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Day 20/21: Road Trip in the Time of Covid

Updated: Jul 5, 2020

Grand Teton National Park


The morning dawned with a beautiful sunrise shining directly on the Teton mountains. The first thing I did was head out to the old wooden barn on Mormon Row. (That’s an area where Mormon pioneers first settled in the valley.) It’s an iconic photo and I wanted to catch it during morning light. I had taken one the day before, but it just didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. Just goes to show lighting is everything.




I also drove over to a quaint little cowboy chapel in the park to snap its photo. Unfortunately, the interior was closed due to covid, but I was still happy to get an exterior shot.



Before I left the park, I stopped and purchased some bear spray. #lessonlearned



I had three conference calls with my office scheduled from 11 AM - 4:00 PM, so I decided to stick around Jackson for the day to take advantage of the good cell phone reception. (The calls were with the product team to discuss the 2021/22 brochures. This is something we would have done in person if we had been able to meet at our annual conference in April.)


I then made myself at home in Jackson Square. Due to Covid, the city had created outdoor seating areas to encourage people to eat take-out food instead of eating indoors. It was perfect for me. I had a view of one of the town’s iconic antler arches and a stagecoach would periodically roll on past me.




After the calls, I went back into Grand Teton National Park and snapped a picture of a bridge I hadn’t taken a photo of the day before at Jenny Lake.



The no no-camping sign pull out worked so well as an overnight spot the night before, I decided to try my luck, again. The sunset was another stunner. A bit of rain tried to creep in, but the clouds were moving so fast, it cleared up quickly.






Day 21: Grand Teton National Park > Yellowstone National Park


My world’s greatest stealth car camping site worked out well for me, once again. As I was about to pull away, I dutifully checked my mirrors and this is the view I saw - so of course I had to take an artistic picture.



On my way out of the Tetons, I stopped at Coulter’s Bay campsite for a shower and found a cute little picnic area overlooking Lake Jackson for breakfast.



Yellowstone National Park is conveniently just a few miles north of Grand Teton National Park. Yellowstone is massive, so I decided to ease my way into the experience. I have at least a week to explore, but my time in the park starts on Friday of 4th of July weekend so I know the main attractions are going to be crawling with hoards of vacationers. I decided to spend this first day doing one of my new favorite things: “Park & Chill.”


First stop was Lake Yellowstone. It is so amazing to see this massive lake with very few boats on it. I just sat back and watched the clouds roll by.



In the picture below, you can see two of the parks countless geothermal steam vents.



I was disappointed to find out that one of my favorite areas of the park, Dunraven Pass, is closed for the season. I assume it’s for repairs. Yellowstone roads form a large figure 8, so without the pass open, you have to do quite a bit of backtracking to see everything. I’m not opposed to backtracking, but I really wanted to see that particular section of the park since it is considered the most “wild.” I just wanted to find a viewpoint with sweeping vistas so I could Park & Chill.



I ended up finding a pretty decent sweeping visa on the north side of the park near Roosevelt Junction. It periodically rained and hailed, but I was safe and cozy in the back of my Honda Fit.



The wildflowers were blooming, so of course I stopped and got a bunch of pics. I may do a flower photo montage one of these days.



I was planning on stealth camping at Mammoth Hot Springs inside the park because they have the best cell reception, but I got paranoid about getting busted by a ranger, so I drove twenty minutes up the road to Gardiner, Montana, a small village just north of the park. I found a perfect little out-of-the-way parking spot at one of the local hotels



Financial Statistics:


Since this marks the end of week 3, I did a little financial tallying.


Food: $123

Gas: $42

Lodging: $260 (well worth it)

Misc: $76

Average: $71 per day


 
 
 

2 comentários


matthew ward
matthew ward
09 de mar.

I can't type,. Matt, not Katt.

Curtir

matthew ward
matthew ward
09 de mar.

Thanks for doing these blogs entries. I'll be in this area and at the Wave in late April for Astrophotography, if the weather cooperates. You gave me a couple of ideas for some daytime photograph. Katt

Curtir
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