Our first geyser basin! My expectation going in was never that West Thumb would be the highlight of the entire trip, but since it was the first one I expected that maybe it would hold a special place in our hearts – a premonition that I would say played out exactly correctly. Some of the …
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National Parks Trip: Yellowstone’s South Entrance
For the first time in a couple of days, we were going back into fully uncharted territory. Having seen most of the vantages of Grand Teton south of Colter Bay, we were now seeing the northern reaches of the Tetons and moving into the rolling terrain of Yellowstone’s southern plateaus. It was kind of hard …
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National Parks Trip: Last Morning in Grand Teton
I awoke on August 16 full of the conflicting sadness that my family was leaving and excitement to see Yellowstone. I did want to get one more sunrise from one of the greatest sunrise spots on Earth. The boundary layer aerosol load over northwestern Wyoming may have disagreed, but that was neither here nor there. …
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National Parks Trip: Final Night in Grand Teton
The theory of relativity applies no where more than on vacation. Go back through and look at the “national parks trip” tag on my blog, and this is already my 17th post on the trip. In a way, our night in Laramie felt like it was weeks ago, and yet hadn’t we just gotten to …
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TORUS 2019: The Day It All Went Up In Smoke (May 22, 2019)
We all needed a down day. May 20, 2019 had shaved months off of the lives of field researchers, forecasters, and myself. The Mangum tornado, its low visibility, the inadequate and overstressed road network, and the unexpected collapse of the rest of the severe weather outbreak left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth that night …
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National Parks Trip: Mormon Row
If you spend enough time either reading or watching Grand Teton guides, you will eventually see Mormon Row referred to as “one of the most photographed sets of barns in the world”, or something closely related. Settled in the early 1900s by Latter-Day Saints, Mormon Row comprises a small network of homesteads in the Antelope …
National Parks Trip: Moose Village
Food. At a certain point, even a single-minded national park nut like Elizabeth needs to take a break from rampaging through her itinerary to stop and eat some food. On August 15, we made it well past noon before succumbing to the siren song of food. With such a diverse range of diets in our …
National Parks Trip: Chapel of the Transfiguration
Proof that time is relative: we were just getting started on our second full day in Grand Teton, and it felt like the trip was just beginning, but it was also our last full day in Grand Teton. The entire Meister clan sans myself would be returning home in just 24 hours. And what did …
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National Parks Trip: Kayaking Jackson Lake
A legendary trip was already obviously under way, and it had only been 48 hours. A quick recap: an awesome night in Laramie, a beautiful drive, a proposal in the mountains, and a hike to a glacial lake. One thing I had been clear about when talking to Elizabeth: I would not be going to …
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National Parks Trip: Jackson
When I say that I don’t get hungry during hefty exertions, I should mention that that usually presages hunger pangs hours later. This is a fancy way of saying that I was ready for dinner in Jackson. Elizabeth’s plan had called for riding the gondola over at the Jackson Hole ski area, where a restaurant …
