The Grand Tetons National Park

 The Tetons are a short range of mountains south of Yellowstone. They are favored by hikers, boaters, fishermen and rock climbers. Anchored by Jackson lake, the mountains rise to form ragged majestic skyline for the park.  The park contains about 480 square miles of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Originally named a National Monument in 1943 by Franklin Roosevelt using land donated by Rockefeller's Snake River Land Company, the area would not become a National Park until 1972.

I hope you enjoy the photos. 

My attempt to capture the view made famous by noted photographer Ansel Adams

Color version of the Ansel Adams view

Jackson Lake is a favored recreation area during the heated summer months

The lake is incredibly clear. This area is about 6' deep and yet the bottom is easily visible. In the lake there are areas where  the bottom can be seen 10'-15' down.

Several smaller streams feed the lake in addition to the Snake River.

These mountainous valleys are marked with hiking trails and mountaineering locations

Rock climbers can be seen in the middle of this photo scaling one of the many granite faces in the park.

Deer are abundant in the park and, because of the number of visitors in the area are often seen up close and personal.  Like this young buck.

Crows are everywhere and given a chance will steal food or shiny things from tables.  This one  was particularly obnoxious, telling us in no uncertain terms we were not offering enough and so we should leave.

Jackson Lake dam controls the outflow for irrigation use.

With a mountain meadow and Jackson Lake in the foreground the Grand Tetons become a picture postcard setting.

Voyagers National Park

Voyagers National Park sits near International Falls, MN on the US and Canadian border and mainly consists of lakes and connectors.  The origins of this area date back to when the fur trade was active and French Canadian trappers and traders would travel these waterways to hunt for beaver and other pelts as well as use them to deliver their furs to middlemen who would sell them to markets in the eastern cities and to Europe.  These stalwart men who traveled here were called Voyagers.

The park has four major lakes which with other waterways cover 344 square miles.  Most of the land area in the park is accessible only by boat.

This photo, from Wikipedia open stock, shows park waters and some of the islands that dot the lakes. The immense size of this national park can best be appreciated from the air.

The Park Service runs tour boats to various locations on the lakes.  We took one to Kettle Falls, a hotel and restaurant about 2 hours by water from our campsite.Kettle Falls is and was a main stopping point for tourists and trappers.

Bald Eagles are common in this area.  This is one of the nests in their favored nesting tree a Black Spruce

Another example of an eagle's nest

The white bird is a white pelican and the darker birds are cormorants. The cormorants are a native bird which is a voracious feeder and the Park Service is studying them to determine the real impact they are having on the area.

Houseboats are common on the lakes. Since there are no size restrictions on either boat or motor some of the houseboats are really floating houses.  one issue with such craft is dealing with them in the winter as the lake freezes over for a few months each year.

Our tour boat went by some of the original building sites on islands. This one was built and occupied by a man who lived here year around.  His diary reflected his love of the solitary life and the quiet majesty of the winter months when he was trapped by snow and ice.

This green frog was an official greeter at the landing for Kettle Falls.

The Kettle Falls hotel was built in 1910 and served as lodging for trappers, loggers, traders who worked the northern areas. 

Kettle Falls Dam is used to regulate the flow of water from lake to lake helping balance the electricity generated further downstream.

In the middle of the this photo you can see the top of a beaver dam.  Beavers create marsh areas behind their dams which attract other wildlife.

This marker designates the border between the USA and Canada. Kettle Falls is the only area where you can look south from the USA and see into Canada.  The border through the Voyagers follows the early route taken by  French Canadian trappers (called voyagers and thus the park namesake) into the great lakes area.

This shows the effect a bear can have when searching for insects under the bark. 

An eagles nest unusual for its location in a birch tree. Black Spruce are the favored nesting location.

Our return trip from Kettle Falls encountered some rough water. While it does not show well in this picture the wave action was around 2' with plenty of white caps. A rough ride back to home port.

This canoe, about 16' long, is only half the length of one used by original voyagers. A voyager canoe would have 8-10 men, and a few hundred pounds of supplies (to be replaced with furs as the supplies were  used). Voyagers would be gone for many months, often a couple of years, spending winters on the islands while trapping and hunting in the spring summer and fall.  They might paddle a thousand miles before returning to eastern markets. these were tough people.

A fisherman makes way home after a day on the lakes.

The Enchanted Highway

Traveling across North Dakota there is state hwy 22 which is labeled "the enchanted highway".
There is an artist who lives in Renfree, ND who decided his town needed more visitors and his way of correcting that was to construct a series of huge sculptures along side the road from the interstate to Renfree. These are his creations.

 

truck and trailer included for scale.

I don't think the sculptures had the desired effect.  This is downtown Renfree.

Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park was the seventh national park to be established and was the first cave to be so designated.  Located in fringe of the Badlands area of  South Dakota it is noted for two specific geological cave formations, boxwork and frostwork.both shown below.

This cave is recognized as  a three dimensional maze cave with a high density of passages. it is now the 6th longest cave in the world with over 105 miles of explored cave and 4 miles of new cave being discovered and explored each year.

This small opening is where the cave was discovered from the wind "blowing" out of the underground area. As barometric pressures differ inside and outside the variation will cause the air to flow in or out of the cave area. Because the cave has a large area but only small openings the velocity of the air will be higher than in similar sized ones with larger openings.

Inside the cave this is where the opening from above terminates

These calcite deposits in rectangular and triangular patterns are examples of boxwork.  95% of the known boxwork deposits in the world are in this cave.

Another photo of the boxwork deposits also showing the needle like deposits called frostwork

Frostwork is the deposit of calcite like these small needles shown here on top of a deposit labeled as popcorn.

Our guide was showing us the structure of the cave pointing out the thick layers of rock that formed the walls and ceiling of the cave....

Then he pointed out how the separation of layers and their own weight can sometimes cause them to collapse.....NOT reassuring when you are 600' below the surface.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park covers an area over 70,000 acres in North Dakota. It is divided into three sections North, South and Elkhorn Ranch. These Pictures are from the South section. 

Theodore Roosevelt first visited this area in 1883 and was impressed by the beauty and "perfect freedom" of the area. he would visit several times and following the death of his wife and his mother in the same year, he used the area for personal healing.

Following Roosevelt's death in 1919 the area was explored to find suitable areas for preservation. Finally in 1947 the wildlife preservation area was designated as a National Memorial Park, the only one ever so designated.

Expansive vista of the park area

Prairie dogs are abundant

The bridge crossing the Little Missouri River and giving access to the park

Looking north from the high point in the southern section of the park.

Wild horses roam the park.

Like many other areas in this area evidence of the prehistoric volcanic activity.

The darker lines in this hillside are the result of volcanic ash deposits from millennia ago.

Eastern view

Southern View

This lone Prong Horn Antelope was grazing in one of the protected meadows.