Road Trip 2016: Arches National Park

October 2, 2016

Pongo and I spent the bulk of Sunday at Arches National Park.  This was the last of Utah's five national parks for me to visit.

Cowboy Camp, Highway 313, UT

As you'll see in the photos, we were walking and driving under volatile weather conditions on Sunday.  A thunderstorm had blown right by us the night before.  We wouldn't be so lucky on this evening.  More on that later, though, let's start at the beginning.

Highway 313, UT

We had coffee and breakfast before hitting the road for the short drive from our campsite to Arches.  I made pancakes.  Pongo hadn't been eating his dog food in the mornings, so I gave him a pancake, too.  He seemed a bit confused by the syrup at first, but he got into it after a bit of sniffing around.  He ate all of the pancakes and left the kibble in his bowl.  Well, at least he ate something on this particular morning.  I worried about him when he wouldn't eat his breakfast, which he regularly didn't eat on this trip, but he always chowed down for dinner so I fretted less about it as the trip wore on.

Highway 313, UT

Arches National Park, UT

If there's one national park that I've visited that seems like it could have been designed by Walt Disney that would have to be Arches National Park.  The rock formations here are plain wacky.  At times it was hard to believe this place wasn't man made.  The park was also quite crowded, especially considering it was October.  I suppose if I didn't have a dog and could have walked on some of these trails I might not have had that feeling.  However, as it was we did a lot of drive, stop, shoot and repeat.  I can't complain about the quality of the photographs, though.  This may be the best set of photos from the trip.

Park Avenue, Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT

North Window, Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT

Skyline Arch, Arches National Park, UT

We drove out to the campground where I was able to take Pongo for a nice, long walk around the campgrounds.  I have to say, this is one of the coolest campgrounds I've come across.

Mule Deer -- Arches National Park, UT

We bumped into a group of mule deer behind one of the campsites.  There were two does and three fauns.  I didn't have my long lens so I had to settle for some wide-angle shots of the deer.  That was a little bit of a bummer, but then again I have a lot of deer photos in my collection.  It's not like they were moose or something.

Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT

As you can see, I didn't get a lot of shots of actual arches at Arches National Park.  Most of them required short hikes to get to on trails where dogs are not allowed.  There were a couple we could have gotten close to in the car that I just didn't bother with because by the time we had an opportunity in the afternoon I was simply tired of being around so many people and cars and the good lighting had all but disappeared.  I just wanted out of there.

Highway 313, UT

The Wash

We left the park and went back to some cool rock formations on BLM land off of Highway 313.  Pongo and I did a bit of scrambling and walked up a cool little wash until we were blocked by some large boulders that blocked the little canyon (I don't know what else to call it) that we were in.  There were plenty of holes for Pongo to poke his head into and lizards to chase.  Except for the hike through the campground he'd had to spend most of the time in Arches inside the car.  I was happy to get him out.

Highway 313, UT

Highway 313, UT

We drove out to Canyonlands for a few final shots before calling it a day.  The evening turned out to be quite an adventure.  It was very windy when we went to sleep.  I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of strong wind and then realized I was hearing thunder.  I packed all of our bedding into the car and put Pongo in there and then tore down the tent.  It began to rain and the lightning moved closer.  By the time I had everything packed away and was tucked into bed inside the Element (which is normally very comfortable to sleep in if a little cramped with Pongo) the lightning was landing very close to us.  Pongo didn't like that at all.  It ended up being a long night.

Canyonlands National Park, UT

Canyonlands National Park, UT

Soundtrack:

• The Band -- Music from the Big Pink

Road Trip 2016: Grand Teton & Antelope Island

September 30, 2016

Friday was a driving day.  We needed to get from Grand Teton National Park to Salt Lake City to set us up for an easy drive on Saturday to Canyonlands and Arches.  Still, I had a planned stop to make at Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake and a quick stop at Moose before leaving Grand Teton to try to see a moose.

Rocky Mountain Elk -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

The morning was foggy.  The mountain range was completely slammed.  The elk were out and could be heard in all directions, though.  A few were even visible.

Mule Deer -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

We didn't end up going to Moose to look for a moose.  We didn't have to go that far.  We saw not one but two moose next to the entrance booths about a quarter of a mile away from the junction to Moose.  It was foggy and a little dark but that didn't stop me from taking a ton of photographs.  None of them turned out great, but who cares?  I saw a couple of moose and I didn't even have to go to Moose to see the moose.

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

I tried a number of post-processing tricks to try to make the photos suck less.  None really worked.  The photos I tend to like the best put an emphasis on the morning fog, but they tend to leave something to be desired as far as the moose are concerned.  The first moose I saw was a lady moose in a meadow.  She stood around for a while then moved into some trees.

