• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Uganda 2013

Musiewild's blog

~ An occasional blog, mainly photos

Musiewild's blog

Tag Archives: Grand Teton National Park

USA 2018 (7), Otters!

06 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Geology, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Flagg Ranch, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole, JD Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, Lewis Falls, Natural Habitat, otter, River otter, Snake River, Yellowstone National Park

USA 2018 (7) Otters! If I had been disappointed at the lack of snow hitherto, I could have no complaint now. This was the view from my Lexington hotel bedroom at Jackson Hole on the Sunday morning.

P1290441001

It had snowed!

We set off northwards through Grand Teton National Park.  The views were beautiful, (though not as beautiful as the following day).

P1290446001

Like many of my photos, taken through the smoked glass of the vehicle window. And the mist.

Wanting the opportunity to take photos in the open, we stopped after a while by the Snake River/Jackson Lake, to be delighted to see through the mist and snow some little dots – which turned out to be river otters! Now otters, along with dolphins and felines, are my favourite animals – not very original, but there we are. P1290463001

P1290468001

Emerging from their holt

 

P1290474001

There were swans as well – this is a very long way off…

Right on cue they came bounding in our direction, though they were not aware of us. (These photos were taken with my camera on maximum – x24 – zoom, and I have enlarged them a little since.)  Then two more otters revealed themselves, nearer to us, and the first group ran towards them. P1290481001P1290484001

P1290495001

I love how you can see their converging tracks.

All enjoyed a playful bundle for a couple of minutes.  Then, just like that, all seven decided to turn back. P1290498001P1290503001P1290506001I decided it was time to take a video,

and the otters disappeared back to where they had come from.P1290512001P1290514001

P1290517001

The swans were still there

What a magical experience!  Many agreed at the end of the trip that this had been a real highlight.

We continued, leaving the Grand Teton NP, and stopped at the Flagg Ranch Information Station in the JD Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, for hot chocolate and a change of vehicle. (For some reason they didn’t charge me for my hot chocolate as I had provided my own insulated drinking can, a gift, along with a metal water bottle, from Natural Habitat at the outset.)P1290529001P1290527001 We continued climbing, into Yellowstone National Park, the first (1872) NP ever declared in the world. The snow was getting thicker and falling faster.P1290538001 Snowcoaches it was now.

P1290564001

I don’t know how our luggage made it from hotel to hotel every night, but it was following us on skis at this point!

Our next stop – and descent from the vehicles – was to see the Lewis Falls. These are at the southern rim of the Yellowstone supervolcano caldera. P1290555001P1290561001 Not that I was aware of it at the time.

th[3]

The NP is in the NE corner of Wyoming, slightly overlapping Montana and Idaho to the N and E respectively. The approximate line of the caldera is shown here in grey.

Our lunch stop was at West Thumb, in a ‘warming hut’.P1290580

 

P1290579001

The warming hut – outside

P1290593001

The warming hut – inside. Two of the Nat Hab water bottles can be seen.

P1290586

The loos. Talk about amazing surroundings!

The hut was actually too warm for me, all wrapped up in the great boots and fantastic parka provided by Natural Habitat for the trip.  (The parka was 80% duck down and 20% feather.  I had packed silk sock liners and silk glove liners, which I wore under alpaca looped long socks and Hollofil mittens. I had very few problems with the cold, at which I was very surprised, given my usual hatred of anything below 21 deg C/70 deg F.  In addition, the leaders provided toe and hand warmers as topping up, of which I only availed myself on the last two days.)

We assembled to go for a walk in the snow.P1290597

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

USA 2018 (6), Jackson Hole, afternoon.

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Bison, Brown bear, Carl Rungius, cervus canadensis, cervus elaphus, Cougar, elk, Georges Gardet, Grand Teton National Park, Grand Tetons, Grizzly bear, Jackson Hole, Jackson Visitor Center, Landseer, moose, Mountian lion, Mule deer, National Elk Refuge, Nicola Hicks, Pronghorn, Puma, red deer, Robert F Kuhn, Shepard Alonzo Mount, Wapiti, wolf, |National Museum of Wildlife Art

USA 2018 (6), Jackson Hole, afternoon. After lunch in its restaurant, we had a guided tour, by a volunteer, of some of the exhibits at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Not nearly long enough for many of us, but much better than nothing, a really beautiful museum.  There were sculptures and paintings, inside and outside. (Brrrrr – we had divested ourselves of outerwear!) Here are just a few that particularly caught my eye, with references where I noted them.

P1290332001

Moose (American), elk (English)

P1290333001

Mountain lion/puma/cougar

P1290334001

Brown/grizzly bear

P1290341001

Pronghorn deer

P1290342001

This dramatic picture of a bison coming out of the mist occupied a whole wall. I’m tempted to think that the mist is that of the thermal heat in Yellowstone which we were to see later.

