Last weekend I attended a teacher workshop at the Teton Science School in Jackson Hole. It was dark when we arrived, but the bitter-spicey smell of aspens in the air promised great things. So in the morning I rose early and did a bit of sneaking around. The following pictures are a small representation of the wonders I saw.
I’ll try to post them in the order I took them, so you can watch the sunrise walk down the mountains with me.
Now, I do get tired of photographers who seem to think that the Tetons (and Lower Yellowstone Falls) are the only things worth seeing in Wyoming. If some of you like these, maybe sometime I’ll post some pictures of places much less well known, but no less beautiful.
Enjoy.
Tom
(see below, where smart person Cran saved the day)
The image addresses in your post are all the same, to start with. Also, when I copy and paste that address into a new tab, it shows the (same) image, but then immediately tries to print the image.
I’m not sure that is the correct URL for what you are trying to do - display an image. Perhaps you could go back to your image host and check the URL format again.
It was no trouble. You were just using the wrong URL. When you saw the picture, you copied and pasted the URL, but what you should have done is right-click and go to “Properties” and use THAT URL instead. It was very simple.
The first picture is my favorite. I like the dark pine trees contrasted against the light yellow trees in the background.
I like the first as well. It was such an amazing morning. The whole valley was in twilight, with just the very tops of the peaks glowing.
The third is my favorite. It came across dark on the board, but if you look closely you can spot a small herd of mule deer bucks in the lower right corner.
They’re aspens. The leaves are neon lime green early in the summer, dark green farther on, and turn anywhere from bright yellow to smouldering orange-red in the fall. They flutter madly in the slightest breeze–some of the old timers (including my parents) call them “quakies.” The bark is white with black “eyes.”
There’s nothing like aspens. It makes me sad that there are people who live where they don’t.
That sounds like a paper birch–I’ve heard of people tapping them for syrup. They don’t grow around here naturally, but a lot of people use them for landscaping.
Being in an aspen stand is a feast for the senses–they have a scent you’ll never forget (only the ponderosa pine can compare), the leaves whispering in the breeze, the powdery bark that leaves your hands white, the slim graceful youngsters clamoring for space among the massive, battle-scarred patriarchs…and, of course, you can usually find some berries growing undernieth to snack on, if the deer and squirells have left you any.
By the way, did you notice the buffalo (bison) in the last two pictures?
Yeah, I noticed the buffalo. They’re such huge creatures.
But they’re so sad. I can’t look at one without becoming overcome with such a deep inward sadness. It’s difficult for me to adequately put into words, so I won’t try.
Driving home, we were trying to imagine what it must have been like in the old days, when they thundered across the meadows and plains in their thousands.
One afternoon, a big old bull wandered through the campus. These aren’t tame animals, understand, or even semi-tame like the ones in Yellowstone. I suppose that, being by far the biggest critters around, they just don’t get too worried about anything.
This one just looked a bit confused, bored, or maybe even mildly amused at us.
Don’t be TOO sad. They’re wonderful, majestic, almost goofy in their hugeness; sort of like a moose, only much more so. If there’s something sad, there’s something funny, too…
Reminds me of a trip we took a few years ago to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We stopped at that tiny Episcopal chapel in Grand Teton National Park (I can’t remember the name of the chapel, I’m afraid). It’s a little bit of a place, but when you go inside, instead of a reredos behind the altar, there’s a clear glass window, framing a perfect view of the mountains. I’m sure I’m not the first person to sit there in the front pew and think “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills…”.
We saw so many beautiful things on that trip, but my favorite isn’t anything that’s on the tourist maps…rather it was our first view of the valley you come down into when you’re driving from Butte, Montana, to Yellowstone. You come out of the mountains, and all of a sudden there’s this wonderful golden valley spread out before you. We just stopped…utterly awe-struck (fortunately, it’s not a high-traffic road!).
The mountains were named by a French trapper who viewed them from the Idaho side of the range and called them tétons, French slang for “breasts” (presumably referring to the shape of the peaks).
