Elephas maximus

Kodiak

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:41:37 GMT

There was light drizzle when the 43 foot Mary Beth dropped anchor. The rocky shore was still a mile away but the waters were too shallow for the boat to go any further. The eight of us then hopped into a smaller motorized boat that had been tethered to Mary Beth and slowly approached the shore. We were briefed on how to carry out this mission successfully - "Keep your voices down and walk in a single file and no sudden movements."

The Kodiak Bear

A mile or so away, a bear was running in our direction with a fish in its mouth, pursued by two other bears. The salmon runs hadn't begun so whatever fish the bears got was a bonus and the two chasers were trying to steal another bear's bonus! About a hundred yards from us the bear with the fish shot into the thick forest and seconds later the two followers disappeared into the forest too. Three bears in less than three minutes since we started walking along the shore then. We walked along the narrow shoreline - about twenty feet wide - between the frigid waters of the Larsen bay and the verdant forest wall. We walked past the point where the bears had disappeared and looked into the darkness of the forest for shadows. Being the last person in line, I instinctively looked back several times to check if we were being followed - we were potential prey to these massive predators after all. I knew they were close and we would see one sooner or later. At that point, a larger bear came out of the forest several hundred feet in front of us. He was also, perhaps, on the trail of the bear with the fish and he started moving towards us. At first he bear did not seem to notice us. We were asked to move toward the wall of vegetation to give the bear as much space as possible. Either through scent or sight, the bear realized our presence, moved away from the water towards the trees and then put its head down - which usually means it is ready for a standoff if needed because a low head protects the vulnerable neck - and started walking straight at us. There was absolute silence and even the frenetic clicking of the cameras ceased as the bear quickly moved toward us. We stood our ground. The bear kept shrinking the distance between us and itself. The bear was about ten to fifteen feet away from us when it changed course and moved toward the water. It continued to walk in the shallow water but always kept an eye on us. It then moved on and went into the woods at exactly the same spot where the other three bears had disappeared, guided by its olfactory senses no doubt.

Bears have been painted as villains for countless centuries and in the modern world whenever a bear is in the news it is mostly because it would have done some damage to human life or property. It is no surprise then that we have an image of bears being vicious animals out to get anyone who dare step into their realm. Bears are large and bears can be dangerous and by their very design of being opportunists they take what comes their way. The trick in bear country then is to not present ourselves as an opportunity for a meal! Any of the four bears we saw in our half mile hike had all the necessary tools to take on the hiking party. Even seven against one would be a no-contest in favor of an adult bear and yet there was no conflict. This remarkable tolerance is best experienced when you are with someone who knows the land and its animals. Mike Munsey and his wife Robin have been taking visitors out on bear-viewing excursions for thirty years. The Munseys' Bear Camp - http://munseysbearcamp.com/ - originally started as a hunting camp in 1956 by Mike's father Park who was among the greatest hunters and hunting guides in Alaska. Mike was born and raised in Kodiak and he knows his backyard - the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge - better than anyone else. With Mike leading our group we knew there was someone with immense knowledge about these bears and the bear-viewing experience would be a positive one.

Our trip to Kodiak was a serendipitous one. We originally planned on going to Katmai to see those browns fishing at the Brooks falls. We probably would have gotten another Denali experience - the worst national park experience in the world - or a zoo-in-the-wild experience but fortunately the lodges and campsites had been booked out months in advance. We had to look at other destinations and since Gates of the Arctic and Wrangell-St. Elias needed a bit of rouging-it-out we looked at Kodiak. We had only heard about Kodiak because of its bears and we knew nothing else when we called Mike and set up the trip dates. Getting to the Munseys' place is all in the hands of the weather. First, the short flight ride from Anchorage to the city of Kodiak can be delayed forever if the weather is not favorable. Our first flight got cancelled after several hours of delay but the next one took off after a short delay. Already behind schedule when we jumped on to our float plane, our pilot turned back a few times to change course because of conditions and other dangerous obstacles in the clouds - mountains. Kodiak is stunning. Just a few hundred feet in the air at the highest and very close to the topography, every minute of the flight was jaw-droppingly beautiful! The view from the plane: patchwork of snow, the misty mountains, the verdancy, the deep inlets, fishing villages, seals, whales, otters, birds, signs of the tide moving in and just the thought of being out there in America's forever frontier is unforgettable. The best part is that it only gets better after landing at Amook pass at the home of Mike and Robin. Marcia Messier, Robin and Mike were out to receive us and we had a quick round of introductions. We had lunch and after a short rest we were out on their boat for some wildlife viewing. While we saw whales, otters, seals and seashore birds on the short cruise - the local celebrity - the Kodiak bear - had to wait till the next day.

Bear-watching in Kodiak is not like the circus in Katmai or the crowds in Denali and Yellowstone. There are no other people for miles and miles around and there is certainly no signs of civilization in any direction. With bears roaming everywhere in a setting that has remained unchanged since at least the Pleistocene it is easily the best wildlife viewing experience I have ever had. The amazing thing is realizing the remarkable level of trust between the two most dangerous species in this part of the world - man and bear. The bears were happy feeding on sedge, fish and shoreline lifeforms while the humans watched them with curiosity, awe and love. They are indeed such beautiful creatures and it was a honor being able to spend so much time in their realm.

We can't wait to go back to Kodiak again and spend time in the grand wilderness once again.

Kodiak as seen when flying in a float plane

The Munsey's bear camp

A fox

A Kodiak bear approaches us with its neck shileded

A bear standing to look at us

Standing up to get a better view

Some sort of greeting perhaps?

A Harbor seal

Harbor seal colony

Harbor seals

Pigeon Guillemot

Oystercatcher!

Bald eagle with fish

Bald eagle with freshly caught fish!

The last trip to Denali national park

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 02:33:30 GMT

Mt. McKinley / Denali as seen near Wonder Lake (photographed by Wendy Turner)

A piece of prehistory and history

Tall, ice-free mountains towered over a grasslands home to herds of mammoths and sabre-tooths. Armies of humans were moving in from the north via the Bering land bridge. After them came ice to the mountains and the grasslands would die giving birth to the tundra and taiga. The mammoths and sabre-tooths would go extinct and descendants of the the migrants from the east would continue to live in the unforgiving land. A tall mountain dominated the landscape and true to the nature of men it was given a name. Today, the descendants of the ancient migrants, the Athabaskans, call it 'Denali' meaning 'high one' and it is the oldest formal name on record. That was when the earth was flat and throughout prehistory and much of history it remained that way.

