Waking up in Grand Teton National Park feels like an accomplishment. After desperately charging through Yellowstone so that we could get a campsite before they were all taken (there were only 6 out of 320 remaining) we were ready to take it easy. Friends would be joining us in the afternoon and, with limited cell service, we didn't want to get too wrapped up in the wild nooks and crannies of the park and miss a call. So we scoped out the park.
I photographed the Milky Way! For a slight pedantic digression: we are in the Milky Way. So, in a way, every photograph that we take that is not done by astronomers, is pretty much guaranteed to be of the Milky Way. All the same, this is a view of the rest of the Milky Way as captured within the constraints of a single camera on Earth. It does not compare to some of the amazing photographs I've seen online. The moon was still out and overwhelms the more distant stars. But it is amazing, and I can go to sleep, happy.
I feel like some Judie Bloom high schooler when I write that today was the best day ever. But it was really awesome. After a couple days of travel, we rolled through Yellowstone to our campsite in the Grand Tetons. In the course of the day, we saw a bald eagle, buffalo, elk, and moose. The only thing left on our Yellowstone bingo card is "bear." My preference would be a black bear, but I wouldn't want to be considered "picky." There certainly is an unhinged part of me that wants to see a grizzly bear in the wild.
Not more than a half hour drive from the muddy Mosses Trail brought us to Beach 4 and some of Olympic National Park's tide pools.
Olympic National Park is remarkable for its high longitude rainforests. What is possibly even more remarkable is how much you can see in less than a mile loop that is Mosses Trail.
We had heard tails of terror about visiting Obstruction Point. It was a perilous route, in story. In reality, this six mile road is the best groomed single lane dirt trail we have ever driven. Even small cars like a Honda Civic seems to travel the road with little issue. The perilous part is the immediate cliff that we travel along resulting in accelerated heartbreak and some of the best views in all of Olympic National Park.
St. Louis, MO celebrates its role as the launching point of the Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark expedition with the Gateway Arch. Oregon marks its position as the final destination of the Corps of Discovery with a recreation of Fort Clatsop: where Lewis & Clark wintered before returning to the East Coast and a place in the history books.
Deserts are often considered to be synonymous with desolation. They are seen as barren tracts of sand dunes to travers in flowing white robes astride a camel or stallion in Lawrence of Arabia style. Yet, deserts are incredibly diverse ecosystems and the Mojave spans a wide range of territory including parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona. Along with sand dunes and hot springs, the Mojave is home to a brilliant array of wildflowers.
I can tell you that we experienced 120°F, but I don't think a numeric measurement could convey what such heat does to a human body. Each step away from a cool air conditioned car winnows away energy, drive, optimism, and curiosity. The cool car becomes a recharging station, where one regains the will and ability to strive. The car is where a cool head can set priorities: how far I can safely travel and what pictures will I take. And when one comes to a point where cool air is no longer forthcoming, how willingly one will just give up.
Flanked by the Saratoga Hills, Paramount Ranch is part of an ongoing history of filmmaking. The ranch includes a full western set with the requisite general store, saloon, and sheriff's office. Yet, the location has been used in leu of San Francisco, Salem, the Pacific Islands, the Amazon, Kenya, Vietnam, Morocco, Israel, and more. Parts of The Cisco Kid, American Sniper, Planet of the Apes, and even The Flintstones were shot here.