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The Great Plains | Day 4 Mount Rushmore NM, Wind Cave NP, and Carhenge

May 29, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Adventure, Retrospective

My last day in the Great Plains had finally come, but I still had much to do. Coincidentally, it was Memorial Day weekend, so being so close to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, I knew I should visit. As expected it was quite busy, but it was nice to see such a large display of American spirit. Previously I had visited Mt. Rushmore but struggled to capture it in a way that didn't feel like a snapshot. As I navigated the crowds and traveled along the self-guided tour, I looked for new opportunities for an image. I am happy with how it turned out.

After leaving Mt. Rushmore, it was still relatively early in the morning, so I thought I would try to visit another National Monument and cave before going to the National Park, that cave was Jewel cave. Unfortunately, all the tours for the day were already booked, and I realized that the same thing could happen at Wind Cave. For some reason, I thought I would be able to wander around in the cave by myself and realized the folly in my thinking, that's how people would go missing. I quickly jumped back in my truck and drove straight to Wind Cave National Park. I was relieved to find out that there were still plenty of openings available and took the soonest one I could. After a quick lunch, I was ready for some spelunking!

I've only been in a handful of caves before, so I'm always pretty excited to have the chance. I feel that visiting a cave is more about the experience and is quite challenging to capture, not that it keeps me from trying. One of my favorite parts is when the Ranger turns out the lights, and you get to experience true absolute darkness. If you ever have the opportunity to visit a cave like this one, I highly recommend it. After the tour and getting back to the warm air, I was ready to explore the rest of the park.

I was happy to see a healthy number of Bison roaming the prairies of the Park as they shared the grounds with their little prairie dog neighbors. There was an old fire lookout tower in the park that I wanted to see, so I made my way up a short hike and was pleased by the incredible views. Though the park is primarily about the cave, there is still quite a bit to explore above ground. As I made my way around a large sweeping turn, I noticed some movent to my right and stopped for a better view.

Upon closer expectation through my telephoto lens, I realized that the movement I saw was a running Pronghorn deer. Something was off though; it took me a second to understand what I was seeing. Throughout the trip, I'd seen many of these Pronghorns and many of them I made uncomfortably or spooked into a trot to gain some distance between us. But this particular Pronghorn was full out sprinting, running for its life. I then focused behind the deer and saw a rather large Coyote in hot pursuit. Fortunately for the Pronghorn, but unfortunately for the Coyote, the deer got away this time.

After that bit of excitement, I realized that I didn't have much daylight left and wanted to hit the road to make it to Carhenge before sunset. My eagerness to shrink my two-hour drive by speeding didn't pay off as all the time saved was spent when I was pulled over for speeding. The officer was friendly and let me off with a warning that I took to heart as I continued on my way to Carhenge. Despite all that worrying about making it before sunset, I was there with plenty of time to spare. After the light was gone I knew my trip was officially coming to an end, so I dug into my long drive home reminiscing about all the wondrous things I had seen. What an amazing trip!

Photography Date: 5-29-17
Writing Date: 8-7-18

The Great Plains | Day 3 Badlands NP

May 28, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Retrospective

I've already written a little bit about this day previously here, so I won't go into too much repetitive detail, but this was going to follow suit with being amazing.

After getting in so late the night before, I let myself sleep in a little bit and had a leisurely morning with lots of coffee. My drive today was nothing compared to the day before, so I wasn't too stressed. Often, when I go exploring, I like to get into it with not too much information. Usually, I might know of a few things I know I shouldn't miss, but most often I prefer to leave the day wide open to opportunity, to let the day take me where it needs to go. Today was no exception, I had no idea what to expect or where to go, and I loved it.

The Badlands are stunning; I couldn't think of a better name for how it looks. The formations made from erosion makes you feel like you're on Mars or something. I stopped a few times to explore some of the cracks and small canyons that go on for what seems like forever. At one point I could see halfway up the side a bunch of tumbleweeds that all collected together that peaked my interest.

Though it ended up being nothing crazy, it did get me closer to something exciting. Just above the tumbleweeds was what I thought was an abandoned colony of Swallow nests, so I climbed up further to get a closer look. At this point, my footing was getting pretty bad as the hillside was turning into a cliff the higher I climbed. As I was up there looking around, my assumption of "abandoned" was quickly disproven as the colony came home to find a visitor lurking in their neighborhood. There must have been hundreds of them swooping and flying around me. After a few quick pics, I scrambled down the hill not wanting to stress these little guys out. I couldn't help but think of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Next was the most exciting moment of the day, but I went into depth around that moment here as mentioned above so that I won't relive it here. But after getting that shot of the lightning, which was all wrong I later learned, and now that I think about it how crazy is it to click the shutter button at the same time lightning struck?... Regardless, I was riding incredibly high in adrenaline. I made my way towards the western section of the Park to a dirt road that looked like an excellent adventure.

Unfortunately, due to the very recent rain of the thunderstorm, I wasn't able to get very far, but I did get on top of this plateau to some fantastic views. I also found an old abandoned farmhouse. I love abandoned buildings, but I have to admit, they are always just a bit creepy.

After missing the sunset the night before, I was making it a priority to capturing it today. I didn't have a plan, and I didn't know what or where I was going to shoot, so I just kept driving west and trusted that an opportunity would present itself and it did.

Photography Date: 5-28-17
Writing Date: 7-25-18

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The Great Plains | Day 2 Theodore Roosevelt NP

May 27, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Retrospective, Adventure

For whatever reason, I had the bright idea to pick a central location for my trip into the Great Plains to stay, Lead South Dakota. Staying here was a good idea for a few National Parks I was planning on seeing, but it meant I had a long day to get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I didn't mind too much in the morning as I was excited to see some of the Great Plains and the drive is an equally exciting part of the journey as the destination.