When the earth became spherical and European explorations headed westward there would be more action in the area. Large tracts of land were claimed, sold and bought by the powers from the east. A gold rush in the late nineteenth century brought in hardy prospectors to this remote area. It brought in development to the rugged tundra and boreal forests - roads were cut, trails were made, buildings and mines mushroomed. The miners even named that tall mountain in the area after an Ohio senator who was running for president. The senator would go on to be president and would never set foot in the territory of Alaska but mankind officially calls this mountain by his name today - Mt. McKinley. With the naming came popularity and suddenly the 18,000 foot Mt. Saint Elias wasn't the tallest mountain in North America. The debate and war on the name of the mountain has raged on since then - Denali or Mt. McKinley. In early twentieth century the national park idea was gaining momentum and the area around the country's tallest mountain was set aside to be protected as a national park. The park would be named after the mountain it was protecting.

The train journey

The Alaska Railroad has daily train service in summer from Anchorage and Fairbanks. The railroad service provides two classes of service - Goldstar and Adventure. You get the same train and track and wilderness and streams and gulches along the way but on a Goldstar car you sit high up inside a car with domed glass roof. The journey from Anchorage to Denali rail depot takes a good eight hours or so and goes through pretty endless spruce forests and beautiful country side. You will also get nonstop commentary about Alaska and landmarks along the train route - some very interesting, like how fireweed predicts the coming of fall, and some absolute moose-gas, like showing us where Sarah Palin lives! Interesting or not, the same commentary on the return journey probably means that you should use the service only once? Optional commentary on head phones would probably be better? Anyway, the train ride is just awesome and we know for a fact that the Alaska railroad employees are just an awesome bunch. Our train was delayed on the way back from Denali and an old couple seated in front of us were getting worried about missing their flight. They actually helped the couple when we reached the Anchorage area by making a special stop for them and having a Alaska Railroad vehicle taking them to the airport so that they can catch their flight! Now, that is something amazing. Well done ARR!

The park

Denali national park is mesmerizingly beautiful. Glaciers and glacially carved valleys, mountains, tundra and taiga and the beautiful wildlife all add up to make this place a fascinating place to visit. And with nothing else but pointless wilderness for hundreds of miles around the national park is pretty much the only destination. Of course, you could be going to Healy to work the mines but that's a different story which I don't know. The national park has only one road going east to west with the west end at the old mining town of Kantishna being the end of the road. That's a total of only ninety some miles in a six million acre park!! There aren't many trails and visitors are welcome to go anywhere - a hikers and backpackers haven. Golden eagles, moose, caribou, grizzly bears, black bears, Dall sheep and wolves all roam the valleys and the wide open tundra presents glorious opportunity to see wildlife. And many come to see the tallest peak in the continent too. The park road is only paved for the first fifteen or so miles and from then on it becomes a gravel road and becomes even narrower away from the park entrance. The only way to travel beyond the first fifteen miles is by bus service or air taxi or man-power (walk or bike).

Now, Denali sounds rugged and awesome but you'll be in for a shock if you arrive there thinking that way. First up, you show up the the rail depot and they will tag your checked bag to the hotel you're going to be staying at. And when you arrive at Denali there will be a welcoming party all set to take you and dump you at a hotel in the park entrance. Of course, you could be going to the backcountry which could be just like any other park but that may happen another time.

Adolph Murie was a naturalist who studied wolves and grizzlies in the park for twenty-five summer between 1922 and 1972. When the old trail to Kantishna was proposed to be made into a road for visitors to enjoy the park, he strongly opposed it. He wanted the wilderness to be as rugged as it was when the ancient Athabaskans lived there. He lost the battle a park road was created because, after all, cars was the way Americans moved in the twentieth century. At some point in the park's history personal vehicles were banned from using the road. According to the NPS website - "Anticipation of major increases in traffic resulting from the now-direct route to the park prompted park officials to implement a mass transit system beyond mile 15 on the Denali Park Road." The website has all sorts of tables and such on which bus to take and what to do and how to see park.

Now, the buses you can take come in different colors - green, tan, red-and-white, gray and such - each with a special meaning with its own price tag. Some of the green ones are free and all the free green ones ply on routes that are easily accessible either by man-power or personal vehicles! You'll need to buy or reserve a ticket on the green and tan ones or can hitch a 'complimentary' ride if you choose to stay in $500 a night per person boarding in the Kantishna area.

The bus service is apparently a great one for the park for several reasons - it apparently keeps the traffic down, highly trained drivers with complex passing rules keep the roads safe, habitat around the roads is 'useful' to animals since we don't get mad tourists running after cuddly grizzlies or cute moose and animals actually use the roadside because they are not disturbed. Besides, you can get off at any point you want when traveling on a green bus and hitch a ride on any other green bus. Ah, all in the spirit of 'for the benefit and the enjoyment of the people' then?

Let's think about this. Now, imagine if you went on a bus ride with Capt. Hadley of the "You eat when we say you eat. You shit when we say you shit. You piss when we say you piss." fame! That sums it up. Welcome to Denali. This is one national park I wish I had never visited.

All bus service in the park is run by a single privately-owned company. Isn't monopoly frowned upon and even illegal in these parts? The buses are noisy, dirty and have ridiculously bad seats and it seems as if they were bought off of a junkyard from the 1980s or something. As soon as wildlife has been spotted the bus goes into earthquake mode with people shifting and sliding to see the animals. There are fifty-hundred people interpreting the scene with the driver sometimes adding hackneyed commentary. The time 'allotted' to watch wildlife is decided by the driver's schedule and the general patience of the others in the packed bus. I've been to zoos that have better wildlife viewing experience than that!

In all other national parks I've been to, the fondest memories I've had of the place are early in the morning and late in the evenings. The crowds who throng to see famous vistas just to 'tick' off their lists would still be sleeping or drinking or doing whatever but leaving the wilderness as wilderness. Now that's not an easy thing to do and like I've seen in every other place such times are preferred by wildlife enthusiasts, photographers and such who appreciate the place being wild and quiet. You actually enjoy being around such people! With twenty-four hours of sunshine such times would be hard to find in a place like Denali but I can only imagine how a 4 a.m. quiet drive into the park would be like.

I've heard from rangers in other national parks that allow personal cars that most people stick to the roads and just a few ever go beyond half a mile of the main road. If that were true then the conservation argument to ban personal vehicles on the park roads is just incomprehensible. 91 miles in a 10,000 square mile park is what could potentially be affected. I just think Denali is going a little overboard in its conservation effort for how else can conservation work if there's no one to love a place. I can't imagine how anyone could love Denali after being forced to go in those awful buses and forced to listen to bad interpretation!

