Image dump time. Over 166-miles worth of hikes here. Sadly I jacked up my knee in a huge bolder field. It keeps bleeding subdermally on the downhill segments, so I’m going to be taking the winter off. :( Anyway, this is all in the Wind River Range! Hope they inspire you to do some exploration of one of the USA’s best kept (and biggest) mountain range secrets.
It’s funny that you mention that, because I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the elk and only got one picture of a moose at 1/2 a mile…and I was thinking about your shots of wildlife. :( I told my hiking partner about your shots and she had no sympathy. But she only had her phone, so there ya go. :P
I’d really like to photograph some pikas and marmots, but I guess I’ll really have to invest in the gear and be willing to carry the weight!
Thanks, though. It’s been a great summer and fall for hiking.
EDIT: Here is a pic of my moose shot to show you just why I envy yours so much.
Alan! No! You can’t say that! They’re the cutest things in the world! Pikas harvest bouquets even! Of course they also make that horrible “Meeenehhh” sound. I had one post outside of my tent in a rock field and chirp at me all night. Grew to hate those little lagomorphs in the course of one night. /hypocrisy
xtien, being out there above the trees, in a storm at night, with just a rain-fly and a tent wall…it’s amazing. The only sounds are the wind howling through the peaks thousands of feet above and sometimes a boulder crashing down. And no one is around for miles. It’s amazing how ineffective that little Mountainsmith tent is if you think about it. It somehow makes my life richer and more meaningful. Also, I feel like I’m a part of the 20:20 and that’s just the best.
Alan, look at him! How can you not love the little feller? It’s so hard not to feed them. : (
I love this post, Hal9000. It really takes me back to my boyhood, when camping was our main form of vacationing. It evokes two trips in particular. One driving from Colorado to New Mexico, where we camped out in the flats and the wind blew so hard my stepdad thought for sure we were in for a tornado. He said the next morning, “I kept listening for the sound of a train, because that’s how you know it’s a tornado.”
The other trip was up in the mountains on horseback. It was a men-of-the-church retreat where kids and their fathers rode horses up into the mountains and camped for a few days. There was one day in particular that sticks in my mind. Riding my horse in the line, letting him pick his way down the trail as we crested the ridge just above the treeline, when a thunderstorm kicked up. It was terrifying watching that lighting in the distance, worried that my horse was going to spook but trying to be careful not to convey fear through my body, feeling that really hard, cold rain on my face, the sound of the drops on my hat and my slicker. It was so scary, and so exhilarating.
Actually, your description reminds me of something else too. A couple weeks ago we went off to a wedding in Big Bear. We stayed at a friend’s cabin (in the woods) and the silence was just amazing. But also weird to some. It’s weird how loud silence can be when you live in a place of constant noise.
Anyway, again, I love that picture and I love your description.
Speaking of animals, last year I went to the Omaha Zoo in-between storm chases and as expected saw some pretty interesting things. The Omaha Zoo is one of the best zoos in the US, right behind San Diego and probably the National Zoo, and at the time I happened to have my rental zoom with me. Just today reminded myself I still needed to go through these and outside of a Snow Leopard hadn’t really paid attention to them. Damn that zoom is an awesome piece of glass. Here’s a preview…
Not the best in terms of photography, but we’ve had 5 different fawns this year and the other day a couple decided to lay down a chill a while in our back yard.
I have a Tokina which I use for wide angle and I’m generally happy with it, though the distortion starts getting pretty crazy at the widest aperture (11mm) and the lens tends to overexpose at its narrowest (16mm) for some reason. Still, most of the landscape shots you see me do are with it.
I haven’t really looked into Sigma’s similar offerings though… dpreview says their 70-200 2.8 is a bit soft, but it’s also half the price. I’ve also considered getting a Nikon 18-300 f/3.5-5.6 and just making that my general zoom and travel lens but… eh. I dunno. That 2.8 spoils me. It’s so damn big and heavy though…
I love the nostalgia. In fact, it’s weird, but since I’ve gotten into late fall hiking (October-November), I’ve come to really appreciate the snow. It’s eerie to have no one around. Of course I’m safe about it, and try to always have a companion. But I once spent an entire month sleeping outside in Montana (Dec-Jan) and managed just fine. On treks, though, the extra weight is annoying. : )
Out here, it’s easy to get close shots of moose and elk and such if you go to the nature preserve areas (like right by Jackson), but that seems to somehow ruin it for me. Do you ever get that feeling? Like truly wild shots are somehow more meaningful?
Those are some BEAUTIFUL memories, though. I grew up without running water or electricity (long story) in NW Montana, so the mountains and solitude are in my blood; plus I lived near an officially designated roadless area some 88,000 acres in size, and pristine and wild. I’d not recommend that exact route to grow up, but the the memories you described, at least in my opinion, are the types that all children can benefit greatly from. They truly instill in a person a love for nature, and a desire to protect it, which is honest and without hypocrisy.
Finis Mitchell lived from 1901-1995, and he and his stocked over 2.5 million trout in the Wind River Range, and he climbed those mountains until he was 84. Stunning man, and truly advocated for the wilds, just like Mardy Murie. (Huge fan of her, too, BTW, and wish we had so many more like her.)
Anyway, here are a couple of quotes of his that I loved, and your recollections reminded me of them. I wish we could give every kid an opportunity to spend a month, or even just a week, in the wilderness.
“What, show people the wilderness that belongs to them and make them pay for it? I want them to come, all of them. Had a couple of hikers from Illinois and when they came down someone had written in the dust on their car, “Go home and stay.” That’s selfish, selfish.”
— Finis Mitchell, quoted in Blundell
A mountain is the best medicine for a troubled mind. Seldom does man ponder his own insignificance. He thinks he is master of all things. He thinks the world is his without bonds. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Only when he tramps the mountains alone, communing with nature, observing other insignificant creatures about him, to come and go as he will, does he awaken to his own short-lived presence on earth.
I also like having at least one friend with me in the wilderness, even if just to be able to share the beauty. My mother, who is in her mid-50’s, is a totally tough lady, and she accompanied me on one hike of over 50-miles. I have to brag on her a bit. :)