I took my time taking as many side roads as I could afford to take. It still being late in the Spring, all the plant life was still so green and vibrant; it was as if I was in the old Windows XP background. Also, one of the most exciting thing for me around this trip was to find some Bison, so every corner and hill hide the potential excitement of seeing them. I knew that TRNP had Bison, but finding them early in the trip would be awesome.

I got to the park in the early afternoon and started to make a game plan. I would see what I could of the south unit, then drive around and hike into the South Unit's Petrified Forest, after that I would head up and see what the North Unit had to offer. Unfortunately, I would not have enough time to visit the Elkhorn Ranch Unit.

After a busy afternoon of making all the stops and even a few hikes in the south unit, I finally came across a lone Bison. To say I was excited was an understatement if I only knew what was ahead of me. He was slowly meandering around in a field munching on some food. The light wasn't that great, but I was able to zoom in and get a pretty cool high contrast black and white. He eventually made his way further into the field where I no longer felt safe pursuing him, so I peeled off, finished exploring the South Unit, and made my way to the Petrified Forest.

As I neared the trailhead to the Petrified Forest, the wind picked up quite a bit, and a pretty gnarly storm was on the horizon. I decided to take the gamble and head in anyways. It was about a mile or so hike to the Forest, and no one was around. I love going to these places and having them all to myself; it's magical. I held out as long as I could, but the storm was starting to pick up and move in fast. The clouds did add quite a bit of drama to the petrified forest. As I was hiking out, more like running through the rain, I came over a hilltop field I had to cross. Can you guess what was now there that wasn't before? Buffalo! But this time I was feeling entirely different about them since I was on foot in the middle of a storm and they were in between me and where I needed to be. I did my best to stay calm and went out of my way to give them space.

I was now off the North unit and feeling great. I was having a blast seeing all these wondrous things feeling quite content. With about two hours in between the Petrified Forest and the North Unit, the storm was gone, and the light was terrific. I hardly saw another car driving the entire time I was in the North Unit, there were a few campers, but Park was pretty much mine. I made my way through, again stopping everywhere trying to see all that I could when the most amazing thing happened. I drove up a hill around a corner and right there in front of me was about 30-50 Bison in a golden field with the sun setting behind them. I nearly fell over.

I have no idea how long I was there with them, half the time I was merely watching trying to remember to take photos. It was absolutely magical. It was just them and me, no one was around, and they were close. I stayed safe in my truck and did my best not to disturb them. I waited as late and as long as I could, but I was at least five hours away from my pillow that night.

But, the day still had one more amazing treat in store. After failing to find a spot on the drive back to shoot the sunset, I was pretty much just focused on getting home for the evening. It must have been close to midnight when I started to notice some funny looking clouds in the sky. At first, I did assume just that, clouds, but as I kept driving their perspective and relationship to the horizon was not staying consistent. It took me a few more minutes to realize that it wasn't clouded at all, but the Northern Lights! Holy crap, I didn't even know you could see them from the lower 48. I pulled over as soon as I could and fired off as many pictures as I could, but the moment was fleeting and not meant to last. Today was one of the best days of exploring I ever had.

Photography Date: 5-27-17
Writing Date: 7-25-18

The Great Plains | Day 1 Devils Tower

May 26, 2017 in Photography, Adventure, Retrospective

Continuing with trying to see as much as I could before moving back to Oregon, I planned a trip to see some of the Great Plains of the Mid West. I had four days and quite a lot to see, starting with Devils Tower. This National Monument might be one of the more unique things I've seen. It's hard to describe what it's like to see it in person. It's as if you were shrunken down to the size of an ant looking at a tree stump.

For it being Memorial Day weekend, I was pleasantly surprised with how few people were there. It was kind of that sweet spot between not being alone and not being crowded. I drove around to the north side and found a little hike to stretch my legs and look for pictures. I was hoping for better weather, but I need to make do with the time I had. I had the trail to myself and the wildlife new it, so many deer.

I tried sticking around as late as I could to see if the weather would break for sunset, but with another few hours of driving ahead, I opted to get going. I would later regret that decision as the sun did, in fact, break through the clouds for one of the more epic sunsets I've enjoyed from the side of the freeway, but that's ok, it wasn't meant for me that day, and I did still get some great black and white moody cloudy photos.

Photography Date: 5-26-17
Writing Date: 7-24-18

Monarch Lake and the West Side RMNP

May 21, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Retrospective

With the gate over the pass still closed, my buddy Jessy and I wanted to get to the west side of Rocky Mountain NP, so we drove the long way around. We thought that since we were already going to be in the area, we should hike in and check out Monarch Lake as well.

After a few wrong turns from Denver, we finally made our way to Lake Granby. There was still fresh snow on the mountains, and the contrast between the lake was beautiful. We took our time getting around the lake stopping many times trying to see everything we could until we got around to the trailhead to Monarch Lake. I guess I should use that word lightly; it was a seasonal road.

Monarch Lake was quite spectacular, though the weather didn't fully cooperate with us, it was still a beautiful little lake. We hiked around to one side to an outcropping of rocks where we enjoyed a snack while snapping a few picks. I would have loved having a canoe or Kayak.

After grabbing lunch in Grand Lake, we headed off into the west side RMNP. By this time, that bad weather I was mentioning early had decided to pick up, but that was ok, there was new ground to cover. To our luck, it was closer than we thought. Just around the corner as we entered the park were two moose grabbing a bite to eat just off the road. We, of course, had to stop and do our best to safely get as close as we could for a good picture, luckily we both brought our zoom lenses! This was a super exciting moment for the both of us as we'd never seen a moose before.

Photography Date: 5-21-17
Writing Date: 7-23-18