Photo reflections, Teton-Yellowstone trip - Part 1

A little more in-depth look at our vacation.

Friday, July 9th - we stayed at the Hampton Inn on the outskirts of Rawlins after driving up from the Denver airport. I awoke early and decided to take a walk. A little surprised, 44 degrees, and there I was in gym shorts and T-shirt. I figured I'd better set a quick pace if I wasn't to be victim of hypothermia on my first full day in Wyoming.

As I got closer to intown I came to this mural of a street in Rawlins around the 1930s, very nice artwork.

The street ahead.

Sunrise on my return to the hotel, I filtered it through the truck windows of a dealership as I walked by.

Once we hit the road the following are pictures along the way to the condo we stayed at in Driggs, Idaho.

I guessing this is serious snowfencing compared to what we have in Maine. Must have been ten feet high and was a frequent site throughout the region.

A trailer home with a view.


Lunch at the Cowboy Cafe in Dubois, Elk Sausage with salsa omelet, plus a few cups of coffee. That hit the spot. Click here for someone's Flickr photo of the place, something I should have done, duh.


Photo taken by Ian with the pan feature on his Sony camera, pretty cool.




Did you say sage? I loved it, the smell spiced everything up.

Myself and Ian at a scenic turnout as we were heading south past Grand Teton National Park.

Right in the middle of Driggs, Idaho. It's a terrific little town. Caters to both the summer park visitors and the winter sports folks. Has about everything you need and bonus, I found a used book store and grabbed a couple of Mike Resnick books for $5. Very good grocery store in town, Broulim's, where beside food staples for the condo I was able to pickup some pretty good locally brewed beer.

Check back, I hope to continue with follow ups to this post. Thanks to Carol and Ian for their photos used here.

Images of Teton and Yellowstone trip

On the drive from Rawlins,WY hillsides like these were a frequent sight.

Here's one of our's early glimpses of the Teton Mountain Range from about 30 miles away.

I think this is Teewinot Mountain in the background where we pulled into a turnout as Ian had spotted bison moving at a distance - a little too far to photograph well.

Cool how this cloud mass appears to linger over the mountain top.

Another turnout along the way to Driggs.

On Saturday we drove the length of Teton National Park from south to north stopping at several places along the way.

Jenny Pond at the south end.

Jackson Lake Dam.

The marina next to the Colter Bay Visitor Center.

On Sunday we decided to hike up a trail to Table Rock which looks across a ravine from Grand Teton. This was to be about a 3 to 4 hour approach much of it straight up rocky trail, across mud paths, old winter snow and a rock field.


The trail offered many terrific views across the valley from the ridge we traversed.


This wood grouse was a pleasant surprise as I crested a steep portion of the trail. It was about the size of a rugby ball and initially didn't seem disturbed by our intrusion to it's solitude by our impromptu photo session. It eventually clambered down along the log and into the brush beyond.


This is where things leveled off a bit and we were able to move along steadily on a path.

Ian taking stock of our progress.

Again good fortune as we came across a red fox that tolerated our presence for a few minutes before moving along himself.

Across the rock field our goal, Table Rock. Carol and I were running on empty by the time we reached the snow field at the foot of the table but Ian, Greg and Jonny were able to get to the top. I'll post some pictures of that in a future blog. That's Grand Teton sticking up on the right, it is actually higher than the table.

This is now Monday and we made our first foray into Yellowstone Park.

Norris Geyser Basin Trail was an excellent starting point, not much geyser action but the trail and boardwalks around the geyser sites and hot springs were fascinating none the less.

Ian and Jonny waiting on the "old" folks.

Carol taking a photo of Greg and Bev.

On Tuesday's trip to Yellowstone we caught up with Old Faithful.

After seeing the famous geyser Carol, Ian and I took a short nature hike.

Finally, our first encounter with a preoccupied bison grazing along the road side with about a dozen or so cars jockeying for a position to get close for a photo op. We had pulled up ahead of the action and the bison came to and by us.

The waterfall and canyon at Canyon Village.

