Agave

Took this tonight.  There's some agave stalks in full bloom behind my folks house, and I wanted to catch them with the moon.  Very tough to get a good exposure, but this is what came out.   

Portrait

Here's a portrait that I really like.   Tim Singewald, owner of D.C. Bar Ranch in Wyoming.   

Rockin' the Rockies: Bring it on Home

Back home now.  Showered for the first time in ten days.  Probably still smell.  I'm excited to sleep in a bed...BUT!  It was an awesome road trip!  17 nights, 7 states (New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and good ol' Arizona), 3200 miles, good company and lots of canned food and whiskey.  Here's a few more pics.

Yellowstone traffic jam.

The Grand Tetons at night.  

Our campsite with a huge view of the Tetons.   

Kevin and Josh taking in the view.   

I'd like to thank Josh for driving, and both Kev and Josh for being such awesome roommates while we were living out of Josh's truck!  Cheer's guys!   It was a happy time...

Next stop, Mt. Shasta for the fourth...

Happy Father's Day, Father

Rockin' the Rockies: Green River Lakes

Squaretop Mountain along the Green River.   

After 3 days and nights of getting rained on, snowed out, and facing wind gusts that were blowing trees over, we got some nice weather!  Thanks, Wyoming!  We packed 12 miles, into the upper Green River valley, and I got this shot.  It was cold, and i had to wade into the frigid river to a fallen tree and set up my camera.  The moon was out, so it lit it up nicely, and i was able to get some star trails with a 45 minute exposure.  

We camped out at this spot for 3 nights, braving the elements.  The nasty weather provided for some cool photos, so no complaints.  

Bald eagle.

Yeehaw!  

We had the upper valley to ourselves.   Enjoying a good read and a view.   

We didn't see any bears, but there were plenty of signs.  Big guys roamin' around!  

Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose!  

Sunset over the Green river.  

This little gray jay was hangin' out by our camp for a couple days.  

So I'll be honest...we can't even catch a cold in Wyoming.  

We spent last night at the D.C. Bar Ranch, in the Green River Valley.  This crusty character, Tim Singewald, has owned and operated the D.C. Bar, for over 30 years.  He's the ultimate mountain man, and knows this corner of Wyoming like the back of his hand.   The D.C. Bar had a party, and since Josh used to work there, we were able to stay for the shindig.   Good guy, Tim.   

Spending a night in the Tetons, then up to Yellowstone for a couple nights.  I'll post more soon.   

Rockin' the Rockies: Warm Welcome in Wyoming

So after tooling around in Denver and Fort Collins for a couple days to wait out some nasty weather, we decided to head up to the Wind River range in Wyoming.   The weather followed...

Click the images to enlarge

The Green River, with peaks and lightning in the background.  Taken last night.  The rain was pounding, the lightning was flashing bright and often, and the thunder made the ground rumble and shake.   It was an awesome display, but I was glad to have my tent and a good book.  

We are staying near Green River Lakes in the Wind Rivers for the next few nights.  If the weather clears enough, we will be packing in toward squaretop peak, the prominent rock formation in the right-center of the images.  

More pics to come in a few days.   

Rockin' the Rockies: Rained Out!

Spent a couple nights car camping in Vallecito, but our big plans for some epic camping at the massive Collegiate Peaks were foiled by some crazy weather.  Blast!    We re-routed to Kevins folks house in Denver, where i'm posting this.  We took the most scenic route possible, but the views were quite limited by the storms.    Hopefully this mess clears in the next few days so we can hit Rocky Mountain National Park (which is receiving 6-12 inches of snow by tomorrow).  Touring the Coors Brewery tomorrow instead, booyah!   Here's some photo's. 

My home for 2 nights in Vallecito.  

Vallecito is the buggiest place i've ever been.  I busted out the telephoto and got a shot of the buggers.   

Views along the road.

Visibility:  Limited to none.

The entire 7 hour drive was like this...

Next stop:  Rocky Mountain National Park.  Time to slay some more fish!   But first, free beer at Coors.  When the mountains turn blue........

Rockin' the Rockies: Williams Lake

Williams lake at night.  The lights on the right side of the picture is our camp.  

Williams Lake, located at 11,700 ft in the Weminuche Wilderness in southern Colorado, is a picturesque and hard to get to alpine lake that offers stellar views and awesome fishing.   My buddies Kevin, Josh, and I, packed the 10 miles and 3300 feet up to this lake for a couple nights.  It was an immensely tough hike on a very little used and poorly maintained trail, but the reward was worth it.  We had the place to ourselves, save for some bears.

Since we saw no other footprints, we surmised that we were the first humans to make it this far on the trail since it's been passable on foot this year.  Therefore, the wildlife was abundant, and about five miles in, we stumbled upon a couple bears foraging in a meadow-a beautiful cinnamon colored guy and a larger, jet black bear.    We were able to watch from a distance briefly, but as soon as they got wind of our scent, they booked it straight up the slope.  So, no pics of the actual bears, but we found some good prints.   

Water was abundant, as the snowmelt was still flowing strong.  It seemed every gully and drainage was flowing, and there were waterfalls galore.   

But of course, we came here to slay some trout.  And that's just what we did, landing 20 in two days.  

Kevin leads the fish count, with 9.  Josh: 5, Me: 6

Kevin holding a fine cut-throat specimen.

  

We shall call ourselves "The Bent Poles".    Good start to Rockin' the Rockies fishing/backpacking tour.