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This article is Copyright 2005, James Morrissey, and may not, in part or in whole, be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. The images in this article are the property of James Morrissey.

Saturday July 16th

Much to our chagrin, there was a problem with our airline tickets leaving out of Providence to Salt Lake City. In short, somehow the confirmation number that was on our e-ticket did not actually guarantee us a real confirmed seat on a real confirmed plane. We spent an hour at the airport trying to straighten things out. We will now be leaving on Monday the 18th at 5:30 PM

This was a blow for several reasons. The first is obviously that our vacation time is limited and we have a lot of things that we want to accomplish during this trip. The second is that this gives us less than 48 hours to cancel our reservations in a tourist town.

Needless to say, after I finished my apoplexy at the airport, my wife and I returned to my sister's home and started to cancel hotel and car reservations. Much to our surprise, everyone that we dealt with were pretty wonderful. The hotel in Salt Lake (the Airport Raddison) switched us to Monday night without any problems. The Alamo car dealership actually found a way for us to shorten our stay and save additional money, and the hotel in Jackson (The Wagon Wheel, where we had never stayed before) cancelled the reservations without problems. The folks at the park were also very easy to deal with. We did not get hit with one fee for all of the mix-ups.

On the negative side, we are losing a day in the Lake area and one day in the Tetons. I understand that part of the Lake cabins area is closed due to the number of grizzly bears looking for food. I was very hopeful that we would get the time to really stake out an area and get some new grizzly shots. The loss of the Tetons is also significant. Normally, my family and I spend nearly as much time in the Grand Teton National Park as we do in Yellowstone. There is an abundance of wildlife and it is much less crowded.

On a very positive note, this gave us a forced opportunity to spend some time with our relatives for a much longer period of time than we normally do. Even though we live only a few hours away, in Manhattan, we spend not enough time visiting.

Monday July 18th

Our flight went off without a hitch. We flew first class out of Providence to Salt Lake City. We picked up a purple Pontiac Sunfire from the Alamo. As Han Solo one said, “It doesn't look like much, but she's got it where it counts.” That, in essence, describes the Sunfire. I hope that my back survives the week.

Tuesday July 19th

My wife and I left the Raddison shortly before 10 AM. Breakfast was buffet style and was satisfying. The rooms were excellent - and they were quite affordable. The night cost less than $90.00. I love leaving Manhattan. That would have been $300.00 here.

We took the scenic route from Salt Lake City. While it is possible to drive straight up Interstate 15 from Salt Lake City to Teton Falls (and cut East over the Teton Pass), it is not the prettiest route. Instead, we drove up Route 15 to Brigham City. We then took Interstate 89 the rest of the way.

The trip up I89 is MUCH longer than going straight up I15, however, it sure is pretty. We drove through several small towns and national forests. Much of the time on 89, you are traveling through the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The road is beautiful, with large cascading walls and rock formations on the side of the roads. A pleasant river follows the road for much of the way.

Idaho Creek (c) James Morrissey

I would imagine that the scenery is even more beautiful during the autumn months as the folliage turns color. While most of the trees are ever-greens, there are plenty of aspens along the way. Eventually, we wound up at Bear Lake. Bear Lake is a small tourist town in Idaho. As I recall, they boasted a small heard of buffalo. There were lots of signs about raspberries. In retrospect, we should have stopped longer. There are lots of beautiful farms - and I imagine that in the right light, the photographs would be absolutely stunning.

Making our way up through Wyoming, we got a chance to view the many villages and towns that lead up to Jackson. Most of the towns are quite tiny, however, it is very clear that many of them will grow to rival Jackson in time. This is particularly true of the town of Alpine, which lies about 25 miles South of Jackson. The population sign, as I recall, read less than 300. I read in a local paper that they are expecting a population of over 6,000 by 2025. That is not as far away as it sounds. There were also three small towns South of Alpine - Thayne, Etna and Afton. They all seem to thrive on the tourism trade. The town of Afton was quite nice and had a huge arch of antlers crossing the road.

We arrived in Jackson at about 4 PM. We were quite hungry and exhausted. My wife had not been feeling well so we grabbed a bite at Taco Bell (some of my loves are universal) and took a quick nap in the parking lot.

We had hoped to run into one of our forum members, Johnny CB. However, we were not able to cross paths. We wound up moving straight up through the Tetons and into Yellowstone. We purchased an Annual Pass for $50.00. Considering that it costs $20.00 for a one week pass, and that this allows you to go to ANY national park, this seems like a complete steal. Seniors, by the way, are able to purchase a Golden Eagle Passport for $10.00 for a lifetime membership. This seems like a wonderful thing to me.

We drove into Mammoth by 8 PM in the evening. We had the opportunity to photograph two beautiful bull elk in a field about 10 miles south of Mammoth (toward Norris) but did not stop due to our desire to get into Mammoth by sunset. Photographing Mammoth at sunset was one of my two main goals. We were parked right next to the basin that I wanted to photograph at 9 PM, however, the sky was a bit cloudy and did not pop. I did not get the sunset that I wanted, but I still got some very nice shots.

Mammoth Sunset (c) James Morrissey