I published 26 shots over the 52 weeks with most of them before July. What happened in the second half of the year? There are a bunch of excuses, “I had other things to do” and “Work got in the way” are my favorites. But that doesn’t really explain it. I lost interest and got caught up in the mechanics of the website and publishing.

This year, no separate webpage and simple publishing are the rule. Let’s see how far I get this time.

For now, here are my favorites from 2011

Related posts:

1. Project 52 Update

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1. Back to London
2. USS High Point coming to Portland
3. Trap School

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1. A Weekend in New York

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1. Yellowstone – Day 1
2. Yellowstone – Day 4
3. Yellowstone – Day 6

Seeing a big crowd gathered, we stopped to see what was up. I grabbed the binoculars and quickly yelled, “Bears!” I’d already made it clear that I only wanted to see bears if they were at a very safe distance and I got my wish. In the valley below, two grizzlies were eating from a bison carcass, while a third one paced around hopefully. At one point the larger two stood up and threatened each other, some secret bear pecking order was reestablished and they went back to eating. Eventually they got full and swam away, and the smaller bear got a chance to dig in.

We went on the Grand Prismatic Spring. The only thing we can say about it is that the burnished iridescent orange color exactly matches a painting we have in our house.

As we were walking back to the car we stopped to watch an osprey fly along the river. On the road heading back to the lodge, I thought I saw the osprey again, being chased by a smaller bird. Then I realized the smaller bird was an osprey, and it was angrily diving on a bald eagle. A second osprey soon joined. We figured the eagle had gotten to close to their nest. It was exhilarating to watch them fly. The ospreys would attack from above and the eagle would roll over to defend itself – sometimes doing a complete 360 degree roll. One of our absolute favorite moments of the trip.

A complete Gallery of the day

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1. Yellowstone – Day 5
2. Yellowstone – Day 4
3. Death Valley Follow Along and Photo Highligts

On the drive to the hot springs Nadya needed a bio-break so we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin. My notes for the day include “They can’t make this shit up.” The ground makes noise, it steams and things bubble. If I read about a place like this I’d think it was fiction.

Look close and you can see the rainbow in the steam.

How do we describe Mammoth Hot Springs?
Nadya: “It’s pretty isn’t it?”
Jim: “Yes, in an end of the world sort of way.”

The “stuff” around the hot springs are moving and growing. Look on the right and you can see the old trail. The trail was a trail less than 10 years ago and is now covered.

We stopped in Tower for our vacation ice cream and a waterfall, more bison, and then stopped by the
Mud Volcano to see it in the afternoon without the morning steam.

We eventually got back to the lodge and back to our favorite place on the porch with a tasty adult beverage. As we sipped, a herd of bison moved through. The herd walked through the driveway and around all the people waiting to check in. They didn’t seem to care we were here.

Mammal patrol: bison, various rodents, elk, ducklings

All the pictures from the day

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1. Yellowstone – Day 4
2. Yellowstone – Day 5
3. Why my feet hurt

The Grand Tetons were as gorgeous as we’d been told. Even better, they were a lot emptier, and we were able to get a bit of break from the crowds at Yellowstone. (I’m not complaining about the crowds; I’m glad people go. But it’s nice to get away occasionally.) We did see a bunch of people stopped by the side of the road at one point, and stopped to watch a herd of elk. We also stopped at a beautiful bend in the river where we learned there are white pelicans. (Coastal pelicans are brown, inland pelicans are white.) Later, we saw trumpeter swans, which, of course, we knew all about thanks to Mr. E.B. White.

Driving towards Jackson, we took a side trip up a smaller road and were rewarded with a stunning view of a farmhouse, surrounded by buffalo, up against the backdrop of the Tetons. You find yourself singing Home on the Range a lot out here. (Nadya also got Buffalo Soldier stuck in her head, which was especially distressing as she only knows the chorus. Over and over and over….)

We stopped in Jackson for lunch at a very good brew pub. Walking back through town we stopped at an art gallery with some great contemporary art that had, unfortunately, one zero too many in the prices.

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1. Yellowstone – Day 4

We took the walk around the boardwalk, but the bison had moved on. However, we did see evidence of one:

 We especially were impressed with Sour Lake, which is, ahem, a freaking lake of acid! Really, you can’t make this stuff up.