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Based on the size and shape of his antlers, I'm guessing it was an adolescent male moose that emerged from the trees.  He tried to put a move on the lady moose but she was having none of it.  Poor little dude.

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Moose -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

After watching the moose until they disappeared into the trees, we headed to the Bunnery in Jackson where I picked up some coffee and a spinach and cheese croissant.  If you're ever in Jackson and you like a good breakfast, this is the place to go.

Somewhere on Some Road in Idaho

American Bison -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

Fast forward four hundred miles or so and we were on Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.  The island gets its name from the pronghorn that inhabit the island.  A herd of bison also live on the island.

American Bison -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

American Bison -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

American Bison -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

Pronghorn -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

Pronghorn -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

Pronghorn -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

American Avocet -- Antelope Island State Park, UT

I'd originally planned on camping at Antelope Island, but at this point we'd been camping for four cold, occasionally wet nights, so I was ready for a regular room and a shower.  I also wanted to see Salt Lake City and perhaps take a crack at photographing the Mormon Temple there.  I figured if they light that one up the way they do the temple in Oakland it would make for some nice photos.

Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, UT

I'm not sure if dogs are allowed in the Temple Square or not.  I didn't ask.  Pongo and I took some looks from a couple of Mormon Mafia types, but they didn't say anything.

Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, UT

I'm not religious.  I don't have any respect for religion.  I saw power, money and control in these walls.  The placement of the Zions' Bank building right next door to the Temple Square seemed neither ironic nor by happenstance.

The temple is a beautiful building, especially when lit up at night.  One good thing religions seem to do is construct buildings that are works of art.  This particular building is a bit blocky, but I enjoyed looking at it and taking these pictures.

Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, UT

Soundtrack:

• Band of Horses -- Everything All the Time
• Queen -- Greatest Hits
• LCD Soundsystem -- This Is Happening
• Robin Williams -- Live 2002 [2]
• Hank Williams -- Greatest Hits
• The Jam -- The Sound of the Jam

Road Trip 2016: Grand Teton National Park

September 28, 2016

Pongo and I spent Wednesday touring Grand Teton National Park.  After a day and a half of driving I wanted to keep things low-key and give Pongo a chance to walk around, especially since the next couple of days would have us likely spending a lot of time in the car.

Grand Teton National Park, WY

I don't know if I'll ever tire of photographing the Teton mountain range.  These mountains never seem to give the same look twice.

Grand Teton National Park, WY

This early morning shoot was a lot of fun.  Not only did we see the sunrise light up the mountains, we were surrounded by elk.  We couldn't see most of them but we could hear them bugling.  I can't imagine many better ways to start a day.

Rocky Mountain Elk -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

I've never seen elk in the Grand Teton park before.  This was my third visit, the other two trips were in July.  I suppose the elk were all up in Yellowstone in the summer.  They move down into the elk refuge near Jackson for the winter, I suppose these elk were making their way down.  They weren't visible during the day, but at dawn and dusk they were easily seen in the lowland areas of the park.

Rocky Mountain Elk -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Teton National Park, WY

After the photo session we went back to the campsite for breakfast.  On the way we saw a group of photographers so I pulled over to see what they were shooting.  There was a bull elk in the trees.  I took a few shots from the road but then noticed that some folks were moving in behind the elk.  He was basically being trapped by the trees and the photographers.  It was not a good scene so I left.

Rocky Mountain Elk -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

After breakfast, we went to Moose in search of a moose.  We actually saw one but only for a few seconds.  It was an even worse scene than what we'd encountered with the elk.  A few photographers were shooting a moose in the woods.  A couple of guys with iPhones decided they needed to get cloer so they went crashing into the woods for their selfies.  Of course, the moose didn't like that and quickly moved deeper into the woods.  I didn't get a chance at a photo.  That was a frustrating experience on a few levels.  I wouldn't mind seeing wildlife photography with cell phones being banned in our parks.

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Beaver Lodge -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Pongo and I took a couple of dirt road hikes in the afternoon.  They were basically uneventful although Pongo seemed to enjoy them.  We took a rest in the afternoon at the campground where we saw three mule deer and a marten.  We also saw three dusky grouse in our campsite in the morning.

Mule Deer -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Mule Deer -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

We had one last uncomfortable wildlife encounter late in the day.  A pronghorn was standing by the side of the road right next to some parked cars.  People were too close although the pronghorn didn't seem to mind.

Pronghorn -- Grand Teton National Park, WY

Soundtrack:

• Interpol -- Turn on the Bright Lights