Permafrost soil in much of the park means a fragile habitat and a lot of people on it could destroy it forever. Permafrost soil also makes building and maintaining roads and maybe the bus service is helping after all. However, it is amazing and almost heart-breaking to see 'Area closed for hiking' signs all around popular rest stops. Perhaps the park management is determined to not have people off the buses? How then are visitors supposed to enjoy the national park? Well, there are air taxi rides to the top of McKinley or Glacier landings, there's rafting outside the park, there are wilderness tours and natural history tours. Rides, tickets, special permits, noise, crowds, time lines and all. Now if they could only put out the animals along the roadside on time we would have America's first national amusement park because it would be no different from Disneyland or Universal studios except for the fact that the 'attractions' would be 'all-natural'

I think Denali fails as a national park for me. They'd rather close the 91 miles of road and keep it like some of the other large Alaskan national parks. It is more commercialized than Yellowstone or Grand Canyon or Yosemite and has none of the ruggedness and awesomeness those parks offer. And it's not because the ruggedness and awesomeness is not there, it is just because it feels like being a prisoner in the park.

I'm never going back.

Caribou/Reindeer

Dall Sheep

A male Dall Sheep

An adult male grizzly

We noticed this interesting "chase" near the polychrome pass. The larger bear tracked down the smaller one and followed it for miles. Male-female or Male-male aggression we don't know but it was interesting until the bus driver said there was no more time to keep watching them.

The older grizzly in pursuit of the younger one completely missed the fox standing in the bushes!

An Arctic Ground Squirrel

Hoary marmot

Bull moose

The wolf family + the grizzly family. Near Highway pass along the Denali road there's a wolf den and wolves are apparently seen regularly there. We first noticed a grizzly sow with two cubs and then Wendy spotted a wolf. Soon, there were more wolves on the scene and the pups emerged - SEVEN of them!!!! The wolves led the pups towards the grizzlies and in true characteristic grizzly behavior the three bears stood up staring the wolves and their pups!!! It was just an amazing scene to watch but it was so far away that they were just specks to the naked eye!

Wolf at a rest stop! (Photograph by Wendy)

Wolf crossing the Tolkat river!

The wolves are pretty!

Snowshoe hare.

Willow Ptarmigan

The last two photographs were made along a trail when it was just pouring and I think it was a much better experience photographing them than any of the other awesome creatures we saw in the bus ride!

The unpredictable brown bear

Sun, 23 May 2010 19:01:14 GMT

I've been reading a new book this week that has real life stories of peoples' encounters with bears.

One of the stories that really touched me is this one. I couldn't find a link to it anywhere on the web and I don't have the power to verify its authenticity, but since the author of the book claims these are real I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Here is this incredible story from Alaska:

--

When four-year-old little Ella May Lindberg left her Sitka house alone in July 1921, it was with one thought -- blueberry pie. She told her mother if she would bake a pie, Ella would get the berries. Ella wanted a surprise blueberry pie for her papa. She knew about a prize patch of berries where she could fill her pail. Ella had not given any thought to the large bears that roamed the woods near her Baranof Island home. She was really too young to understand anything about bears.

Almost two hours after Ella had left the house, her father Hans, superintendent of the U.S Horticultural station at Sitka arrived and queried about "Baby." He was shocked to learn that she had last been seen walking with pail in hand toward the woods. He immediately sprang into action meeting at the blacksmith shop with all available men, distributing his two 12-gauge shotguns and .22 rifle. He carried his .30-40 rifle himself. The men spread out in a half-circle and slowly began coming the woods. They were to fire three shots if anyone found Ella May.

A half-hour later Ella's father heard three shots and rushed toward the sound. One of his companions confessed that they hadn't found Ella, but they'd discovered some large, fresh bear tracks. In a frenzy Ella's father plunged ahead of the others ingot the dense brush, hoping against the inevitable. He tried to force all negative thoughts from his mind -- she could be mangled by a savage bear, she could be partially consumed, she may never be found. He was overcome by a father's grief for his little one.

He called frantically to Ella, reassuring her that he was near, coming to her aid. Shortly he stumbled from the brush tangle almost bypassing the still, small form lying on the ground.

It was Ella May. She lay in a patch of blueberries, chubby little body peacefully sleeping, with her empty berry pail nearby.

He fired three signal shots and turned to his daughter who was awakened by the commotion. Her first words were, "Where are my berries, Papa? I had a whole pail full of berries." Completely surrounding the berry patch were large bear tracks evidencing where Ella's berries had gone.

New Camera. Same old weather.

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:39:30 GMT

The day started brightly with clear blue skies and an on-time delivery of the lens I had ordered not too long ago. All through the day whenever I looked outside I could see beautiful sunlight and it only got more exciting as the day went by. After finishing up the day's work I packed up my bags and ran out to play with the new camera gear with childlike excitement and enthusiasm. I looked out at the still bright sky and was a little worried almost immediately: gray clouds lurked in the distance and the wind seemed seemed to be bringing them towards me. It got darker every mile I drove and by the time I had reached the place where I was supposed to test my new gear the clouds had consumed the sun and threatened to throw down some cold water too. Suspecting that I had to shoot now or wait till the weekend to have a chance of shooting something I decided to go ahead and shoot something... not the ideal time or place to be working with new equipment but anyway here goes the first images from the my new camera setup.

A female Anna's Hummingbird

":p" - Hummingbird style

Male Anna's Hummingbird

Random silhouette saturated by Photoshop to make it look a little more "dramatic"

A Black Phoebe

Hello, Canon

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:26:14 GMT

After years of shooting in Nikon and accumulating lots of Nikon branded gear along the road the decision to switch to Canon turned out to be a simple one in the end. A Simple One. The SO.

There was no drama. There was no crying out loud about nonexistent nonsense like how bad Nikon was or how the key to world peace was all about using Canon. The only reason I chose Nikon to begin with was because many of my friends were shooting in Nikon and we thought we could go about sharing our lenses. The DSLR world begins with a small investment in a basic camera body and a basic lens (or lenses). The brittle bond to a brand grows stronger by the year with each passing one bringing in new members of the brand into the family. Overflowing camera backpacks signal arrival at the point of no return and an unsaid oath of fierce allegiance.

Lenses are key ingredients for a camera setup and almost all the lenses you'd ever want to shoot in are horribly expensive when you're not a professional (or even a semi-professional) and don't sell or intend to sell photographs. We wait for the piggybank to fill up before we can take the spoils of a piggybank that did a Humpty Dumpty to our favorite camera store to get that glittery piece of glass we had been lusting for.

