quest for the west, adventures by disney, 8/25/09 - 8/31/09

back into jackson, return the rental, back to the wort hotel, out the back and across the street to the jackson playhouse, where i apparently had a memory lapse, i forgot to take any photo of the outside, inside for the lunch, ordered the prior evening so as to be ready when we got there, there are timetables and deadlines on a disney adventure, but we never felt really rushed or in a hurry on anything

125. inside the jackson playhouse, it was really unique, but it was so dark it was hard to get balanced shots for awhile
animal heads everywhere, this is a very old jackson institution, and this is much the original decor, opened by a daughter of the eastern family that started and ran playbill, the ny theater handout magazine


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Re: quest for the west, adventures by disney, 8/25

great shots gary....looks like the saloon had at least 99 bottles of beer on the wall as well!

 

so it's mid afternoon, we load up on the raft company bus, not too many get the joke when i reveal how it's the first time i've ever ridden a converted bluebird schoolbus without bars on the windows

125 & 130, a view from the seat on the journey, we stopped at the rafting office to pick up another party, we had our own dedicated rafts and river guides

131. not our raft, but very similar, karen and i have white water experience, so we ended up as karen right lead oar, me on left side lead

136. looking up the river from the large boat ramp style put in, also used by guided float trips in mackenzie style drift boats fly fishing for snake river cutthroats and browns
unfortunately since i don't have a housing or a waterproof camera, i don't have any from the actual river time, but in front seat, you don't have a lot of downtime for photo work anyway


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so the ride is over, these next are from the climb out of the take out up to the area for the bus pickup, they had restrooms and a changing pavilion. that water was cold, about 55 degrees at best, and i chose not to partake of a swim, esp after watching the first 2 into the water doing the flintstone footwork trying to run on water when their ankles hit that water and the brain got the message it was cold water

137. looking down at the river, those rafts have to make a hard right across the current to get into the shallows of the take out

138. longer view upriver

139. back on the bus, wider valley area with river

141. bridge carrying the side road over the river to......

142. someone's version of paradise, i'd be out there everyday with a flyrod in hand, but i need lotto to make this happen, these are not workingman's riverside cabins, although per our river guide, harrison ford is actually a full time resident of the area, and even volunteers his helicopter and himself as backup pilot for teton county search and rescue. sorry about the power lines, but i have too many to process to bother cloning them out

i'd like to take a moment to comment here that all the vendors disney uses were first rate, both accomodations, food and recreation, we are now converts, we plan on another disney adventure next year, don't know which yet, but it'll happen



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so last post for tonight, it's late and i lost an hour processing, we got toned out for an ems call, female psychiatric emergency, i got to the fire house first, mmmm.... tough choice, grab the first responder truck and join the chase of the naked crazy lady down the road, or man the base radio, i'll take the radio for 100 alex

142 & 143, a pair of righteous rods on broadway in jackson, right across from the wort

144. snow king, the local ski hill, taken after dinner at bubba's barbecue, great smoked elk, while walking over to the teton fairgrounds for the wednesday night local rodeo, pics to follow

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dinner tonight was on our own, there are a couple of meals not included in the adventure, tonight's supper was one of them, so we dined at bubba's barbeque, just a about a 3 block walk from the wort, great ribs, many of the group ate there, after going to the shootout reenactment held at 6pm on town square, we opted instead for dinner and an evening at the fairgrounds for the wed night local rodeo

149. getting ready to ride in the show

152. these kids were the cutest, they competed in barrel racing, here they are in the arena warmup rides, excersizing their mounts

155. parading the flags before the start

156. bucking bronco, most classes had only a handful of entrants, this is real local hobby rodeo

160. best i could do for team roping, the judges and wranglers kept getting in the way

169.a barrel racer

we stayed for an hour or so and then the river took it's toll, we walked back to the wort and collapsed into bed for a well deserved night's sleep, tommorrow starts the trip north to yellowstone via motor coach, with a stop in grand teton park for a hike at jenny lake

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Beautiful pics!