P1290344001

Sir Edwin Landseer, ‘The Deer Pass’ 1852. who saw a sphinx in the mountain behind the deer.  But did he get the colour of the deer/elk right?

P1290348001

P1290349001

‘Long Island Frog’, 1860 by Shepard Alonzo Mount

P1290351001

‘Pas de Deux’, 1975 by Robert F Kuhn

P1290353001

‘Old Baldface’ c. 1935, by Carl Rungius. (Bears are in a kind of hibernation at this time of year, so we saw none.)

P1290355001

‘The Gangmaster’, c 1020, by Carl Rungius (German)

P1290357001

‘Combat des cerfs’, 1910, Georges Gardet (French)

P1290361001

(Hastily taken as we left) ‘Little Bear’, 2015, by Nicola Hicks, (British)

P1290339

‘Midnight Serenade’, Robert F Kuhn

P1290338

I don’t have details for this picture, but even when it was painted, Bison no longer roamed the plains in these numbers. The painting occupies a whole wall.

As we left the museum, a few of us saw some mule deer in the distance, so-called because of their huge round ears.P1290369001 Afterwards we were taken to a viewpoint of the Grand Teton Range, sadly, as so frequently, topped by cloud, so not seen in their full splendour. P1290374001A panoramic view makes a straight road crooked, so here’s a brief video.

It just so happens that this interesting story on the geology of the Tetons, including a fabulous sunrise photo of them clear of clouds, appeared on Facebook yesterday.

Then it was on to the National Elk Refuge.  Elk/Wapiti (cervus canadensis) are closely related to our (European) red deer (cervus elaphus). They migrate northwards each year for the winter, and many come to this national refuge where they are safe from hunting.P1290378001Had there been more snow we would have been taken to see them in horse-drawn sleighs.  As it was we went in horse-drawn carts.P1290394001P1290408001P1290384001P1290396001P1290397001

P1290425001

Our horses

After a short time at the Jackson Visitor Center…P1290430001P1290434001P1290435001

P1290436001

Mule deer seen from a viewing platform.  See the big ears.

… we returned to our hotel for a short rest, and then went to dinner at another Jackson restaurant.  Because I had arrived so late, I had no other chance to see anything of the town, as we were off the following morning northward for good.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

USA 2018 (5), Jackson Hole, morning

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

coyote, elk, Grand Teton National Park, Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, Jackson Hole, Jackson WY, John D Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, moose, Natural Habitat, trumpeter swan, wolf, Yellowstone National Park, |National Museum of Wildlife Art

USA 2018, (5) Jackson Hole, morning. Some years previously, I had seen a series of programmes on the BBC about Yellowstone National Park through the year.  And ever since then I had wanted to visit in the winter – all that snow and beauty principally, but with great wildlife as well.  In the month before I actually left on this trip, there had been a further series of BBC programmes on the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, following particular creatures through the year, and dealing also with the extraordinary geology of the place.  These programmes provided a wonderful pre-trip briefing.

Jackson Hole (hole in effect means valley in this context) is at the southern end of Grand Teton National Park, itself just to the south of Yellowstone National Park, the two joined by a small area called the John D Rockefeller Jr Memorial Parkway.

th[9]

We had an early start on Friday 16th February. This was the view from my hotel window as I rose.P1290145001 Given the attraction of the deep piles of snow I had seen on those BBC programmes, I confess to having been a little disappointed, even as I was being driven from the airport the previous day, that there was not more of it, and this feeling persisted through this day. (Following days more than compensated!)

At the start of the trip the 14 of us – all American bar me – travelled in two of these Sprinter vans, each of us with a window seat.P1290150001  Our Natural Habitat leaders were Drew and Jeremy.

20180221_195709_001

(At our final dinner)

Our first stop in the Grand Teton NP was to look at the surroundings, P1290153001and particularly at a couple of trumpeter swans, initially curled up and asleep in the icy water. It was not easy to get a decent photo through the wire. P1290177001What’s this? A wolf already?  P1290176001No, a coyote – but an interesting sighting nevertheless. (I just had to stop calling them jackals.)

P1290180001

A drive-by photo of the elk herd we were to visit in the afternoon

We drove to the parking lot of the National Museum of Wildlife Art and stood for ages looking at this view.  P1290192001

P1290193001

Close-up

Some managed to see as a far off speck a wolf. The leaders swore it was so, and I believe them.  They were giving a particular telegraph pole as a reference point but I think I must have been concentrating on the wrong one.  Actually, right at the end, I do believe I saw the wolf for five seconds, barely that, as it ran behind the buildings – but I certainly didn’t manage to get a photo of it.