I loved every minute of shooting with Nikon. The only times that I thought about a move to Canon were during the times of planning a piggybank accident or when I could not photograph something that I would have liked to because it was beyond the reach of my lens. The reason those thoughts would come up was because Canon has more choice and their lenses are much cheaper but then the investment in Nikon was so much that I'd rather not be thinking about switching.

And then came the special one. She shot in Canon and I shot in Nikon. She had all the gear I had in Nikon but under the Canon tattoo. And both of us carry all our gear on trips to the wilderness. That translated to carrying twice the amount of gear that was necessary. I wanted a big telephoto and she didn't. Aha! Now which brand has a cheaper telephoto? A plan was made and Nikon made way to Canon in the backpack. It was that simple.

My new Canon 1Ds

Ele the elephant. First shot with the Canon 1Ds :-)

A trip to the Jungle

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:21:44 GMT

The jungle goes mad. There's cacophony in the form of alarm calls! There's a predator around they cry. Rattly vehicles beeline towards the calls. With engines switched off curious eyes watch all around hoping to catch a glimpse of the striped cats or the spotted cats of the Panthera kind. I've been in that situation a hundred times but not once have I seen a big cat by that method of spotting. It works a lot of times I've heard and you know for sure there's one of those felines hiding in the bushes and that itself is great satisfaction.

It had been three days in the jungle. We had seen lots of wildlife but there was no hint of a big cat. Time was quickly running out and we were resigned to the fact that there would be no spectacular sighting of a big cat. The morning safari was coming to an end. We were on a boat chasing kingfishers and cattle egrets out of boredom. It was hazy and the glorious morning light that everyone loves so much was now a thing of the past. Back to camp then? Yes! The motor-powered boat moved slowly over the Kabini currents. The photographers were reviewing their day's catch on their digital screens. The boatman was probably thinking of lunch. The scientists were thinking of the papers they had to review. We were a bunch of living things not paying attention to our environment. Ideal prey candidates. And when there's prey around, they say, predators come out... TIGER! TIGER! TIGER! I wasn't sure at first. It was just sitting under the shade of a tree along the bank. It was looking at us with curiosity and disdain. We had gone very close to this beast without even noticing it was there! No alarm calls. No rattly old jeeps. Nothing. It was just the most powerful animal of the forest with the sounds of its backyard.

Every time I've seen a tiger it's been this way and each time I hear an alarm call all I can only come up with is a wry smile. The tiger spent a good twenty minutes with us before going off into the bushes. And just minutes later Spotted deer called from inside the jungle from the direction in which the tiger had moved. "There's a tiger around" they cried. We know.

Snarl!

A grazing tusker

Changeable Hawk-Eagle

A Browsing Chital stag

A Darter with an itchy neck

A Wild Dog

A submerged tusker looking at us (we were in the boat)

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Lesser Adjutant Stork

Langur

A Langur leap

Langur's in the forest

Osprey

Osprey Take-off

A flying peacock (apparently!)

Purple Heron

A landing painted stork

River Terns

Spoonbill

The tiger when we first him

Not a happy face...

The Weekend Trip

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:36:00 GMT

I thought I'd waste away this weekend at home, but I did manage to pull off a trip in the last minute. I just got back from the beautiful Death Valley.

I was reading that there was water (more than the usual little pools) at Badwater in Death Valley National Park and that I had to see. I also decided that I had to get to the Martian landscape near Trona which I had been putting off for the last half a dozen or so trips to the area. I had never seen Death Valley like this before - several paths closed because of snow and washouts and floods! Even the main highways had signs of washouts and floods. Badwater had a nice large pool of shallow water which had wonderful reflections of the Panamint range and the Black mountains.

Death Valley comes dead at moonrise when the crowds have left for their camps. Walking miles around in the dark starlit Badwater basin with the world on mute is an experience that can only be comprehended when experienced firsthand. Enough words, here are the pictures.

Sunset campground at Furnace Creek. Millions of stars and the pricey Furnace Creek resort in the hills.

Martian Landscape. (Look for people/trucks on the right)

Giant Tufas. Remnants of an ancient lake.

A pinnacle with the Panamint range in the background

Pinnacles

The pinnacles say 'W'

Snow in the high reaches of the desert

Badwater basin

Modern photography. Ah! I never thought I'd see this in action. This is a (possibly!) Cineflex Heligimbal - a gyro-stabilized camera mounted under a helicopter. The peace of a beautiful valley distrubed, but I'm sure we'll see the footage with some inspiring music. ;)

Badwater Basin

Never a dull moment when the sun's shining...

Beautiful roads

Recent floods

-282 feet. There, I've confirmed what the experts have always said. ;)

There really is water at Badwater!

Stars come out as the last tourists leave the parking lot. The mile high Black Mountains are about a mile or so away. There is absolute silence except for my weary feet dragging along on the salty floor.

Stars and satellite trails. I love the clear night sky in the desert.

2009

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:25:37 GMT

I traveled more in 2009 than any other year; a neat fifty thousand miles or so on land, air and sea. Looking back at the year I can only wish that all years would be that good. Here's my journey.

Heaven
Yosemite Falls in the clouds, Yosemite. January 2009

Temples of Granite
Yosemite valley, Yosemite. January 2009

Clouds Rest
Yosemite. January 2009

Road Trips
Mount Shasta. June 2009

Creation of Man.
Performing Orca at Sea World, San Diego. May 2009

In the Grand Park
Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone. July 2009.

Deep. Blue.
Crater Lake, Oregon. June 2009

Unconquered West.
Glacier National Park, Montana. June 2009

River of Gold
The Merced in Yosemite. January 2009

River Wild
Glacier National Park, Montana. June 2009

Realm of the Mustang
Navajo Nation, Arizona. July 2009

The Battle: Stone versus Wind
Monument Valley. July 2009

From the Seas
Monterey Bay Aquarium. January 2009

Old Faithful
Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone. July 2009

The Race
Racetrack Playa, Death Valley. April 2009

Cradle of Mankind. What next?
The Serengeti, Tanzania. September 2009

Rocky Mountain. Mountains.
The Grand Tetons, Wyoming. July 2009

Superb
Superb Starling, Serengeti. September 2009.

In the Clouds
American Pelican, the Cascades. May 2009.

