A few months back Karen and I took a trip to Jackson Wyoming where we got to visit the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. A little time has passed and I’ve had time to go through the holidays and also the pictures and put together a little video. Hope you enjoy a virtual trip to Wyoming…
Tag: Chapel of the Transfiguration
The Wyoming Adventure Day 6
Day 6 started out with a sunrise shot at Schwabachers Landing. This is another one of those spots where every photographer who visits the Tetons must go to get the “classic” sunrise shot. Since I hope to be a real photographer someday when I grow up, we woke up early and headed out. We were not disappointed. This morning it was me and Karen along with about 15 Asian tourists in a bus. They were very polite and no one was jumping in front of anyone else’s shot. It was a very pleasant experience.
Once we were done with sunrise, we had some time to kill. We wanted to take the boat across Jenny Lake but it didn’t start running until 10am. So, since I was in the area and it was such a clear day, we headed back to the Chapel of the Transfiguration to try the window shot once more. At least this time you can see the mountains behind the altar.
Once outside, I realized I had yet to take a good outside shot of the chapel showing the surroundings.
We drove around a little while longer just looking to see what we could see and then headed over to Jenny Lake. On the other side of the lake is a trail that leads up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. As you can tell from the name, it’s going to be another climb. A little less than half way we came to Hidden Falls. No where near as spectacular as the Lower Falls in Yellowstone, but very pretty coming down from the mountain.
Somewhere around the middle of the hike up to 7200 feet I began having what I thought were flashbacks to Basic Training, but then I remembered that I was in the Air Force and we didn’t do forced marches. No, this was harder. 🙂 But we took our time and took pictures along the way. Here is Karen standing close to the edge to get a shot of the peaks behind us.
And here is what the peaks looked like behind us. The higher we got the more the peaks really stood out from everything else. These really are magnificent mountains.
Once we made it to Inspiration Point the view was just gorgeous. Suffice it to say that this picture doe not do it justice.
With our two main objectives of the day behind us we were left to wonder around. After seeing some other pictures of the famous “barn” I came to realize that there was actually more than one of them, so we set out to find the other one. Having found it I was a little disappointed because the pictures I had seen showed the barn with an intact fence around it and it looked very nice. After talking to another photographer on the scene I learned that those pictures were taken many years ago. Here is what it looks like today. It is still very photogenic in its own right, even with the broken down fence.
We then decided to try and find some wildlife since evening was fast approaching. We headed back to Ox Box Bend because that is supposed to be “the place” for wildlife in the evening. Well apparently someone gave the wildlife the night off because all we really saw was this beaver. There was a moose, but it was way off in the distance and not really visible. I think I need that 1200mm lens that Canon only made 6 of. Of course, then we couldn’t afford this trip, or our house, or cars, or…
And finally, with night having fallen, I noticed that the silhouette of the mountains were very majestic, so I stopped off at the Snake River Overlook for one last shot.
From there, it was dinner and bed. Didn’t even have time to look at the pictures of the day we were so tired. Tomorrow, we’re just hanging around Jackson and taking some local pictures of the town.
Until then…
The Wyoming Adventure Day 4
Welcome to day 4! This morning we slept in a little to recover from the death climb from the (near) bottom of the Grand Caynon of Yellowstone and as we looked outside, we really didn’t miss much. Still raining, but it looked to be letting up, so we got up and decided to go for breakfast. After filling our bellies we decided that cloudy pictures are better than no pictures so off we headed, this time back to the Teton National Park. First stop, back to the Chapel of the Transfiguration. Even with the clouds covering the mountains, you can get an idea of what it must be like to worship in this place. Who needs a stained glass window when you have God’s handiwork right outside!
Next we took a drive along the coast of Jenny Lake. They have spectacular views of the mountains there, at least when they aren’t covered in clouds. On still days you can get perfect reflections in the lake. Unfortunately, we had neither a clear sky nor still water, but I think the cloud covered peaks are starting to grow on me. There’s just something about them…
Shortly after leaving Jenny Lake, we came upon a spot on the road when about 20 cars pulled over, and as we have already learned that only means one thing around here… WILDLIFE! So we pull over, jump out with cameras in hand and make a very short climb to see what everyone is looking at. There we see a mamma moose and her calf grazing in the grass. We noticed that the mamma was limping and the ranger there said that they had spotted her yesterday in the area and don’t know what had happened to her. This close to winter there is some doubt that she will make it through to spring, but there is always hope.
Next stop was Cunningham’s Cabin. This is supposed to be the first settlement in the area, or at least the first non-native settlement. 🙂 It looks like Mr Cunningham picked a very nice spot for his cabin.
Can you imagine waking up every morning to this out your bedroom window? This would definitely work from home country!
As the day was coming to a close, we stopped by Snake River Overlook for some sunset shots. The first thing we noticed when walking through the parking lot was a rustling in the weeks. My first thought was a dangerous rabbit with huge sharp pointy teeth, but it turned out to be a simple chipmunk. I wasn’t sure about the pointy teeth though so I kept my distance.
After shooting the little chipmunk, I set up my tripod and before long there was about 20 other photographers all standing around waiting on the sun. By this time most of the clouds had cleared away and it was obvious to everyone that the sunset was going to be one to see. Here are a couple of shots as the sun progressed behind the mountains.
There was one last thing that was catching my attention. The peak of Grand Teton never really let go of it’s little cloud even after all the other peaks were cleared and then it hit me. Actually I overheard someone else mention this and then I knew what it was. They said, “Hey, that looks like a painting I saw once of the Mountain of God.” Of course. In the book of Exodus when God descended to Mount Sinai to speak to the Children of Israel. Here is the description: Exo 19:18 “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently…” I know it is only a cloud, but it’s a pretty dramatic cloud! 🙂
Until day 5…