Tom Rankin
Well-known member
We traveled out to the Grand Tetons by way of Salt Lake City.
Our only peakbagging was Dooley Knob, on Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake. It was a fairly short hike, maybe 2 miles, and 700-800' of gain. It was extremely dry the entire time we were out west, at least by my standards. The views always looked a little washed out, but they were 360 on the summit. A raven was annoyed that we had temporarily occupied his perch. The elevation here was only 5,000' so we did not experience any altitude issues.
After picking up my son and his wife, we headed up to the Grand Tetons, arriving at dusk at Colter Bay, where we stayed for several days. We did some easy hikes to water falls, and lakes, etc. We also scoped out a good place to watch the eclipse. That included views of the mountains, and a porta-potty!
Monday we got up very early and drove to our chosen location. Surprisingly, there were only a few people there and the roads never got congested. I think a lot of people must have opted to go further south for a few more seconds of totality, but I was content with our spot and a mellow pre-eclipse ramp up. There was everything from babies to seasoned Eclipse veterans at our venue.
If you've never seen totality, there is just no comparison to videos, drawings, or photos. It came on slowly at first, with subtle changes in the light and cooler temperatures. Venus and Jupiter became visible. Most people had eclipse glasses on and were safely watching the moon slowly advance across the face of the sun. I pointed out Sun spots in my binoculars to my family and other viewers. As the Moon eventually covered the entire Sun, the sky rapidly darkened, and the Corona suddenly came into view in all its glory. Even though I'd see it happen twice before, I was almost driven to my knees by the spectacle, and I was momentarily breathless. I recovered my self and started looking through the binoculars, now unfiltered. It was stunning. There were many prominences circling the sun (they look like red/pink flames). We passed the binoculars around for a few minutes, and stared in awe. But then suddenly, I could see the intense glare of the Sun start to peek around the other edge of the moon and I called out for everyone to resume using eclipse glasses. I turned to watch the mountains and saw the light increase rapidly. It was all over. We lingered until the moon finally left the disk of the sun, but it was sort of anti-climactic.
I did not take any eclipse shots, because it would have been a lot more gear to haul around, and I knew that others would easily out class me.
The next day we went to Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Hot Springs. They are truly wonders of nature, but they fell a little flat.
2024 will offer another chance to see an Eclipse cross thru upper New England. Don't miss it!
Pics:
This album is 'public' but you have to be logged into facebook to view it.
https://www.facebook.com/tfrankin/media_set?set=a.10213728250710843.1073741847.1542878017&type=3
Our only peakbagging was Dooley Knob, on Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake. It was a fairly short hike, maybe 2 miles, and 700-800' of gain. It was extremely dry the entire time we were out west, at least by my standards. The views always looked a little washed out, but they were 360 on the summit. A raven was annoyed that we had temporarily occupied his perch. The elevation here was only 5,000' so we did not experience any altitude issues.
After picking up my son and his wife, we headed up to the Grand Tetons, arriving at dusk at Colter Bay, where we stayed for several days. We did some easy hikes to water falls, and lakes, etc. We also scoped out a good place to watch the eclipse. That included views of the mountains, and a porta-potty!
Monday we got up very early and drove to our chosen location. Surprisingly, there were only a few people there and the roads never got congested. I think a lot of people must have opted to go further south for a few more seconds of totality, but I was content with our spot and a mellow pre-eclipse ramp up. There was everything from babies to seasoned Eclipse veterans at our venue.
If you've never seen totality, there is just no comparison to videos, drawings, or photos. It came on slowly at first, with subtle changes in the light and cooler temperatures. Venus and Jupiter became visible. Most people had eclipse glasses on and were safely watching the moon slowly advance across the face of the sun. I pointed out Sun spots in my binoculars to my family and other viewers. As the Moon eventually covered the entire Sun, the sky rapidly darkened, and the Corona suddenly came into view in all its glory. Even though I'd see it happen twice before, I was almost driven to my knees by the spectacle, and I was momentarily breathless. I recovered my self and started looking through the binoculars, now unfiltered. It was stunning. There were many prominences circling the sun (they look like red/pink flames). We passed the binoculars around for a few minutes, and stared in awe. But then suddenly, I could see the intense glare of the Sun start to peek around the other edge of the moon and I called out for everyone to resume using eclipse glasses. I turned to watch the mountains and saw the light increase rapidly. It was all over. We lingered until the moon finally left the disk of the sun, but it was sort of anti-climactic.
I did not take any eclipse shots, because it would have been a lot more gear to haul around, and I knew that others would easily out class me.
The next day we went to Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Hot Springs. They are truly wonders of nature, but they fell a little flat.
2024 will offer another chance to see an Eclipse cross thru upper New England. Don't miss it!
Pics:
This album is 'public' but you have to be logged into facebook to view it.
https://www.facebook.com/tfrankin/media_set?set=a.10213728250710843.1073741847.1542878017&type=3
