Tetons and Glacier

I took trips recently to the Tetons and Glacier nation Park - here are some pictures (the captions are working right - they dont stay next to the correct picture, so you'll have to match the comment to the correct picture)

These flowers (sugar bowls and balsamroot) were right in the campground.

More of those flowers

Got a great shot of the tetons at sunset - the mosquitoes were bad laying in the dirt trying to get the flowers in the picture.

It was a cold and rainy weekend in Glacier (40 degrees on swiftcurrent pass at noon), but it did clear up enough to get this double rainbow.

The paintbrush were everywhere and very vibrant colors

More paintbrush

Red Rocks waterfall on Swiftcurrent trail

Saw this wheat field on the way home

Spring in glacier

Got up to glacier on a nice weekend in june - saw this black bear on north shore of lake mcdonald

saw this eagle on the shores of lake mcdonald

I got to ride the going to the sun road to the top about a week before it opened for traffic - so i was able to stop anywhere and take pictures

Going to the sun road

One of the bigger drifts on going to the sun road

Proof that I made it to the top with my bike! The snow is up to the roof of the visitor center.

Saw this on side of road - a spring that was growing very green algae (and a fly).

Death Valley - March 2010

I went to Death Valley this spring. My first sunrise wasnt so great from Dantes View, but the weather got better as the week went on. I missed the flowers by a couple of weeks, but still lots of pretty areas to explore.

first day I did a hike to some sand dunes - view from tallest dune

marble canyon

barrel cactus in Marble Canyon

the salt flats (282 feet below sea level)

this was really cool - this divot in the volcanic rock caused by teh waterfall (when the water is flowing)

Some great colors at Artists Palette

Sunset on the Mesquite Sand Dunes

The end of the hike up Falls Canyon

Sunrise at a place called Zabriske Point

A view of the lowest (-252 ft) and highest (11,000+) points in the park.

Sunrise (a better one than the first day) from Dantes View - about 5,000 feet above the salt flats

A few hikes had water in them - this water fall was in Willow Canyon

A view down valley in Willow Canyon

Didn't see many flowers, but there were a few!

Fall in Zions

On the spur of the moment me an Ma went to Zions park in October (the weekend forecast for Helena was for lows in the single digits and highs in the 20's, so we headed south to Zions where it was in the 70's!!). On our first little walk in the park, this tarantula was the first critter to greet us to the park (for some reason ma didnt want to camp out after seeing this guy). He also cost me dinner because I bet Ma that he wasnt a tarantula.

We saw this cute gecko on our short hike the first day.

Here is Ma on the way up to Observation Point. Its an eight mile 2,100 foot climb to a great view point of the canyon. A good portion of the hike was in the shade, but this was the hot part of the hike.

The view from observation point

Proof that we mad it to the top of observation point

a cool slot canyon on the way to Observation Point

The colors were just starting to change in the park. This was one of the best examples.

One evening we sat and watched sunset on the "Watchman" at the park entrance

We caught sunrise on the three patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Joseph) one morning.

We hiked up Angels landing - the last half mile is a real climbing adventure - ma didnt make it all the way (most people dont). Here she is on the famous Walts Wiggles - a set of 21 switchbacks to get you to Scout Landing where you can look straight down 1,000 feet to the canyon floor.

Casey Peak

In late summer me and Ma took a hike to Casey Peak near Helena. its an 8 to 9 mile round trip hike with an elevation gain of 3,400 feet - we made it !!!!. Fortunately we picked one of the coldest days of the summer (as you can see from this picture) otherwise we probably wouldnt have made it. Here we are at the old forest service lookout at the peak.

The clouds literally broke for us during our 15 minutes at the top!

Here is proof that Ma made it to the top!

Paddling Yellowstone Lake

I paddled the south arm of Yellowstone Lake for 4 days in August with friends from West Yellowstone (Connie, Brenda, Scott, Janice and Dave). We had great weather (almost no wind) and only saw three other people after the boat dropped us off at the Promontory. This is Janice, Scott, and Connie in front of Mt. Sheridan.

Fireweed on Peale Island

We saw some huge mushrooms - this one may have been the biggest

Brenda on Peale Island

Connie

Dave in front of Mt. Sheridan

Janice and Scott

Just an old axe head

This was our closest big-game sighting (other than lots of bear scat)...

A sega lilly near Chipmunk Creek

Brenda, Scott, Janice and Connie enjoying Happy Hour and Connies guitar.

Sunset from the east side of the South Arm.

"What mountain is that?"

Connie definately had the best looking boat on the trip (and the only one that isnt yellow)

Here is the group at the end of the trip. The boat captain gave us a bonus detour to Dot Island where we found lots of stinging nettle (hurt for 2 days after) and 8 foot high cow parsnip (but no abandoned cabin)