Lions
Lioness and cubs, Serengeti. September 2009

Color
Flamingo, San Diego zoo. May 2009

Tall
Giraffe, Tarangire. September 2009

Buffalo
American Bison, Yellowstone. July 2009

Ungulate Woman
Bighorn Sheep lamb, Yellowstone. July 2009

Friend
Coyote, Yosemite. January 2009

Relief. Savanna.
Elephant, Serengeti. September 2009

Sprint
Cheetah hunting, Serengeti. September 2009

Elephants

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:14:02 GMT

It seems like I have been away forever from the world of blogging. There is still so much to show from the trip to Africa in September but I never got around to processing those photographs or even looking at them. Life-changing events (in a good sense!) have kept me busy in the past month and I hope I can get around to processing the remaining photographs from the Africa trip at least. What subject would be better to restart this near defunct blog? Elephants!

Loxodonta africana, the African Bush Elephant. I've waited forever to see the largest land-based animal in the wild and they really look tiny in the massive Serengeti. At least, that's the case until you get close to one of those things and realize how huge they are. When you're used to seeing elephants in the Indian subcontinent you feel that their African relatives would be similar in behavior. Elephants in India need a cautious approach. It is perhaps frequent conflict with men that makes some herds in India aggressive. Charges, mock-charges and tail-twisted flight are all common with wild elephant encounters back at home, but the Serengeti (and Northern Tanzania in general) turned out to be a much different experience. Elephants are calm and at peace with men here and they don't run or charge that frequently. In fact, it is probably safe to say that some of the elephants are rather tame. We had a bull elephant drinking water at our campsite near the Ngorongoro crater and even with people just a few small footsteps away, the bull went about his business and calmly walked out into the wild. It is such a nice experience to watch animals when they aren't feeling scared or feeling the need to attack/defend.

Elephants in the Serengeti

Drama queen

A mock fight

On the plains

A young one

An old bull in the Ngorongoro crater

The fastest...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:05:34 GMT

The cheetah. We've all seen and/or heard about the sprinting skills of a cheetah. We've seen spectacular footage in nature documentaries of cheetahs sprinting and bringing down antelopes. Ever imagined what it would be like to see it live and in perfect angle and distance? If there's one thing I could point at to say that it was the highlight of the Africa trip then this has got to be it - a successful cheetah hunt of a young Thomson's Gazelle.

The driver was all eager to get to camp by nightfall and he was driving as fast as the unpaved road allowed him to drive. I noticed a cheetah stalking and shouted out to stop but we could only stop well ahead of the cheetah. The cheetah wasn't bothered by the car and we noticed that we were exactly midway between the cheetah and a small herd of Thomson's Gazelles. The gazelles had no idea a cheetah was on to them. The cat stalked and tried to get closer to the gazelles. With the camera locked in on the cheetah, all we wanted was for it to start its hunt. It did. Running parallel to the road, the cat had moved to top speed in seconds. The acceleration and the stretch of the body and the giant leaps it took with each stride was just unbelievable. These things move fast. Very fast.

The crowd was divided inside the car. Some were cheering for the cheetah to make the kill and some wanted the gazelle to escape. I've heard most hunts aren't too successful and there was every chance the gazelle would escape. Not this time. With a cloud of dust the cheetah did the successful trip-and-bite and the gazelle was down. Unbelievable moment. And to think that this was one of the first things I saw in the Serengeti was even more unbelievable! I doubt I'll see another cheetah hunt this close and this perfect, but that is what cameras are for - to capture magical moments so that it can be remembered forever. :-)

Stalking...

The target - Thomson's Gazelle.

Take off...

The sprint

The giant leap. This was the last shot I got before the cheetah went down with the gazelle.

Little Big Cat!

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:51:16 GMT

It is the littlest of Africa's big five - lion, elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros and leopard. The big five may have its origins in game hunting, but I'm pretty sure it was the most difficult one to get to even then as it is now to get to photograph or see. Anyway, I expected exactly zero leopard sightings on the trip. Besides being elusive and all that, the plains is probably just not the ideal place for a leopard. Trees and plants for protection and camouflage is what a leopard probably needs and the plains of the Serengeti doesn't not have too much of it. And that was perhaps the reason we saw two leopards - on the same day and in different places!

A sleepy leopard on a tree...

...and tourists everywhere to see it.

Earlier that day we saw a dead Thomson's Gazelle on a tree. Killed and eaten by a leopard.

After waiting patiently we spotted the cat that had done it. It was in the bushes not too far from its kill

It got bored of waiting for the tourists to go away and walked away towards a creek

Several hours later, the leopard was still in the area. This time under a tree with a herd of elephants in the neighborhood.

The sleepy leopard finally gets up and looks at the tourists who had assembled to see it.

Lions

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:32:53 GMT

I guess lions need no introduction. Everyone who goes to Africa for wildlife viewing has them on their list of must-see animals I guess. The guide almost laughed when I first asked him if we'd see lions on the safari. Only after a few days in the Serengeti did I realize why he laughed because lions seemed to be everywhere. We saw lions sitting, standing, eating, drinking, sleeping, stalking, hunting (a failed hunt), and even mating. I never had luck with the light for photography on the whole trip, but I feel fortunate enough to have seen lions and other magnificent creatures in the Serengeti.

Trees are scare on the plains which means they serve as thrones for the masters of the plains

Under a tree by the roadside

Prime rib feast

Mating

Lion crossing

Drinking water

A lion at Tarangire

Opportunistic stalking. A waterbuck moved too close to a sleeping lion without knowing about the lion's presence

The lion got distracted in the last minute and tried to go after one which was further away than the one that was close. It was not really a honest attempt but more like a "Go away or I'll catch you" kinda thing.

They come that close to vehicles...

A lone lioness lying in the grass without being discovered by the elephant herd in the background

Lioness and cubs. The lioness had just killed and was taking her cubs to the kill. A lone Cape Buffalo looks at the family on its way to the feast.

Three bachelor males

And the smaller mammals...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:31:34 GMT

The Serengeti is so full of animals that you almost begin to feel you're in a gigantic zoo. The herbivores are everywhere and the carnivores are all neatly spaced out. It is only a matter of time before you've seen all the heavyweights of the park then. It is only the smaller of the mammals that are less sought after but even they seem to be abundant nonetheless. There is still so much to see, but for now here are few of the smaller mammals from the plains of the Serengeti.

A Baboon.

A Vervet monkey and her baby

A male Vervet

A Rock Hyrax - a relative of the elephants!

A Bush Hyrax - on a tree

A Dwarf Mongoose

Banded Mongoose

Slender Mongoose

A Serval!

More Birds

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:41:23 GMT

I know I've not posted many photographs of the big game - the reason most people go to East Africa in the first place, but I had fun shooting birds after a really long time and it was fun processing them. Here are a few more birds from the plains of the Serengeti.