 

We drove on to a pond.P1290195001 Here we saw, but I got no decent photos of, goldeneye, bufflehead, gadwall, and a bald eagle.  As we drove on, wolf tracks were spied.P1290199001 We had stopped by the side of a river,P1290214001 where we were delighted to see a moose, browsing on willow, its favourite food.P1290215001 Moose (called elk in British English, explanation here, which leaves me even more confused) are far from rare, but you do not see them every day.

Our next stop again caused ripples of excitement as we thought we might be seeing a wolf, and it took a long time before it was agreed that it was ‘only’ a coyote.P1290245001P1290277001 It appeared  to have a broken jaw, but seemed to be managing to survive OK, unless of course the injury had only just happened.

Returning towards Jackson,P1290295001 we stopped when we saw more moose, P1290284001which came very close to us in our vans,P1290297001P1290304_modifié-1001001 and crossed the road right by us.P1290327001 Lunch was taken in the restaurant of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, which we would tour in the afternoon. P1290331001

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

USA 2018 (1). The flight out

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Photography, Travel

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

ATP ROtterdam, Bedford New Hampshire, Bristol Airport, de-icing plane, Grand Teton National Park, KLM, Roger Federer, Schifhol Airport, SSSS, Yellowstone National Park

USA 2018 (1). The flight out. Here beginneth a series of many blogs on my latest odyssey: to cousin Geoff and family in Bedford, New Hampshire, on the US’s eastern seaboard; Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, (3/4 of the way across the country); and to niece Karina, in Los Angeles County. I was away for a fortnight in total.  As usual, the posts will contain many photos and little text – with perhaps the exception of this first one.

Monday 12th. Having got up at 2.15 am, I arrived at 4.00 am at the super-duper new Silver Line car parking terminal, just a 4-minute shuttle bus from Bristol Airport.  A 25 minute delay before take-off because of weather problems at Schifhol Airport, Amsterdam, was nothing compared to subsequent problems there. ‘SSSS’ on my ticket meant I had been selected for intensive security screening at the Durch airport before boarding my KLM flight to Boston, Massachusetts.  A trainee on her first day ‘did’ me, under supervision, for about 20 minutes, (though subsequent internet research indicated that the investigation could have been much more thorough!)  Boarding was at a normal time, and the pilot announced it would be a long flight because of strong head winds. 20180212_112554001
It started hailing. Whether connected or not, the announced take off time steadily retreated, to one hour late.
The plane started taxi-ing, then stopped after a while. The pilot announced that we must be de-iced. I was amused to observe a ballet of many de-icers, four per plane.

20180212_114914001

20180212_114951001

Who are you staring at then?

At last we were on a stand – and our own ballet dancers retreated before they’d even begun. The pilot explained that this was because they must shut down, and go under cover, because of lightning in the atmosphere.
We had no idea how long we’d have to wait. I consoled myself with the thought that Roger Federer was only a little way away, in Rotterdam, where he was due to play his opening match in the eponymous ATP tournament later in the day. (He went on to win the final the following Sunday, and return to the world number one spot, breaking a number of records in the process.)

The de-icers came out again, the sun accompanying them. This time I observed the dance at close quarters, involving two types of spray, the second of which left a greenish hue.

20180212_121318_00120180212_121547001
As we moved off, two hours after the scheduled departure time, the captain said it didn’t often happen that he had a complete set of circumstances for the very first time. And not to worry if we saw a pilot wandering around the cabin as there were two of them on board.

Nicole, Geoff’s wife, had been tracking the timing of the plane, so had not been hanging around for hours, but because of the delay we hit the rush hour, and had to go direct to their son’s school to pick him up. A lovely crock-cooked supper took just a couple of minutes to serve, and then it was off to bed, 23 hours after getting up.

Many more photos, much less talk for the next post.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • Norway 2022/23 – 12, An even quieter morning, though not without a degree of anxiety
  • Norway 2022/23 – 11, A quiet day
  • Norway 2022/23 – 10 New Year’s Eve
  • Norway 2022/23 – 9, Turnabouts and changes
  • Norway 2022/23 – 8, Hammerfest
  • Norway 2022/23 – 7, Kirkenes
February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015

Blogroll

  • Avalon Marshes 'Hands on Heritage'
  • Londonsenior
  • Salmon Brook Farms
  • The Jaguar
  • Tootlepedal's blog

Recent Comments

Musiewild on Norway 2022/23 – 12, An…
maryh on Norway 2022/23 – 12, An…
maryh on Norway 2022/23 – 12, An…
Musiewild on Norway 2022/23 – 5, Boxi…
Musiewild on Norway 2022/23 – 4, Chri…

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Musiewild's blog
    • Join 195 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Musiewild's blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: