Almost a Year, Now...

In August it will be one year since Andy, Carole, and I visited Yellowstone-Grand Tetons National Parks. Although I've only been there one time, I miss it terribly. The single thing that keeps recurring to me is the clarity of the skies out there. Every time I looked up I saw the skies crisp and blue and perfect. Only once, briefly, around Jackson Hole did I see the air take on the familiar and polluted hues of our eastern skies.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to return to those parks, but I hope that it will happen again.

Please click on the following photographs to see them in larger format.

The first mountain that we saw upon entering the park. We pulled over to enjoy the view and stroll along the river where a few people were fly fishing.

And our first family photo in Yellowstone National Park.

Thermal features are seemingly everywhere you look.

We couldn't get enough of gazing at the volcanic vents and springs.

Deep canyons scour the landscape.

Climbing my first big mountain in the park, Avalanche Peak.

The view from Avalanche Peak toward the Absoroka Mountains.

Me and Andy at a hot spring on our float trip on the Yellowstone River.

Walking down into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

My little family in the Grand Tetons National Park on Jenny Lake.

This was the closest we got to a bear in the parks. At first I thought it was a grizzly bear, but soon realized it was just a brown phase black bear. He was so intent on eating some type of nut or vegetation on the ground that he never raised his head to look at us.

The first moose we saw, on the Snake River in the Grand Tetons.