Yellow-throated Sandgrouse

Black-headed Heron

D'Arnaud's Barbet

Hildebrandt's Starling

Rüppell's Long-tailed Starling

Blue-eared Starling

Superb Starling

Birds at the Olduvai

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:25:03 GMT

A stop at the Olduvai gorge on the way to the Serengeti meant that I could take some time away from the bumpy roads and chase around some birds instead. Oh, did I mention we actually went there to see the gorge (aka cradle of humanity!) itself? After a visit to the museum and staring down the gorge we actually had time to have a picnic lunch with tourist-friendly birds. The lunch included countless breaks to run behind every interesting species that caught the eye.

I downloaded some of the photographs yesterday but then I realized I had forgotten the names of the birds! We had decided to donate the mammals and birds guides to our guide/driver on the trip when we left Africa and I guess it has been long enough to forget the names of the birds that we identified. So, I had to run to some local bookstores in the night to find a field guide. Turns out no one stocks field guides for African wildlife in these parts and I thought I should give that used bookstore in Mountain View a shot. I had almost given up my search there when I found that they had a old old copy of a field guide (from early 1970s). The bad part about having such an old guide is that many species of birds are actually not even listed - and many of the missing species seem to be the ones that I have photographs off! Anyway, a combination of likely last names (like sparrow, weaver and so on) and the latest technology in web search, I think I've got all the birds identified. I know I could be way off with their IDs still though.

A Secretary Bird on the way to the Serengeti

Haze, dust, and midday heat

A Slate-colored Boubou

White-bellied Canary

Speckle-fronted Sparrow

Grey-headed Sparrow

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin

Rufous Chatterer

Vitelline Masked Weaver

Purple Grenadier

Tarangire

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:04:02 GMT

Tarangire national park was the last stop before we headed back to Arusha. The circuits we did inside the park was mostly wooded. We mostly kept to the regular routes and only once did we venture into a road that isn't often used and we realized why it wasn't used that often - crazy numbers of Tsetse flies! We noticed something interesting and stopping for a second resulted in hordes of Tsetses taking over the car and we didn't even get a chance to see what that animal as we had to quickly move on and take over tsetse killing duties.

I should write more when I have more time, but for now here are some of the photographs from Tarangire.

The view of the Tarangire river from the Safari Lodge

This is a Dik-dik. This tiny antelope seemed elusive in other parks but was very common in Tarangire

It is mostly a hider, but seems to have some pace when needed. Here's one running away from a pair of Black-backed Jackals

Elephants at the Tarangire river at dawn

The only place in the wild where I've seen elephants lying down for a nap!

Standard picture and caption from Africa - Zebra crossing!

A White-bellied Go-away bird (yeah, that is what it is really called!)

Ostrich class of 2009 - a bunch of juveniles

An Unstriped Ground Squirrel

A Giraffe

A White-crowned Shrike

White-headed Buffalo Weaver

African White-backed Vulture

Rüppell's Griffon - holds the altitude record in the animal kingdom. It hit a plane at 37000 feet!

Sunrise at Tarangire

A setting sun and a Baobab tree

Manyara

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:01:22 GMT

Lake Manyara was a short stopover on the way to the Serengeti from the town of Arusha. We had just enough time there to used to time, weather and the cameras before we headed out to the mighty Serengeti. Here are a few photographs from the place

A White Egret

Young Giraffes near the lake shore

A Blacksmith Plover

Laughing Dove

You know who Tanzania voted for! Obama photographs, shirts and all are on sale in the streets of Tanzania

A Variable Sunbird

Hippo pool near Lake Manyara

The Serengeti

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:00:29 GMT

Endless lands of grass
Dotted with trees and ancient kopjes
Countless herds, flocks, packs, prides and all
In a gathering unlike any other

The Serengeti was everything I had imagined it to be. A fascinating place unlike no other I have been to. Tanzania was amazing - beautiful land, beautiful people and beautiful wildlife. Many stories will be told and photographs shared.

Karibu Tanzania!

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:24:02 GMT

Time for a quick update. I have a few more hours here in Africa and it has been a fascinating ten days in the Tanzanian national parks and I can't wait to come back here some day. More about the trip will be coming up when I get back home!

Here are regularly used Swahili words on the safari:
Karibu = Welcome
Asante = Thank You
Tembo = Elephant
Simba = Lion
Duma = Cheetah

Yellowstone and Glacier - the video

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:40:18 GMT

Since I go off to my next vacation this Thursday, I thought I should complete uploading the bits of video I shot during my last trip. Here's a collection of those videos with places and wildlife.

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/6338418
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtN3EwUlISA

Thanks to kejn for a whole lot of clips used in this video

Rocky Mountain National Park - Marmots!

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:46:59 GMT

Marmots in the Alpine Tundra zone of the Rocky Mountain National Park were a crazy bunch and I think they deserved a separate post of their own for the show they put on.

Marmots - The Kiss!

That photograph alone will not tell the story and is open to interpretation by the viewer. It does look like the marmots are kissing but they're not. Marmots are the largest true hibernators and all marmots except the woodchuck are social animals, so this group was perhaps a family. But even in social groups there are frequent fights for food and dominance and I think this was one such case. Here's the full story (according to me anyway and which may be corrected if a marmot expert says otherwise!):

One marmot has found something to eat and has staked claim to a nice little spot

And begins eating

Another marmot doesn't like something about it and attacks...

... and a fight begins

Round 1 to intruder

But the intruder won't get away with it just yet

More intense fighting begins

Intruder is on the verge of giving up...

...and does so by running away

Rocky Mountain National Park

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:17:26 GMT

A visit the Boulder meant that there just had to be a trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Now, just how different could the Colorado rockies be from all the other Rocky ranges we had seen in Montana and Wyoming? The trail-ridge road through the park, also known as U.S. Route 34, is the highest paved through highway in the country and it passes through some spectacular Alpine Tundra biome at over 12,000 feet. It was nothing like what we had seen before and the thin air at that altitude meant that it required a lot of effort to hike.

The trip was a short one, but we saw beautiful elk, moose, marmot, pika, coyote, chipmunks and squirrels and the hike in the tundra zone was particularly rewarding. The high-altitude road could get nasty during late afternoon thunderstorms because there isn't any tree cover and one such thunderstorm was building up when we left the park to have a late lunch in the beautiful city of Estes Park.

A male Elk in Alpine Tundra

An Elk...

