After watching the weather forcast for the coming week, we decided that today would be the best day to try and get the sunrise shots of the Tetons because the rain wasn’t supposed to move in until after noon.  Someone forgot to brief the rain because when we stepped out of the motel at 6:30 it was already raining.  Well, we are several miles south of the actual Tetons here in Jackson, so maybe it’s not raining there.  As we left and started driving toward the Snake River Overlook, we actually drove out of the rain.  But it quickly caught back up with us.  Not only that, the mountains were pretty much completely covered.

I took a couple of shots and we moved on.  Maybe we would have better luck at Ox Bow Bend.  We were there at sunset the last night and if nothing else maybe we would get some early morning wildlife shots.  We got there and by the time I got unloaded, the rain began to spit at me.  It was still before sunrise so it was still pretty dark, however when I looked up, there was a bird flying overhead that had a very distinctive white head!  A Bald Headed Eagle!  I had been hoping that I would get to see one.  I cranked up the ISO to 1600 and fired away.  They may be grainy shots, but I wasn’t going to let this one get away.

So, Jackson and the Tetons are rained out for the day.  Plan B.  Let’s just drive up to Yellowstone and see what the weather is like there.  We had origionally planned on spending two days up there, but there was really only two things that I really wanted to see; Old Faithful and the falls in the Grand Caynon of Yellowstone, so why not.

We headed farther north to Yellowstone and it seemed that maybe this was a good idea.  We started to see sunshine peaking through the clouds here and there, and while we were still getting spit on occasionally, the sky looked nothing like it did back in the Jackson area.

We finally make it to Old Faithful and it seems that our timing was pretty close to perfect.  People were starting to make their way out to the viewing area.  I found a spot, threw on a gradient neutral density filter set up the tripod and waited.  After what seemed like a few false starts, away she blew.  It was a pretty cool sight.  Like most people, I have heard about Yellowstone and Old Faithful since I was a kid in grade school, but I’ve never been here to see it before.  This is an amazing place for sure.

Once Old Faithful was finished, we packed up and headed even deeper into Yellowstone to the Grand Caynon.  I really wanted to see the waterfalls there.  There were a couple of smaller (much I would later see) fall on the way there that we stopped at, but this was what I wanted to see.  Our first stop was at Artist Point.  I knew that if nothing else I had to take the “postcard shot”, you know, the shot that you see everywhere you look.  So, I took that and got it out of the way.  This place is really impressive!

From there, we moved to Uncle Toms path which leads about 3/4 of the way down to the floor of the caynon for a more closeup and personal shot of the falls.  By the time we got there and walked down (over 300 stairs and about a half mile of slope) there it was.  And again, our timing couldn’t have been better.  The sun was just starting to hit the spray causing the rainbow to appear!  Wow!  This was breathtaking.

Speaking of breathtaking, now we had to go back UP all those stairs!  Needless to say, it took much longer to go UP than it did to come down!  Both Karen and I were ready to sit for a while after that “little” hike!

No trip to Yellowstone would be complete without at least one view of a pool of boiling mud!  This place has so many geothermal features it is just mind blowing.  With my main objective of the falls behind me, we took time to stop at a few of them on the way back to Jackson.  I’ve got to say that the smell of sulpher is very strong around some of these so be prepared.  I recommend your own oxygen if you can.  🙂

And as we made our way back to Jackson, we see that the weather just hasn’t changed much from this morning.  No problem.  After all the climbing we did, we are both ready to get something to eat and just relax for the next two days.  Looks like we’ll be sleeping in tomorrow because the forecast calls for yet even more rain.  Maybe I’ll take pictures of the hotel room.  🙂