the calm before the storm

the below photographs were taken on the snake river the morning andrea and i decided to kayak from jackson lake dam to deadman's bar. we never made it the whole way. andrea and i got caught in a log jam about half way. andrea took the brunt of it as her and her kayak were dragged completely underwater, and under the log jam. she miraculously pop to the surface on the the other side. let it be known, surfacing after colliding with a log jam does not happen often. we made it safely to a distance shore of the river, put back in, but were too tired to continue. we pulled out of the snake river eight miles short of deadman's bar. we had to drag both of our kayaks up hill, through a sage brush field about three-quarters of a mile to get a ride back to our car. needless to say, it was time for some mountain high pizza pie and a beer.

i am so thankful andrea came out of this alive. it was quite a nightmare.

the peaceful part of the snake river; from jackson lake dam to pacific creek landing.

bald eagle nesting areas lined the upper snake river. if you look closely to the bottom left
of the nest you can see a bald eagle perched on a branch.

not sure what type of flower this is; can anyone tell us?

what are the odds? a bee landing on the same flower we were photographing.

andrea pre-log jam.

brooke pre-log jam

the finest land in the country... jackson hole.

worn out. post-log jam and kayak shuffling extravaganza.

andrea just had told me to look behind me to see how far we had carried the kayaks through sagebrush.
just a fifty foot steep hill down to the water at the tree line.

for james:

so a trip to grand teton national park wouldn’t be a trip if we didn’t indulge ourselves in a little ‘river road’ action. river road is a 13 mile ‘unpaved’ road that runs through the sagebrush fields between the snake river and jenny, string, and leigh lakes. the nps used the term ‘unpaved’ to denote lack of pavement. this means that the road could be gravel, boulders, mud, water, sagebrush, or a conglomeration all of the previous mentioned ingredients. river road is all of the previous terms… and is beautiful.

last year we found this gem and drove our four week old nissan xterra the entire 13 miles using the four-wheel drive option quite a bit. this year we decided to trek a portion that our xterra had not seen, and also scoped out a stretch of the snake river that we might kayak in a day or so. whenever we take our truck off-road we can’t help but to smile and think of our friend james. this is for james: a busted mud flap, a lot of mud, and managing to knock off our front license plate didn’t hinder our joy.

a side note: some of our friends inquire as to why we need a four-wheel drive vehicle. the answer is simple. when you travel roads to see things that few ever see, you need a reliable car.

riding low.


i have no idea how this happened! ;)


ridin' dirty.

string lake, leigh lake & logan:

the barista at pearl st. bagels told us that the best hidden spot in the tetons was to kayak from string lake a leigh lake. string lake had an average depth of about ten inches. we had to portage our kayaks to leigh lake; about a hundred yards. being much deeper, we dawned life jackets and paddled for an hour or two in leigh lake. returing to the portage back into string lake, we met a family that we saw a few times on the water and their five year old logan. he had a little sigg water bottle with his name on in…and a bear sticker. nice couple; cute kid.

all ten inches of water!

the tetons from string lake.


you can't even buy a sticker this cool!


a kayakers perspective.


portage in the rain :).

rocky mountain np -> grand teton np

today our road was long and hard. leaving estes park, co this morning around 9am, we traversed the rockies multiple times. as if struggling up pass after pass wasn’t enough, rain began to fall; turning dried up creek beds into raging rivers. there were certain points where the wipers ceased to keep up with the heavy water droplets. after taking a beating for a few hours, it seemed the appropriate time for a break as we rolled into the quiet town of lander, wy. lander is a great little community in the middle of nowhere; are type of town. we stopped at wild iris outdoors to stretch our legs and take a break from ‘the burden’ tugging at our back. what a great little outdoor outfitter. after refueling our stomachs at our favorite road trip restaurant, taco bell, we conceded back to the road for another punishing five hours of rain, incline, then fall. hitting dubios, wy at full steam, we didn’t slow until we saw a construction sign that read, ‘pavement ends.’ not sure what to expect what W-DOT means when they say ‘pavement ends,’ we discovered very quickly they mean, ‘pavement ends… but the road continues as a mud pit.’ we drove, in four-wheel, through mud for about ninety minutes until we arrived at the the moran entrance station of grand tetons to a perky park ranger that asked if we had come up from jackson, wy. we answered no, but why; she responded by saying there was a report of a man hitting a tatanka [buffalo; pronounced: Ta-tonka]. this happens more than one might think. we searched two campgrounds until we had found the very last open camp spot at colter bay. a spot with a parking space big enough to fit the xterra and ‘the burden.’ though grass would have been nice to rest our weary bodies on, a six percent grade kept us from pitching the tent in the appropriate tent location, so we put the tent on the gravel pad in front of the truck. at that point it didn’t really matter we would sleep. our headlight rays faded at 12am as we slinked deep into out down sleeping bags as the rain started to get heavy. today was long, we’ll wake tired, but at least we’re in our favorite park. goodnight.

a treat for you!

while we get our photographs and writings together to post, we thought we'd give you some night exposure pictures from the grand tetons to hold you over. all of these photographs were taken during the darkness of the night and were exposed for anywhere between five seconds and thirty seconds. no images were 'photoshopped' or doctored!

enjoy!

from the signal mountain campground.

moon [not the sun] over jackson hole, wy. this was a 30 second exposure.

a camera can pickup more stars then you can actually see. another 30 second exposure.

the moon breaking through the clouds.

the money shot! not photoshopped at all! 13 second exposure. check out the big dipper of grand teton. sorry if you have a pc...your monitor will be too dark to see:(!