...keeping watch over its home

They are impressive animals which can reach 5 feet at the shoulder and with their antlers they can stand at an impressive 9 feet tall!

Elk eye! You only realize how huge they are when they are really close like in this case!

Flowers just before the arrival of a storm

Aspen

A Gold-mantled Ground Squirrel

A Pika

A young Moose

Yellowstone 4 - The last day

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:41:51 GMT

The trip had almost ended and I still hadn't seen my top two targets for the trip - the Grizzly bear and the Wolf. What are the odds that you can see something on the last two days when you've had no such luck for ten days? The pessimistic me had given up on seeing them. The drive up from Grand Teton was tiring and it was a real hot day in Yellowstone. It was so hot that if you closed your eyes you'd think you are in the Mojave. I was feeling drowsy, so I pulled out parked next to the Yellowstone lake. I noticed that my CF cards were full and I hadn't backed up any of them. So, I began going through photographs and deleting ones which I did not like. And then I put the battery to charge and dozed off for a little time.

A trip is remembered by what was seen and not by what all others saw or what all had could have been seen. I woke up from the nap and then headed up towards the North-East corner of Yellowstone. Just a few miles from the place I was napping, there was a super-large crowd along the road. Now, if it is a traffic jam caused by bison, not many park their cars and get out. Almost everyone had stopped their cars and almost everyone were out of their cars. I knew it had to be a bear. A Grizzly? Or a Black Bear? I saw something moving along the grass not too far from the road and knew immediately that it was a Grizzly. The hump on the bear's shoulder is so distinct even in its silhouette. I moved in quickly and as luck would have it, I found a prime parking spot - a spot where the bear came within ten feet. Imagine me parked on the side of the road and the bear on the shoulder on the other side! The light was really harsh and I was just shooting for documentation now and I even gave up at one point just so that I could enjoy looking at this beautiful bear. The rangers were on foot and right beside my car and they had a tough time chasing away tourists who had the misfortune of being on the bear's side of the road. This one was a young grizzly and there was nothing horrible about her. In fact, it was more cow-like because it was grazing on young grass!

After the fantastic grizzly sighting, we moved along and setup camp in a slightly remote and not-so-developed campsite. The tent was right next to a small stream and it was one of the most beautiful camping sites I've been in. After pitching the tent, we moved towards the Druid Peak where Yellowstone's most famous wolf pack lives. The pull-out already had tons of people with spotting scopes and super telephoto lenses and everyone looked out at the Lamar valley in excitement hoping to be the first to see a wolf. We saw a beaver and some pronghorn, but no wolf. That was when someone came by and told us there was a grizzly feeding on a bison carcass about a couple of miles down the road. We decided to go see that spectacle and as expected there were hundreds of people crowded in a small area looking at the grizzly. The bear was hundreds of meters away from the road and it looked like a tiny spec to the naked eye. It looked only like an ant on the eye-piece even through a 600mm telephoto lens! Two more grizzlies were seen not too far from the feeding grizzly. All of a sudden the grizzly stopped feeding and looked around and then started running uphill towards the two grizzlies and the three of them vanished into a cluster of trees up a hill. Someone in the group said it could be because the wolves were approaching. There was more excitement and soon someone spotted a lone dark-colored wolf moving quickly towards the kill. It was apparently a wolf without a pack and it went straight to the bison carcass! And so, the second last day ended with four grizzlies and a wolf after having started the day at zero. Amazing.

The following morning we were up early and were one of the first cars to get to a pull-out where wolves are seen. Soon, a yellow Nissan X-terra pulled in and it was the local wolf expert Rick McIntyre. They say where he goes the wolves go. And rightly so, not long after he had arrived, we saw three wolves running towards the same bison carcass we had seen the previous day. The three of them were followed by four more! Soon, there were tourists, rangers and researchers in the parking lot observing the wolves with keen interest. The wolves fed on the carcass for a while before deciding to head off into the Druid peak.

The day ended with a pleasant walk to see the grand canyon of Yellowstone and then see the beautiful Yellowstone falls. It was at the canyon where we also saw the "yellow stone" of the canyon which gave its name to the falls, the river, the lake and the national park.

The Yellowstone falls

The young grizzly!

The grizzly eats grass while tourists stand and watch in awe

The only thing horrible here is the photograph. Can't believe the scientific name for this beautiful creature is Ursus arctos horribilis. :(

A grizzly feeding on a bison carcass

The lone dark wolf approaches the carcass...

The wolf pack feeding on the carcass

Mange. :( Early park rangers wanted to kill off all the wolves and used dangerous strategies to get rid of them. They introduced mange and after all the wolves had gone extinct it persisted and has started to take its toll on reintroduced wolves. :(

The wolves go home after breakfast

A male big-horned sheep just outside Yellowstone

An Uinta Ground Squirrel

The Yellostone river in the grand canyon of Yellowstone. Notice the yellow canyon walls?

Yellowstone falls!

Yellowstone - Specimen Ridge hike

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:50:47 GMT

The roads in Yellowstone are notoriously busy. Even if a small fraction of those on the road made it to any of the trails without boardwalks, then there would be some of the most crowded trails in any national park in the country. However, there are as many people on the trails in Yellowstone as there are plants in the harshest of deserts. It is not difficult to imagine what could be keeping the people away from the trails. My guess is the park's superstar: the Grizzly bear. Besides the grizzly, Yellowstone boasts of an amazing cast in wolves, bison, black bears, mountain lions, moose and elk. All of those and more can get very dangerous in the wrong situation, but park authorities make sure that people get that the park is home to the horribilis edition of the great brown bear (Ursus arctos). That means anyone and everyone on the trail is armed with... pepper spray. At forty dollars a can - which empties in seven seconds flat - they are not cheap and here's the best part: the disclaimer proudly says it may not work on all bears or all the time. How reassuring is that? Anyway, not wanting to make headlines like "Hikers without pepper spray eaten by grizzlies" and not wanting to look out of fashion on the trails, we picked up a can of pepper spray from a friendly neighborhood store and started planning on a hike.

The plan was to walk up to specimen ridge and see the ancient petrified forest in Yellowstone. Besides having the most number of petrified tree stumps that are actually standing, the place is home to some 27 (no typo that!) layers of ancient forests - a time capsule which tells a story of Yellowstone through the ages when it was a much different place than it is today. The books said this was no easy trail and we realized that when we tried to find the trailhead. Since we only saw places that could be potential trailheads and we were not sure which one we should take, we headed a down the road to the Yellowstone river picnic site to take an alternate trail to specimen ridge. The trail from the picnic site took us on a quick ascent of a several hundred feet and then flattened out to gentle ups and downs along the yellowstone river canyon.

