2015-05-16 Jackson Wyoming | shadeTreeImaging

My website suffered a catastrophic crash with complete loss of data on July 25, 2015. much of the blog content going forward was necessarily re-created from memory. This could be interesting an interesting process, as I’m an old guy so my memory might not hold up in court. Everything in the galleries (notes and images) held up through the crash, so I’ve been able to use some of these to recollect my thoughts on those times, dates and places.

Thanks to my friend Rick, my time in Jackson Wyoming lasted 8 days. The weather during this time was mixed with partly cloudy and rainy conditions. Anyone who’s been to Jackson Wyoming has experienced an “I’ve been THERE” moment while watching an old western movie, such as the classic film “Shane”. It is a spectacular setting in a long valley lined with mountain ranges, especially to the west where the Grand Tetons rise abruptly from the valley floor at 6,237’ to a towering height of 13,776′. The peaks are quite pointy, hence the name (which in French implies large boobs).

The Visitor’s Center at the north edge of town was a place I remembered fondly from my last stay here in the Fall of 2001, so I got out early and paid it a visit. While visiting during that post-911 stay, there were lots of elk in the valley. There was plenty of snow on the ground and the great bugling of these magnificent creatures could be seen and heard everywhere. Bison and moose were also prevalent on the valley floor. However during this time in mid-May, no elk, very few moose or bison were to be seen in the valley. All these larger mammals would be at higher elevations by now and babies would be, or would soon be born.

The visitor’s center was still a very good place to see birds, especially geese, who seemed to have lots of babies of their own. Subjects that found their way into my camera lens were Moose, Canada Goose with young, Cinnamon Teal, Eastern Kingbird, Gadwall, Great Blue Heron, Red-Winged Blackbird, Trumpeter Swan, Virginia Rail, Wilson’s Snipe, Yellow Warbler and Yellow-Headed Blackbird.