Moody mountains

I couldn’t help but think of Ansel Adams when we were driving past such beautiful landscapes. Sometimes I’d change my camera setting to black and white, hoping I could do justice to the view.

What we need is more moose

One thing that slightly disappoints us (Zach and myself) about our upcoming trip to Yosemite is: no moose!

What’s really sad is going through the photos I took of stuff in the shops and wishing I’d bought it. The apartment would be covered in moose trinkets and knick knacks of all kinds!

Look at all of this! Who doesn’t need an oven mitt ESPECIALLY WITH A MOOSE ON IT. Those dishes need to be in my cupboard instead of the Ikea crap I’ve got now. I always want more mugs – more or less to annoy Zach with how many I have – and I would totally wear that shirt and be THAT person (freak!) for doing so. *sigh*

Back to the cabin

We have less than two months before our vacation to Yosemite! So, of course, I’m feeling nostalgic for our cabin we had from our Grand Teton/Yellowstone vacation.  I wish I’d taken a photo of the beds when they were made up properly. They had bolsters on them that said “Dream Destination” and fuzzy warm woolen blankets in dark colors with scenes of bears, moose, and trees on them.

Looking back through all the detail shots I took of the cabin make me smile. I loved everything about that tiny place and if someone had told me I’d have to drop everything and live there, I would’ve done it. I live in a very small apartment as is, but I’m surrounded by so much stuff (actually not even that much by some standards). When we were in the cabin, it was just what we needed. Shelter. Food. A place to sleep. Mediocre internet access. A wood fireplace. It was perfect. That sort of simplicity left me with such a feeling of calm it almost makes me cry to think I can’t have that back.

Zach teases me if I’d go back with the mouse too – a detail I left out about our stay when I originally wrote about it. We had a little visitor. I thought I saw something one night when leaving the bathroom of the cabin, but wasn’t entirely certain until I heard a little rustling coming from the trash can near the kitchenette later in the night. We had a mouse (or more, who knows). One morning I woke up and gasped. Zach lifted his head from his bed (we both slept in separate queen sized beds, which was rather nice) and we both stared at a little mouse milling about on the nightstand between us. It saw we were awake and immediately ran away. We told the management about the mouse and they apologized, but also looked very relaxed about it. The critters like to go where it’s warm and with so much snow surrounding us, it was only natural that after time they’d find their ways indoors. We were asked if we wanted another cabin, but we said no. Neither of us were really fussed over the issue, we just wanted to let them know. Someone came and put some traps down while we were out for the day and each night I put the trash on the dining table, but we never had any other issues. Whenever I tell Zach I want to go back to the cabin he asks if I’d take the mouse back too and I say yes. I’d name it.

Grand Teton (again)

Wow, it’s rather amusing how time will change perspective (and endearments). Most of these photos are from the day we spent hiking in Grand Teton (the day we came across the moose in the woods) with a couple from  Yellowstone thrown in from the first day.

After hiking up the side of a hill to get a photo of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone we found a crow begging for food from a car next to ours. The valley view was from the top of Signal Mountain in Grand Teton.

Zach, studying again…

Memories to look forward

The other night I thought about the vacation we took to Yellowstone/Grand Teton national parks. I went through my photos again and realized there were more I wanted to share. I remember not quite being able to place them in the posts I’d made for the vacation, but they are still nice and some are very dear to me. So I may be posting some here and there for the next few days.

What got me thinking about them was the fact that our next vacation is in less than four months! I don’t know if I mentioned this, but we booked another week long vacation this year for Yosemite National park in California. We also plan to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks for a day or two and maybe even visit the strange Lake Mono as well. We’ll be going at the end of May and have a wonderful little cottage in a former gold rush town reserved. Instead of trying to track down all the animals we want to see (not that we won’t try), our cameras will focus more on the picturesque and grandiose, taking in tons of waterfalls in the Yosemite valley and incredibly ginormous trees. I hope we get to do more hiking this time around. We’re starting to do our homework now in searching out forums/websites/twitter for the best hikes with the best views and sites of most interest for circling on our maps and generally schedule the days.

In the meantime, here are some photos from our last trip of the Old Faithful Inn and others that made me smile.

Each morning and night in our little cabin outside of Grand Teton Zach would study the maps and look on forums to note places where moose/bears were seen so we might go wandering about to see something.

This was at about 6:45am the second morning we were there.

Morning light on our already messy dresser in our room.

Water is water, right? WRONG! So incredibly wrong! If you drank water taken from the tap in my kitchen and then put through a filter you’d still not come close to the incredibly refreshing taste that came directly from this tap outside the gift shop near Jenny Lake in Grand Teton. It’s glacial water that’s melted and seeped into the ground over thousands of years filling the underground aquifer. For months after we got back from our trip we lamented not being able to bottle and take home a semi truck’s worth of this water – it was THAT good.

Wishing for cooler days

We’re in the middle of a horrible heat wave right now. It was 90F by 9 am this morning. It’s 99F with a heat index of 114F right now. Instead of pouting about all the hot weather I’m looking through our vacation photos and they make smile to think of how wonderful the weather was there. So here are some images of things that remind me of happy, cooler days: snow covered mountains, waterfalls and streams, and conifer trees dripping with rain. If you’re in this awful heat as well I hope you stay hydrated and out of the sun as much as possible. Take care and stay safe in this monstrous weather.

Last Day

We woke up early on our last morning in our little cabin. I made us breakfast and then we started cleaning up the place, loading the car, and making our last checks to see if we’d forgotten anything. It was terribly sad to leave such a beautiful place and as we drove down the highway next to Grand Teton I couldn’t help but take tons of photos. I had both Zach’s camera with his telephoto and mine with my 50mm sitting in my lap, alternating using both to get last minute shots of the mountains. I must’ve taken around 125 photos of mountains alone. I could easily fill an entire post of nothing but mountain shots, but I’ve pared them down a bit to the ones I liked best.

We did briefly stop in Grand Teton to take a last look at some places and then back to the visitor center and a shopping area near by to get last minute souvenirs.

I was seriously in mug heaven while on this trip. I was amazed at all the different mug shapes and colors and I wanted all of them.

After getting our souvenirs I noticed there was a small trail to the Murie center, a conservation meeting place, half mile from the visitor center.  The Muries lived in the cabins and there had meetings about the value of wildlife and nature. They sold their land to Grand Teton National Park and the center still survives for conservation meetings and awareness. I was intrigued by the cabins so we took the short hike to the center.

Unfortunately the center was closed, but a peek in the windows gave us an idea of what the place was like. Still very rustic and barely changed from the time the Muries lived.

That is the last of our trip! We walked back to the visitor center parking lot and then headed straight to the tiny airport in Jackson Hole to go home. I’ve so many photos that I didn’t post, but maybe will add some in the future.