Up the road a little bit is the Sulphur Cauldron. It’s also basically a big bubbling pit of mud and acid. We started to suspect God put these here to remind us He can do anything. We especially started to fear Him when we learned that the microbes that turn the hyrdrogen sulfide into sulphuric acid, also carry viruses. It was like, “if the acid doesn’t get them, I’ve got some viruses in reserve!.” OK, God, we get it. You are mighty.

Also: all the best geothermal sites here have interpretative signs that are funded by a grant from NASA. Because this kind of place is as close to extraterrestrial as they can get right now.

We stopped in Canyon for breakfast, and then went on to Artist Viewpoint that overlooks the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Jim wanted to walk up to a summit for a better view. Nadya declined and hung out with the view and her knitting. As Nadya was hanging out, a ranger came up with a scope and pointed out the osprey nest on a canyon crag. You could just see three little white heads in the big nest.

We had reservations for dinner at the Old Faithful lodge. It was a ways from our lodge, so we wanted to leave in plenty of time. Good thing, because as soon as we got down to the road, there were bison and deer on roadway.

We’d made the reservations weeks before, simply based on what time was available. As luck would have it, our dinner reservation was about 5 minutes after the next expected Old Faithful eruption. So we headed up to the deck to watch the show. After dinner, we checked the clock in the lobby, and sure enough, there was another eruption expected in just a few minutes. So we headed up to the geyser to catch it in the almost dusk light.

A large gallery of photos from the day.

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We had an hour to wait, which Nadya filled by finding the bathrooms and knitting and Jim filled by scouting camera angles.

A small crowd, including a bus of Japanese tourists were on hand for the 8 am eruption. A picture from later that day shows you why we are so glad we got there early

We breakfasted in the dining room at Yellowstone Inn, a nice change from the cafeterias we’d been eating in. The we headed out for the rest of the day’s adventure: a walk through geyser land!

While we’ve had this trip planned since December, we hadn’t done much research, referring to show up and see whatever was here to see. So Nadya was surprised the see that right next to Old Faithful is an area with dozens of geysers and other hydrothermal features. Jim, apparently, had paid more a bit more attention to our friends’stories.

A few geysers are fairly predictable to; see the others erupt depends on luck. We were lucky, we think.

First we headed out towards Daisy Geyser, which was predicted at 10:18, plus or minus 30 minutes. While waiting for Daisy, we were entertained by her neighbor Comet Geyser’s constant bubbles and gurgles. Right about 10:10 Daisy erupted.

We continued our walk past various features.

Jim got ahead of Nadya on a hill and suddenly called back on the radio, “I found a Wow!” A couple minutes later when Nadya got there the Wow had gotten even more Wow, as the gorgeous bubbling blue pool he’d found had started to erupt. We don’t know what the typical frequency is for Artemisia Geyser, but we had the good fortune to time our arrival for a spectacular dual jet eruption. Note to to eyeglass wearers: the steam from a geyser will fog your glasses right up.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon wandering through the geyser basin. The Beehive geyser erupted suddenly when we were nearby. We rushed to see its up close; suddenly the wind shifted and we were covered in “geyser guts!”

We returned to see the crowds, busses and shops at Old Faithful. Nadya said, “Old Faithful is the Graceland of the National Park
System.”

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We wanted to acclimate to the elevation with some easy hikes and found two nearby that fit the bill: the Pelican Creek and xxxx

I especially liked the second hike as it shows different landscapes, including a rugged lakeside coastline that reminded me of Scotland. At one point the smell of sulphur reminded us we are in a very active geothermal region. We saw squirrels and marmots

After our hikes, we drove a bit further east to admire the scenery. Then we realized Cody, Wyoming was only 50 miles away. We turned to
each other and said, “We’ve never been to Cody!”

The drive to Cody was spectacular. We didn’t stop so there are no pictures. Just think of a western movie that has high canyon walls
overlooking a river, mesquite brush, lone pines and red rock monuments.

We reached Cody around 2 and wanted a burger for lunch. On the main street we found a place that had several kinds of exotic burgers. We went for the tried and true beef, cheese and green chile. Yummy.

During lunch a rain squall came through accompanied by lightning. The rain seemed to have caught the locals off guard as many where standing in doorways watching the rain.

A little antiqueing then back to our hotel to enjoy a stiff drink before going off to dinner.

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1. Walk to Gilsland
2. Thunderstorms
3. Yellowstone – Day 1