunset over the Teton Mountains
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!

The Milky Way

This photo was taken with Greg’s cell phone camera, which is better than mine. He may have even caught a meteor, although it might have been a satellite.

Last night, Greg and I decided to try our hand at photographing the Milky Way. Greg had been spending his free hours researching the best way to do it, and he was eager to try out what he had learned.

All we have are our cell phones and tripods, so we probably won’t be able to get professional level quality, but I think we did a good job so far.

We should have many more opportunities in the coming weeks to try again.

Of course, before you get the stars, you get the sunset.

1880s Town

One of the items on our itinerary for when we were in Hill City had been to take the 1880s Train from Hill City to the 1880s Town.

As it turned out, last night we stayed about a quarter mile from the 1880s Town. I had no idea that we were going to be so close when I made our camping reservation.

So after hitching up the trailer this morning, we headed over there to check that off our itinerary (the town, not the train).

This guy was making bullets in the saloon.
They had lots of memorabilia from the movie Dances with Wolves.
There was a museum packed with so many artifacts and antiques from the late 1800s that it was overwhelming.
Each building in town contained a veritable treasure trove of historical relics.

I imagine that a history buff would be in heaven here. Sadly, I am no history buff. The town felt very authentic to me, though, and I enjoyed that.

In the middle of our tour of the town, we stopped into the Santa Fe Train Diner to have an early lunch. The food? Blech.

Larsson’s Crooked Creek Resort

We are now at our campsite in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. We have a “presidential” site, complete with our own covered patio, Adirondack chairs, and a gas fire pit.

We will be here a week to see everything we can see in the Badlands and Black Hills area.