 

quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

well since yesterday's day 3 page has gone away, into internet no man's land, i'll repost day 3, i was actually thinking of breaking this into separate threads for each day anyway, unlike the single day panama transit, this is a week long tale involving quite a few locations and different geographical and geological theming.
now if i can only remember last night's witty repartee, and unlike the other night, no crazy naked ladies needing rounding up and roping appear to be on the horizon
so here goes, this day was a ride into teton national park, a ferry ride across jenny lake with a hike up to hidden falls and inspiration lookout, a picnic lunch at string lake, followed by a coach ride into yellowstone, and a walk around west thumb geyser basin boardwalk, with the first of 2 nights at the old faithful snow lodge, the newer of the 2 lodging facilities at old faithful area

173. last ones of jackson, i promise, but since i was up early, i'm not wasting the light, cowboy statue in the town square

174. antler arch at the town square, there are 4 of them for the scouts to maintain, and a big old sign at each one warning of the $500 fine for removing any piece, and it does NOT say up to, so i'm sure the local magistrate levies all of that $500 upon the guilty parties

175. art gallery in the morning light, the town is just full of western art galleries, and it's touristy through and through, but goes a lot easier on the eyes and soul than the hampton's, just my .02 worth

176. the famous cowboy bar, and yes the stools are really western saddles, but it wasn't open this early, and i was too tired to make use of the time a $3.00 cover charge would have purchased me last night, there's hundred's to view, literally, over on flicker

178. another piece of cowboy themed public art, it's everywhere in this town, this just happens to be a life sized piece

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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

well they are on the way back, via a new thread

 

Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

so we're in the motor coach and on our way to the jenny lake ferry, we will cross the lake and hike on the other side

181. crossing the gros ventre river, sometimes it's ok on a motor coach, the slower speeds make the occasional out the window shot possible

182. elk, it's all i've got of a herd, later we'll see a solitary cow, but i was fortunate to have the 70-300 on the camera when these were spotted, they were moving away from us at a sharp angle, at a good speed

184. russian thistle bush, when dead it's celebrated in song, aka tumbling tumbleweeds




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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

at jenny lake, short restroom break while the guides check in with the ferry company, everybody grabs some bottled water, have i mentioned you constantly need to hydrate in the dry thin air at these altitudes?

188. the ferry to get to the trailhead, to hike to hidden falls and inspiration lookout

194. the other side of the ferry cove

190. dock sign at the ferry

191, no way was i going to pass up this photo opp, and this has almost no post, it really did look that way as i remember it

191. out onto the lake, no wind, just a beautiful boat ride




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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

getting to the other side, you can walk around to this trailhead, but it's a pretty good distance, 6 miles is what i remember as posted

195 that's right, it's up there we are going

197 a stream we cross a few times on the trail

199 some wildflowers, i was really surprised at how much was in bloom, lupine, indian paintbrush in 2 varieties, mountain bluebells, and many daisy looking blooms

200 hidden falls, not visible from the trail at all until you are right on top of it




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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

202 looking downstream from the base of the falls area

203 jenny lake from above

205 the trail coming to this overlook




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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

208. 14mm goodness, yes i wore the back pack, with the tripod, cable release, bubble level and 14mm up that trail and down and mostly all day

213 a last look up those teton's as we'll be moving on to other awesome geological sights

212 last look at the jenny lake shoreline, ok it's a dead tree and i went a little artsy, it's not the first time, and i'm not alone in this

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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

214 we ride back across the lake on the ferry, the bus about 20 minutes to string lake and the adjoining picnic area, where we have a catered lunch, ordered the night before, on tables about 75 feet from this stunning alpine lake

215, 216, 217, who speaks for the lake? i say it speaks for itself


219 across the lake

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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

so after recreating the thread, we pick up where we left off, with a short stop at west thumb geyser basin, a inner/outer loop boardwalk around some geothermal features as they are called

403 the approach boardwalk

404, 405 the boardwalks from across the way

408 our first mudpot

412 a hot spring, and just to make it clear, this is not your daddy's hot tub, people die by stupidly/drunkenly jumping in/falling in, hot tubs are 104 degrees, the guides had an infrared gun, the coolest temp we measured was 144, and that was from 20 feet away, so it was probably well over 150, when they hit 212, they become geysers from boiling over




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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

413 so a little more boardwalk, we'll be on those a lot the next 24 hrs

414 i think i fell in love with shooting hot springs as much as the barn thing, those color rings are caused by thermophyllic bacteria

416 and here she is, our lone cow moose, and yes animals do sometimes break through the thin crust and fall in, those they leave, humans they retrieve, a baby bison fell in a couple of years ago and many of the public were upset at the cooked remains in the hot spring that season

419 a little closer of our gal

420 down to the shoreline







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Re: quest for the west, 8/27/09, day 3, jenny lake to yellowstone

down to the shoreline for a series of mudpots and dead geysers

423, 424 mudpots along the shore

425, 426 dead geysers just offshore, love those mineral deposit cones

433 the warning signs, not everybody reads and obeys




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