Our Summer Trip West

[Steve's Girl]

This past summer we took a two week road trip and headed west. I was planning to post some photos after I had more time to spend on post-processing. But, at this point, it looks like it will be quite some time before I get back to that. So, I'm just going to post some now and when (or if?) I have time to do some post processing work on them, I may post a few then too. These photos have all been run through Lightroom for basic adjustments.

We left our home in Michigan and stayed the first night near the Minnesota/South Dakota state line. We had the lovely experience of "tornadic activity". Sorry, no photos. I was too busy hiding in the bathroom with the kids. To the locals, it was no big deal, but I was not impressed! Next day, we drove across South Dakoto and made our first sight-seeing stop at the Badlands.

We were there right in the mid day sun. So, most of my photos were pretty washed out. I think this would be a very interesting place to photograph at sunrise or sunset. But, we were just passing through and really didn't have the luxury of waiting for a "golden hour". I kept envisioning the early pioneers on their horses heading out over the vast open prairie and then coming up on the Badlands. Must have been quite a shock!

Next, we went to Rushmore

The sky was pretty washed out on this one, so I converted it. Can't remember which preset I used - maybe a mocha one?

The following morning, we went back to Rushmore and the morning lighting was much nicer.

Next up - Custer State Park

 

[mom2rtk]

Hey there.... I was hoping you'd post some photos from your big road trip. Nice shots so far.

We went through South Dakota on the tail end of one of our trips a few years ago. We made the tactical error of having no hotel reservations (since it was so late in our trip we weren't certain of our dates), and it hadn't even dawned on us it would be 4th of July weekend. We ended up having to drive 2 hours PAST the Rushmore area just to stay the night. So we completely missed it! After 12 days on the road we were in no mood for backtracking....

Looking forward to more!

 

[KCmike]

I'm on board. How far west did you make it to?

 

[Steve's Girl]

I'm on board. How far west did you make it to?

Yellowstone/Jackson Hole area

 

[Steve's Girl]

Custer State Park is pretty big. You could easily spend quite a bit of time there. We chose just to do the wildlife loop since our primary objective was to spend the bulk of our time in Yellowstone and Jackson. Custer has beautiful scenery and offers quite an array of wildlife.

The plethora of buffalo

my son (qualifies as wildlife most days!)

One of the Big Dudes

My daughter with the very friendly burros - especially if you feed them!

This momma didn't let anyone get too close to her babies

I don't remember the official name for these little guys - prong horns maybe?

After leaving the Black Hills area, we drove to Sheridan, WY and spent the night there. I really did not like Sheridan at all. So we got out of there early the next morning and headed for Cody. Next is Cody Nite Rodeo.

 

[Altair]

I don't remember the official name for these little guys - prong horns maybe?

Yes, those are Pronghorns and they are very fast.:thumbsup2

 

[Steve's Girl]

Cody Nite Rodeo

The rodeo was a bit of a challenge to photograph. It started at 8pm just as the sun was starting to set. At the beginning, there were very harsh shadows. Then, there was about half an hour of really nice evening sun. Then as it began to get dark, the stadium lights came on and it was a challenge to get enough light and keep the shutter fast enough.

 

[mom2rtk]

Great job with a very challenging setting! Love the one of the rider in mid-air!

Can you remind us what equipment you are using?

 

[Steve's Girl]

Great job with a very challenging setting! Love the one of the rider in mid-air!

Can you remind us what equipment you are using?

Thanks!

I am using a Nikon D300. My two primary lenses are the 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 For the rodeo, I used my 70-200 hand held. I also have a Tokina 12-24 wide angle lens that I did use for some of the landscape shots on the trip.

 

[Steve's Girl]

Finally getting back to this thread...

Cody, WY

After leaving Cody, we took the picturesque Beartooth Mountain route to Montana

When we left Cody, the temp was 103 on my car (didn't think to take a photo). But, what a difference a little elevation makes (this is about 2 hrs drive later)

View from the top of the pass

Arriving in Cooke City, MT

This is a barn at the guest ranch where we stayed.

Here is the lodge at the guest ranch

Next, I'm going to backtrack a little bit. We drove through the Bear Tooth Mountains on our way to Cody and I forgot to post photos from that area. That will be next.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

Great pictures! Can't wait to see more!

 

[Steve's Girl]

Big Horn Mountains

This is looking back over the road we just drove up

And this is the road we are going to continue on

One of the waterfalls along our drive (tough to take a photo of a waterfall at high noon!)

Next, will be oodles of photos from Yellowstone.

 

[mom2rtk]

Beautiful shots of the mountains!

Can't wait to see Yellowstone!

 

[Steve's Girl]

Finally - Yellowstone is in sight!

A bit of nostalgia

What I enjoyed most about this trip - watching my kids. My youngest in particular is a nature and animal lover. Never once did she ask for TV or any type of entertainment. She just wanted to spend every minute outside exploring and taking it all in.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Waterfall in the Mammoth area

We really tried to find some non-touristy areas where we could take our time, relax and enjoy Yellowstone at our own pace.

Mammoth is very near Gardiner, MT. We often drove in to Gardiner for dinner. For a small Montana town, Gardiner had a very nice selection of restaurants. It sure beat typical Nat'l Park fare.

 

[mom2rtk]

Beautiful! Keep them coming!

I have found that my oldest (now 17) shows (sadly) little interest in the landscape on our national park tours. My middle one (15) shows a lot of interest, but sometimes won't leave the video games to get out of the car to look. My youngest (10) is fully involved in wanting to see it all. It seems the older they have gotten, the less they want to see it all. With the exception of me. The older I get the MORE I want to see it all. I'm glad you kids were so plugged into it all.

 

[Steve's Girl]

How 'bout some Yellowstone wildlife?

But first, we have to wait for the darn buffalo to get out of the road

When we first saw buffalo in Custer, we were really intrigued with them. By the time we had spent a couple of days in Yellowstone, we were actually getting annoyed with them. Those things are everywhere!

Black bear hanging out by the side of the road

There were elk everywhere in the Mammoth area

Lots of grizzlies out n about in Yellowstone this year

I do not have proper wildlife gear so most of these were shot with my 70-200. For some, I did use a teleconverter.

Not sure what was in that tree, but that bear was after it!

This momma grizzly was a long ways away. But, we had so much fun watching her and her two cubs. The cubs would start wrestling and rolling around and momma would turn around and fuss at them. They would get back in line and follow along, and then start wrestling again.....We watched them for about half an hour. The photos are not very good, but it was really fun to just watch.

Big Daddy elk

more later....

 

[mom2rtk]

You did great capturing a nice variety of wildlife! We hunted all over for bears, but they just weren't around the year we went. Your shots are making me want to go back and try again!

We got caught in a bison jam though, and that was quite amusing to the kids. You're right ...... they act like they own the place...... oh wait...... maybe they do!