Jonny, Bev and Greg, holding up well after another long day riding from venue to venue.

Today Greg, Bev, Jonny and Ian returned to Yellowstone which is a two hour drive from our condo just to get the the park gate. Carol and I chose to make a easy going day of it. We visited some shops here in Driggs and the drove cross country to Idaho Falls then looped back and viewed some great scenery ourselves.

Vacationing in Wyoming via Driggs, Idaho

Just a quick posting, so far our days here have been straight out and by the time we return to the condo the old noggin is in zombie mode ( I know, hard to tell the difference). I'd started a bog a couple of times and both times it became outdated before I was able to finish. We've visited both Teton and Yellostone National Parks, climbed at mountain near the Grand Teton and gone through at least five fill-ups with our rented Ford Exlporer. Seen, elk, deer, a coyote, moose, fox and bison, geysers, hot springs, lakes, water falls and plants galore. Today is a kick back day for Carol and I while the rest of our tribe are off to another venue. We'll take a side trip very local to where we are staying. I've worked on a few pictures to post and hope to get them online soon. Tomorrow is our last full day here, hard to believe how fast the time goes.

Maine to Wyoming

This morning Carol, Ian and I flew out of Portland to begin our vacation at Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. An inauspicious start to be sure as shortly before we were preparing to leave Carol found a voicemail message on her cell phone informing her that our departure was delayed by almost an hour and a half. Once she was able to confirm our rescheduled flight we let Lois know as she would be taking us to the airport. After all that we were good to go. The original itinerary had us flying into Laguardia then to Minneapolis and on to Denver. With a new itinerary Laguardia was dropped, we went to Detroit instead, no Minneapolis but straight to Denver. Picked up our rental car and made the 3 and a half hour drive to Rawlins, Wyoming where we are spending the night. At this point of writing I'll leave it at that as here it is 9pm but my body believes it's 11pm and I've been up since 4am home time, need to hit the sack

Holiday Weekend

Usually we spend the Independence Day holiday up in Stockholm, Maine but with our trip out west scheduled for departure later this week we've forgone the extra trip for time around the house. So no 4th of July parade pictures this year. We've been working out final preparations and keeping the yard work up. By the time we return I expect the weeds to have taken over the lawn and the cat to be selling catnip out of the garage to support her lifestyle. The dogs get to spend the time in the kennel, hopefully they won't be terribly traumatized by the experience, may be hard to tell. Tomorrow is the workday holiday but I'll go in to the office to save using a day off from my accrued vacation time. Since we didn't go away for the holiday I really don't need a day off, better spent on the vacation itself. Today Carol and I spoke over the phone with her brother Greg and his wife, Bev, about the trip that we'll be spending the time with so we were able to get a little coordination done. Now it's a matter of catching up with each other at the condo we'll be sharing with them, their son Jonny and Ian.

Got books?

I've several books going at once though I'm still not reading for any long spells at a time. I do expect to finish up two of them before leaving on vacation. One of those is "The Universe Between" by Alan E. Nourse. Copyrighted in 1951 the story takes place in the late 1980's and I'm sure the author never saw Devo coming (or maybe he did?!?). This may have been the first SciFi book I ever read. Based on the existence of a fourth dimensional parallel universe and the developing conflicts with our own reality. The story follows a young man who grew up utilizing his ability to travel between the two universes. It was written at the reading level of an adolescent and at my age mildly interesting as an exercise in revisiting something that was a lingering memory of what I had read when I was about twelve years old. I had searched off and on over the last few years for a copy of it and recently found several. My first purchase was lost in shipment I was told though the seller refunded the $2.50 plus shipping. The second attempt from a different buyer went very well and I received my copy in about five days. It was a paperback which were originally published in the mid-60s. Worn cover with yellowed pages as I gradually read through it I accepted the level I was reading at and set aside how unimaginative the future was perceived to be and pushed on. I'm glad I read it and am surprised by how much of the story I don't remember and I don't remember the ending at all. Just goes to show that sometimes we must revisit the past to put things in their proper perspective.