Ravens and other birds were seen and heard for much of the early part of the hike. When on a trail, I generally have the camera with the telephoto lens on. It makes sense because I use the telephoto lens to shoot animals or birds and the wide angle of scenery and such things. The stationary objects always have time for a change of lens right? The first big animal we saw on the trail was a surprise. It came out of nowhere and fearlessly jogged past us without stopping or even looking. I thought it was a coyote first but then it turned out to be a red fox losing its winter coat and on its way to get its summer coat. When the fox was moving towards me, I didn't have time to even focus at the animal and as it passed just a few feet away, it was just a little too close for my lens! After moving away, the fox decided to pause for a moment and look at me, the camera fired and the fox moved on. The fox was out of sight in no time and I nervously looked at the photographs I had and it turned out that the one photograph that I hadn't shaken was the one when the fox looked at me. Thrilled about the fox, we moved on and came across a marmot sunbathing on the edge of the canyon. The marmot was a not too happy with intruders but still held ground and we left him in the exact same place we saw him.

At about the same time, an old couple came by on the trail and they told us that not too long ago that the exact same place we were walking was home to a mountain lion and a lot of people used to see it regularly from the opposite side. That sure made it more exciting. A little scary, but still exciting. As we continued along the trail, we noticed something moving in the shadows and out came three little lambs, followed by a bunch of mama big horn sheep. They were walking towards us and the little lambs showed no fear of humans as they walked up the trail and stopped to look at strange creatures standing on two legs. The female big horns took a more cautious path, but they were still very calm. The light was terrible for photography, but who cares about light and photographs when you can watch such beauty up close?

The fox and the sheep had pretty much made the hike. It couldn't get any better, can it? Probably not because something happened not too long after the sheep had moved on. We were walking along the trail and noticed a bison several hundred feet away. It was running from the open grassland towards the canyon rim. Remember the trail was along the rim and that meant the bison would either have to move along the trail or go along the trail. And then I realized it wasn't just one bison. The lead bison was part of a small herd with three young calves. Expecting the bison to move away, we continued to walk along the trail. Now the trail was not just flat, but had gentle hills which meant parts of the trails were not visible when in a trough. As we moved along and got to the top of another small hill, we noticed that the bison herd had moved quickly in our direction and were standing on the hill on the other side less than a couple of hundred feet away. They were moving towards us and moving quickly. They had no idea we were on the trail but I could only imagine bad things if they got too close to us and spooked because they had calves to protect. Moving out of their path was the only option then, but we didn't want to go to the open grassland, so running to the trees was the only option. The trees were on the very edge of the cliff and the nearest one was some distance away. We quickly moved to the trees expecting the bison to come charging down the trail. Since the trees were a little off the trail and into the canyon, we didn't actually see the bison go past us, but when we finally went back up the trail we could see the herd running along the trail to the place where we had seen the big horn sheep. The herd was moving fast. Just amazing to think that such ponderous animals are so quick. Glad that we were not a part of the great stampede on Specimen Ridge trail, we moved along.

When the last drop of water from the last water bottle was empty and specimen ridge still a few miles away, we decided we had to turn back. No use exhausting ourselves on a hot summer day high in the mountains when we could see a storm building up in the distance. Besides, I realized that walking on ridges and steep slopes with a heavy backpack makes hiking very cumbersome and one bad step on loose gravel will see man and camera go rolling downhill (Rolling hills like they say!). The downhill route was way more easy like it should be. It was more open grassland though and if we came across more bison, we'd have to come up with another strategy because there were no trees in sight. Grizzly scat and bison dung told us it was probably a well used path. However, the most dangerous things we saw were two American badgers. Now badgers are small and look cute an all that but let their cuteness not deceive you. They are some of the most feared animals in the wild world. They are known to be extremely fearless and huge animals like lions and bears stay clear of a badgers path. Some reputation then? Well, the badgers showed that the part of being fearless was true because they saw us and continued going about their business digging burrows. We were not sure if it was their burrow or if they were raiding a burrow for lunch, but we sure didn't want them to come and investigate us. For several minutes, the badgers hung around and finally decided to move uphill and we started moving back along the trail to the point where we had started.

A lamb on the trail...

Pronghorn just before we headed out on the trail

Pronghorn calves

The Red Fox

Marmot on the Canyon wall

Bison moving on the trail towards us

The inquisitive badgers

Baby Big-horned sheep

Mama Big-horned sheep

Big-horned sheep lambs.

Fearless lambs! :)

They don't come any cuter...

The Grand Teton National Park

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:39:55 GMT

I have no words it seems. I have been thinking for the last several minutes on how best to start writing about the short trip to the Grand Teton National Park and I just can't begin. Grand, wonderful, amazing, awesome, fantastic, beautiful and everything else seems to fit very well. It probably isn't as popular as the national park just north - Yellowstone - but it is just as pretty and in a different way. It has been claimed that the Teton range is so beautiful that the southern state of Colorado once used photographs of this range for advertising tourism in their state! Yeah, the words Colorado and Rockies seem to go hand in hand, but the Rockies are so beautiful everywhere that the political boundaries are just lines on some map.

The northern end of the park seems to support a healthy population of the Grizzly bear and seeing one on the trip was top priority. The Colter Bay campsite had fliers with a photograph of a young grizzly that had been shot dead in the campsite because bad humans taught the bear how to steal food and he had become an aggressive raider. "Save a bear" the flier screamed with the dead bear's photograph doing some advertising to save his friends and family who still roam and live in these parts. It seems that most of the tourists driving thorough the national park are on their way to Yellowstone and only a few decide to explore the place. The crowds that Yellowstone is famous far seem to avoid Grand Teton - which is probably the reason why the place seems so much wilder. The dirt roads off of the highways are empty and there is wildlife to be seen. We didn't have any luck with the grizzlies though, but the trip to the Grand Teton was a beautiful one indeed because all the other animals and the scenic Rockies more than made up for missing out on the big brown bear.

The Teton range just before dawn at the Oxbow bend

A vole. I almost ran over this one, but it was saved and chased away from the suicide spot.

A Bison

A Black-tailed Deer

Another Black-tailed Deer

A Moose enjoying some time by a stream

A Pronghorn. Only the cheetah can run faster than this animal. It is strange then that the fastest herbivore and the fastest carnivore are on two vast continents separated by thousands of miles of land and sea.

An American White Pelican enjoys a swim

The Teton range at moonrise...

...and the first rays of Sun

Dusk.