Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California

Afton, Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park

Continued on to Yellowstone after Grand Teton.  Given the park is over 3,000 sq. miles and extends into three states, I only traveled through a small portion of it.  While I was surprised to find much of the park a little underwhelming (beautiful, untouched land sure, but nothing overly unique from what I saw back home), it was hard not to be impressed when I finally reached the Geyser Basin.

Snake River winding down towards Grand Teton in the distance

Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, and sits on the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super-volcano in North America.  It is considered active and, based on previous cases, is actually past-due to erupt again.

Firehole Lake Drive

To give a sense of scale, Mount St. Helens left a crater of approximately 2 square miles when it last erupted.  Yellowstone Caldera is 1500 square miles.  When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, its ash was detectable over 20,000 square miles away.  The last eruption of Yellowstone (considered a smaller eruption), ejected 8,000 times the ash and lava of St. Helens.

Old Faithful Geyser erupting

Great Fountain Geyser

Firehole Lake Drive

Day VII: Moab

Day VI: Glen Canyon

Drove through parts of Arizona and Utah today, pushing my fear of heights to the limit by laying on a rock slab sticking-out over from the top of Horseshoe Bend to get a shot straight down 1,000 feet.  Check back later for more shots from today (assuming I am not sleeping in my car somewhere tonight or can't get on the internet).

Day II: Hiking

Freel Peak (10,881'), Job's Sister (10,823'), and Jobs Peak (10,633').

Day I: Yosemite

Tripyramids

Definitely a hike that gives me a new appreciation for the term 'slide' when describing a trail.  I'll try to break free of all my black & white shots of late, but for the time being, here's some more...

South Slide

A hiker who would soon be disappointed when he realized he was not near the summit 

North Slide trail

Presidential Range Hike (cont.)

So like any idiot, I decided the best thing to do while recovering from illness was to do an 11-hour hike across the Presidential Range, tagging Mt. Monroe, Mt. Washington, Mt. Clay, and Mt. Jefferson before turning back.  In addition to the shot posted yesterday, some pictures from the trek are below:

The famous cog-railway up to the summit

At one point, hikers were taking pictures of the cog boxcar while passengers on-board were taking pictures of us hikers

The trails were well-kept

Looking up to the summit of Mt. Washington from the route up Clay

Sunflower Field

This makes for a very long 24 hours, especially after I made it to this field only to find all the sunflowers dying.

The Wildcats in B&W (mostly)

Didn't really see anybody out until late in the afternoon.

Well, that's not entirely true...  

I was about four hours into the day, peacefully reading on a ledge.  Birds and butterflies were flying about me, the sun was beaming down, warming my tired spirit, and there wasn't a single sound disturbing the peace in the air. 

Suddenly, I heard a small rustle behind me.  

Then some twigs cracked.  Alarmed, the birds had grown silent and flown to higher ground.  

Then I heard what could only be described as an explosion of incoherent grumbling as the forest behind me was being completely annihilated.  I stumbled (cutting my leg) before jumping up--positive I was about to be rudely introduced to my first bear--only to find an utterly defeated (semi) thru-hiker who had emerged out of nowhere. 

His rugged appearance and inability to maintain contact with a clearly marked trail practically demanded his first line to be an exhausted, "what year is it?!"  Instead, eyes glazed and speaking only in a cracked whisper, he recited the phrase, "what were we thinking" about ten times, cushioning each recital with as much profanity as his drained lungs could pour out.  I'll add that he was alone and I never ran into anyone the rest of the day that would prove the use of 'we' to be correct.  That said, his pack was really nice, and considering mine broke and I had used rope and tape to tie it onto my back, I was quite jealous.

By the time I backtracked to the 4th and 5th peaks of the Wildcats, I ran into the tourist trap one would expect on a mountain aided by the convenience of a Gondola - people shuffled out of the vessel, rushed a picture of themselves to mark their achievement, and then jumped back on to ride down the mountain with such pleasantries as air conditioning and tinted windows.  

When I emerged from the woods--walking directly through the crowd, covered in mud, blood, and with a backpack taped and tied to my body--I could feel all their eyes turn towards me as a stillness suddenly flooded the air.  I imagined them whispering to each other, "You mean, he actually walked up here?  But...but...how?  And why!?!? I can't even send a text message - there's no signal!"  

I wonder what hiking will be like in 50 years...

I almost stepped on a squirrel.  Woulda been a first for me.

Relaxed and read on cliff-face looking over to Carter

Eventually found my way out of the woods for a clear view of Mt. Washington