2 Weeks, 1 Festival and 4 National Parks: West US Road Trip

[Cerpin Taxt]

After a short but hectic first week back at work, I've managed to sift thru all my pics and develop the best ones. They're collected here with a short recounting of the trip's experiences as I go.

We started at the Oregon Eclipse Festival on Friday the 18th of Aug. We lucked out and didn't really face any traffic issues in or out. It was hella dusty though so I didn't get my camera out much. Here's a few I did take:

A couple of the stages...

Earth Stage:

Eclipse Stage:

Cool Propane art installation:

The site had a small lake on it that was a scene of many shenanigans. Some guy brought a hovercraft made to look like a DeLorean:

The gf dancing with her poi balls, DeLorean hovercraft zooms by:

I didn't try to shoot the eclipse. I didn't want to hassle it, instead just preferring to take in the experience. We left the festival Tuesday the 22nd, making it to a cheap motel in Hawthorne, NV. We got up the next morning and headed in the Eastern side of Yosemite, and camped in Tuolumne Meadows. Dis is how WE do:

After setting up camp, we took a short but steep hike up to the top of Lembert Dome. I have a few panoramas that I haven't stiched together yet because I'm lazy. Meanwhile the lady wanted to do yoga poses for some reason:

Yours truly:

The next day we hiked into Elizabeth Lake along Unicorn Creek. Got these:

Whitetail buck

Fishin'

Sun flare magic hands

Contd....

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

That was it for Yosemite, short and sweet. We packed up and headed to Vegas. Stayed one night at the MGM the day before the MacGregweather fight and then at the gf's cousin's place in Henderson the next night to watch the fight. Didn't take any interesting pics, just enjoyed a nice hotel and a day at their Lazy River drinking and swimming, and then watched the fight.

After Vegas we basically just did a "drive thru" of Zion. No camping or hikes. We were really headed to Grand Teton. I did snap this out of my driver's side window, though:

Once we landed in Grand Teton, we took the rest of the day just to rest a bit and rode our bikes around our campground. No hikes or pics In the morning, our tent was shelled by this guy dropping green pinecones on us:

(In the shot-of-the-day thread, I incorrectly said that I encountered this squirrel in Yosemite)

We took a boat to the far side of Jenny Lake and hiked up to Hidden Falls. My falls pics sucked, but I did grab these along the way:

Heron:

Chipmunk:

Kayaker:

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

The next day we moved on to Grant's Village campground in Yellowstone. No sooner had we finished setting up camp and this guy came rambling through the grounds:

We spent the rest of the day touring some of the geothermal pools, but I didn't take any pics.

After taking the gf to see Old Faithful the next day (she's never been, and I won't bother posting pics of it), we hiked up to Fairy Falls and got some pretty good views of Grand Prismatic:

Again,my falls pics were pretty weak. I didn't put much time into them anyway. I did grab these along the way:

Red Dragonfly

Raven:

Spotted this guy behind some trees on the drive home. Hopped out real quick in a turnout and snapped this:

There was some activity around a carcass that was down in Hayden Valley. We saw a bear off in the distance on the way out, and on the way back a crowd had gathered to watch some wolves that were spotted even farther out. I have some pics where you can make out some wolf shapes if you pixel peep them, but otherwise they're crap photos. My longest lens was 300mm, it just wasn't going to get them.

The next day we set out to hike to the lookout cabin on Mt. Washburn. I was looking to get some better pics of the bighorns or some goats, but we actually got skunked. I was pretty frustrated, because it's a pretty long hike. Even at the top, the scenery was so smokey that I didn't bother taking any pics. Got a good workout, at least.

The drive back to camp made up for it, though. We spotted a bonded pair of swans in the river, so I got out to catch a shot:

Just as I was walking back to my ride parked in a turnout, I spotted a coyote:

But he quickly darted away, when we both noticed this beast strolling outta the trees and right at me:

I regret that I didn't have the nerve or presence of mind to try to get a head-on shot, but he was headed directly for me. He was clearly not apprehensive or intimidated in any way, so I ducked to the side and caught the shot above.

The next day we packed up and headed out to stay overnight with her aunt in North Idaho, before returning to Seattle the day after, relieved to be home.

 

[Red Storm]

Awesome post, great pictures! Wish I lived on the west coast.

Edit: I forgot to ask, what camera, lens(es), and tripod?

 

[CuriousMike]

Terrific photos - the Old Faithful shot looks good --- and it shows a lot of dust spots on your sensor.
Your wife is gorgeous and photographs fantasically.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Thanks, yeah I never got my sensor cleaned since when you noticed those spots in my Zihuatanejo pictures lol.

And yes, I'm a pretty lucky dude. She points that out a lot, and goddammit she's right...

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Nice!
What gear/lenses?

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

My body is a Nikon D610.
The telephoto shots were I think universally shot with my AF-D 300mm F/4.
The wide shots are almost all the AF-D 24mm F/2.8 or the AF-D 35-70mm f/2.8
The other lenses I have are the AF-S 50mm f/1.8 and AF-D 80-200mm f/2.8. There may be a shot or two from either of those mixed in there.
I have a nice compact tripod I got off Amazon made by "Zomei" (yeah, who?) that transports well that I used a bit. There's some fill flash from either and SB-600 or SB-800 on the pic of my lady sitting by the lake, too.

 

[zCypher]

Awesome pics!