I’ve made snide comments on at least a couple of previous occasions about iconic locations where photographers will line up all in a row, seemingly about to take the same photograph.  For us, it was like that when we were at Oxbow Bend at Grand Tetons National Park, and was the reason we bypassed the packed parking lot at Zabreski Point in Death Valley to opt for photographing at 20 Mule Team Road, all by ourselves, earlier this year.  That said, I’m honest enough to admit the hypocrisy of this post and its main point.  Still, while each photographer in that row of photographers may be making their own image, it’s a lot better to be photographing all on our own.  Even then, we sometimes wind up photographing from five feet apart. 

“What?” you’re probably asking yourself.  “The next morning?  Doesn’t Ann ever take her own photographs?”  Yes she does, but for some odd reason she occasionally likes to point her lens in my direction (I know better than to do that in her direction too often), so we have another shooting the shooter.  From the next morning.  From pretty much the exact same location (we know this because we camped about a mile away, Beast has GPS and there was the same identifiable rock on the side of the road).  So what was it like the next morning?

You’re probably saying to yourself, “Hey, it’s not October 4th, that was almost a month ago!”  You’re right, but that was the day our shooting the shooter images for today come from.  It was a rather incredible day, beginning and ending with photography, and with a whole lot of overland driving in-between.  One of our images comes from pre-dawn and the other from after sunset.  So let’s see what kind of day it was!

Well, we’re back home again.  I’ve got a month’s growth of beard and Ann isn’t looking forward to her last 2-1/2 months of work.  But we’re back and it’s time to get back to our regular lives, even though that means preparing for even bigger changes.  Before we get to that, we should probably finish out with snippets from the tail end of our trip!

Well, the trip continues as do the adventures.  We’ve been doing a lot of off-road driving, much of it very fun, parts of it technically challenging and other parts . . . well, testing of our skills, patience and muscles.  The testing part was due, to put it in a word - Sand.   Read on for the adventure!

Well, we missed the Yellowstone snow storm by a week, though that was probably good for us.  Several feet of snow would definitely have put a dent in our trip plans.  Though we didn’t get the snow we were hoping for at Yellowstone, the adventure has continued.  And since it is laundry day, we figured we’d play catch-up to let you know where we’ve been.

The morning Ann and I heard the elk bugling was a surprisingly productive morning of photography.  What had started out as a scouting trip had us stopping a couple of times for some very lovely images.  At one point we spent quite a bit of time in the very freezing cold photographing in a rock outcropping.  At one point, Ann said, “That looks like your kind of branch … but how could you ever photograph it?”  Looking over to where she was pointing I agreed with her - on both points.  But after I was done photographing, and Ann still had more she wanted to do, I started looking at the tree and its location and became a man on a mission.

I don’t know what it is about our visit to Yellowstone NP this year, it must be the ripe smell we’ve left from too few showers.  But much like the wolves, last Monday a herd of bison decided to pay our early morning photo spot (along the road where the closest parking area is a quarter mile away) a visit just after we’d left it.  I guess once was not enough.

Ann and I decided to jump camp to West Yellowstone a couple of days early due to an incoming rain storm (we were hoping to move to higher elevations and perhaps get snow - which we did, somewhat).  We jumped on Friday - driving through pounding rain on a route we hadn’t planned on taking, but had heard was beautiful (it was) and got ready for the next day.  Saturday morning, we were expecting more of the same weather (which we got somewhat), and planned on a day of scouting.  Well, we got more than we’d planned.

Ann and I like to joke about the “Wolfies” here at Yellowstone, folks who line up along side the road with their spotting scopes all day looking for, and occasionally seeing wolves.  You can tell the hard-core folks by the whip antennas on their car - once someone finds a pack, they call in and everyone congregates in hopes of getting a glimpse.  In reality, I don’t begrudge them their pleasures, I’m sure plenty is said about photographers - especially those (and we’ve been among them) that do the same thing at a particularly photogenic points at sunrise or sunset.  We generally avoid such crowds, but sometimes you have to do it because you want to do it, despite everyone else.  Most of the time we just go our way to find more secluded locations. And we continue to learn that when we do, the nature tends to come to us.  This time, it was wolves and although we had just gotten done with our photography and were, in fact, in our vehicle, there were wolves that led us to stop.  Admittedly, it is thrilling to see them, particularly how we did . . . but I doubt we’ll be joining the wolfie pack any time soon. 

Our fall adventure started out well - the Painted Hills were a great start, we nailed our campsites in Idaho and in the Gallatin National Forest, and our call to start immediately in Yellowstone National Park instead of trying to camp off the Beartooth Highway was a good one (although we did visit the area yesterday and it would have been fine).  The worst that could be said of the trip so far was that, until today we had the photographer’s nightmare - sunny with blue skies.  And today, well the weather came and . . . I was rudely interrupted during our early morning photo shoot. 

Sometimes I feel like my posts don’t quite convey the excitement I feel about something, or more precisely, why I feel that way.  During final preparations for our trip this weekend, Ann was taking care of one of her main trip-planning responsibilities - getting all of our electronic maps in order.  Well, as I walked past her office I glanced over and stopped in my tracks (yes, I know, it happens to me all the time).  I decided I needed to share what she was working on just to show you why I’m so excited about one leg of the trip.

It’s been a long time coming, and it’s going to be a bitter sweet trip, but our 2019 Grand Fall Adventure starts in a few days and it’s about time we share where we’re going.  It’s a mix of the old favorites and the new; some make-up from missed opportunities and we’re sure some surprises along the way.  Faced with one final big trip before our focus turns entirely to next-year’s big move, Ann and I had choices to make.  So join us on a run-through on what we’re hoping will be a glorious one-month adventure!