quest for the west, adventures by disney, 8/25/09 - 8/31/09

so like all great trips, and make no mistake, this was A+++, all the way, each and every day, in each and every way, it has to start somewhere, so here i present going to jackson wyoming, and btw, it's jackson, jackson hole is the valley, including the associated towns of jackson, kelley, dubois, etc
this'll be a long one folks, and will probably take about 3 weeks or so to fully post, it'll be photos and commentary, ala the panama canal thread from last year
for some reason the ability to insert pictures between commentary eludes me at present, so the header numbers correspond to the photo numbers
1. we started our day at chicago, o'hare airport, united direct to jackson at 1154, hanging in the seat area, nothing much to do but kill time, we used a bus transfer from midway direct to o'hare, and got there sooner than expected, so we had a couple hours to kill
3. just looking out at the jetway, for some reason it's a rare trip that i don't take this shot, any airport
4. wild neon overhead sculpture thingy in one of the passageways to terminal 3
9. in flight, almost there, terrain starting to get real mountainous now, proved a few minutes later by a pretty steep descent angle into the jackson airport
10. on the ground, rolling to the terminal, first view of grand teton peak, the big daddy of them all, 13,000 +



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so it's around 1400, we are on the ground at jackson, the lady is yelling, keep moving people, as most everyone is a little winded, jackson is at 6200 feet elevation
13. here's why they try to keep you moving, jackson international has no jetways, it's stairs for everyone, which set up the next 2 shots
12. frontier airlines, notice the cool tail wrap
14. the famed antler arch, each spring the jackson boy scout troop goes into the national elk refuge and picks up the antlers and auctions them off for charity. the elk winter down in the refuge by the river for the more temperate climate and the food given out, the males drop the racks in feb-april before heading up to higher elevations for the summer
this arch and the ones we'll see later in town square are made from antlers donated back to the scouts after auction
16. the disney guides were in the terminal, luggage was gathered, and in short order all incoming folks were loaded onto a couple of vans for transport the 12 or so miles into jackson, with very informative historical commentary by the driver all the way into town, off in the distance some houses, distances are very deceiving out here, what looks close can be 10 miles away
23. one of the first things we saw when we got into town was a stagecoach ride



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Great shots & commentary to boot. Can't wait until you actually get into the meat & potatoes of the trip. I'll be sure to keep checking back.

 

we arrived at our lodging for the next 2 nights, the wort hotel, a real nice, old historical hotel, right in the center of jackson, we couldn't have had a better location for being on foot
27. the front/side of the wort hotel
25. looking down main street jackson, actually called broadway
26. the local ski area, called snow king, and for a good reason, jackson averages 500 + inches of snow a winter
17. grand staircase in the wort hotel lobby
22. the relief carved entrance door to the cowboy suite, and no, disney for some reason chose not to put us up in there, so i have no inside photos


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Oh, sure, tease with a good lead in and then leave for a long weekend. ; ; Have a great time!

 

nice photos Gary, looking forward to more.

 

so i couldn't go off for a long weekend without a little eye candy, since we had a few hours free until supper, and most of the next am free, i decided to walk over 2 blocks to the dollar rental and see if they had a tin can available, i had to settle for a toyota minivan, but a set of wheels was priceless, as you'll see in the next few posts. i'm going to take a moment to send out a GREAT BIG SHOUT OUT,to landon and daniel, our disney adventure guide for the week, they were flat out awesome, they even knew the way to the famous barn shot
28. first encounter with bison, if you want to call them buffalo,then it's properly, the american buffalo, so as to distinguish them from the water and cape buffalo's, the true buffalo of the world, and yes they are really really large, and pretty common, on the road to mormon row, and i tried out my new filter, a singh-ray blue and gold polarizer, thus the overly blue or gold at times
29. part of the old mormon settlement that was in this part of the valley, and this 24mm, not uwa, it really is that vast out there
30. more of the old homestead buildings, much of this area was settled in the late 1800's
31. the full homestead, notice the log/chinked construction, still holds up pretty well even today
32. the famous aj moulton barn, i show this to illustrate how important lighting and the need to sometimes be there at the right time is, luckily i realized the potential and had wheels and time for the sunrise shot, we've seen this before, i posted up a variant a couple of days ago, within a couple of seconds of taking this shot i knew what it really needed


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Awesome report so far, looking forward to more.

 

41. trying to show some more of the wide open spaces here

42. off the other way

43. the barns that are part of the former mormon row, now rental cabins and b&b

44. all are in good repair, and yes, gary's on his barn thing again as a photographer

49. including the early 19th century adobe walled ranch house, i put some coin in the donation box for the foundation keeping this place up, we've lost too many of the old farm houses from the landscape



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so we resume our travelogue, still the first day in the west, a few more of the old homestead and the surrounding valley of jackson hole
53. the view through the small grove of trees, a feature of many older homesteads, many times planted to give a little shade area for those hot western summer days
61. the stock loading chute, from later years when trucks took the place of cattle drives
68. the water supply, you need water for the stock and gardens
69. another view of the homestead
72. and that most necessary of structures, the one slot outhouse, i did not check for the sears roebuck catalog

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and just down the road, the herd of bison, large slow animals, that can take the right of way on a road just by sheer size
74. a couple of curious ones
79. the one on the left was very large, very curious, and very aware of the presence of my car, gray in color, i was hoping he was not mistaking it for a challenge to his herd supremacy
81.baby with mom behind, calves are born april/may
82. more of the family unit
83. large bull crossing in front of me, he gets the undisputed right of way, taken right from the driver's seat with side mirror for scale




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and so the day draws to a close, tommorow, lunch at the jackson playhouse, white water rafting on the snake river in the afternoon, and local rodeo at the fairgrounds
84. welcome dinner at the wort hotel, the guides had us all briefly introduce ourselves, where from, and what 1-2 things we most wanted from the trip, of course number 1 was at least 1 photo worthy of 16x20 size print, more on that later, and of course every dinner needs a cowboy singer
86, 87 and 89, timed tripod night shots of broadway in jackson, all within a block of the wort hotel
90.and as i'm taking these a guy pulls up and parks a 63 vette, in immaculate condition, so of course i can't resist the shot, who could??



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8/26/09, day 2, our full day in jackson, i still have the rental, so i get up at 0 dark thirty, and make my way out of town again where i get the famous barn shot
91. the aj moulton barn at sunrise
93. grand teton peak at sunrise
94. some trees for scale
96. the barn with grand teton from a slightly different angle
87. miles and miles of wyoming

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back in to town, breakfast at the wort, back into the rental, out to mormon row again with karen and a fellow traveler, mary, who had mentioned at the intro dinner, she really wanted to see a buffalo, so i had her grab her fairly new nikon and off we 3 went to see the bison

99. bison, barn, beautiful scenery, all in one location

101. the stream and the barn, ok i promise, last barn shot, at least for now

103. while never showing any signs of aggression,the top bull was always keeping an eye on things, and people need to realize this when near these animals, these are wild animals, not a petting zoo, stay in the car, and be ready to leave the area if necessary

104. babv rolling around scratching that itchy back, next to momma

107. the classic stereotypical american west shot, bison, praire, and mountains, all in one place




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