Wyoming Sept 2006
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I took this trip with my family in the fall after Shelley passed away. We went to have a family vacation which happened to fall on my birthday, Dan and Jill's Anniversary, and just before Alexa's birthday.
Jackson WY Area
I arrived on Thursday evening at Jackson airport, and drove down to Alpine to stay with Rae Lynn and her family. On Friday morning, I got up before dawn and drove back up the Snake River valley back to Jackson, stopping frequently for pictures along the way. In Jackson, I met up with my family and we did a little light shopping and a visit to the Wildlife Art Museum before heading up to the parks.
Grand Teton National Park
We drove up through the Grand Teton National Park on the way to Yellowstone. Dan led for a while, then let me take over leading so we could stop for pictures in a few places
Old Faithful Inn
We stayed 3 nights in the old section of the Old Faithful Inn. These are rustic rooms with a bed, a sink, and some dressing space, but no bathroom, TV or phone. The bathrooms were shared and available down the hall.
Old Faithful Geyser
The geyser was right outside the front door of the Inn. I had a lot of opportunities to take photos at various times of the morning and evening. On Sunday, the geyser errupted within 5 minutes after the sun came over the mountain, and I was out there waiting for it!
Mammoth Hot Springs Area
On Saturday we all piled into the van and took a day-long ride along the north loop through the park. We skipped past the geyser basins and sights on our way up to Norris, and then headed up to Mammoth Springs, across to Roosevelt/Tower, then down to the Canyon area before trekking back to the Inn.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Just a few pictures from the Canyon. We were getting tired by this point in the day. I caught a couple of the strangely uprooted trees on the edge of the cliff here.
Upper Geyser Basin
Saturday evening I walked around part of this basin on my own to catch sunset pictures. Then we all got up together on Sunday morning and hiked out to the Morning Glory pool and walked our way back towards the Inn from there.
Midway and Lower Geyser Areas
On Sunday afternoon, Dan and Jill decided to relax with Alexa near the Inn. Mom and Dad and I went back up towards Norris to catch some of the other geyser basins that we had passed the day before.
West Thumb Geyser Area
Monday morning we checked out of the Inn and the rest of the family started their long drive back to Steamboat Springs, CO. I took some extra time to visit a few more geyser basins on the way out, including the West Thumb Basin. I was glad I did, there were some very pretty pools there. Unfortunately the clouds moved in Monday so everything was overcast.
Rivers and Waterfalls
We stopped at many different rivers and waterfalls during our weekend. I put all these pictures together from the various places.
Animals
All the assorted critters we found along the way. Most notable were the Big-Horn Sheep grazing near the Tower area, and the Coyote that crossed in front of the Inn while I was waiting for sunrise on Sunday morning.
Panoramas
I used my camera's panorama helper to take a few multi-shot pictures in various places. At home I used a great program called PT-GUI to do all the lens corrections and stitching for me. All of the pictures turned out fantastic, especially after a few color touch-ups with Photoshop.