With the clocks turning back, fall colors have finally hit DC. I was out with some friends to catch Sunrise this morning and it was beautiful! The sun washed the tidal basin in an amazing glow popping the reds, yellows, and oranges beyond explanation.
Hopefully you had a chance to get out today and catch the beautiful weather before the leaves are all gone!
This morning I had the chance to check out a brand new series of installations opening at the Hirshhorn Museum November 1st.
The three pieces by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer exploring the relationship of Biometric Technology routinely associated with privacy invasion to us in a more comfortable context.
The pieces all beg the user to scan their fingerprints and take their pulse. The scans and heartbeats then become a part of the exhibition. The wall takes on the unique ridges and loops of all their users.
The second room is filled with three tanks of water. Each tank has multiple input points where users pulses are captured and transferred into the water where the light shining on the surface reflects the motion up and onto the wall. The interaction of the different inputs and waves with the shadows of the others moving along the gallery.
The final piece is the most impressive. In a dark room filled with incandescent bulbs that pulse with the heartbeat of the person at the pedestal, all the other users are left marveling at the peaceful space. When no one is connected, each of the previous pulses is shown in one of the bulbs.
Opening November 1st, the installation is sure to be a hit with everyone who visits. Be sure to head to the museum to check it out.
Everything I hear about the area surrounding Jackson Hole made it sound like a mini paradise in the west. All the outdoor activities gave me some very high expectations for the second half of the trip. I was looking forward to seeing Yellowstone, but not nearly as much as I was looking forward to Grand Teton National Park.
Views obscured by the haze of smoke from Western wildfires
I was a little nervous for this part of the trip. All the wildfires that have affected the west meant that smoke was drifting all over the mountain west. Arriving in Jackson and seeing the haze in the skies admittedly had me a little down. However, I was not prepared for how it might actually make for some great photos.
The images above and below were both made on the haziest evening of the whole trip. It goes to show that even when you think conditions are not ideal, its still worth it to head out.
Sunset over Jackson Lake
Grand Teton National Park is all about the views to the east. Sunrise at the numerous view points along the various streams and rivers made for some amazing moments early in the morning.
Sunrise at Schwabacker’s Landing
I’ve always been a sunrise person, but the crisp and cool mornings in Teton National Park were special. Waking up and driving out to the park to watch the sun wash across the landscape was vastly different than sunrises I’m used to in DC. The mountains reaching up and grabbing the first orange light in the morning is one of the memories I’ll keep with me.
Snake River Bend
While we didn’t see nearly as much wildlife in the Tetons as in Yellowstone, we did catch some distant views of Moose and Buffalo. Its probably a good thing that they were always quite far off. The hiking we did tended to be in places where coming across a moose might have been rather terrifying.
In many ways, the Tetons were a contradiction. The landscape was vast and intimate. The closer you get to the mountains, the more intimate the landscape became.
Elk Flats Ranch
Moving from the grandeur of the overlooks to the tight trails of the Aspens and Lodge Pole Pines to the lakes in the shadows of the mountains, It leaves you looking around each corner for more. Given more time in this amazing place, moving up into the mountains in the next logical step.
Taggart Lake Loop
Bradley Lake
While we took a hike partially up into the hills, I can only imagine what lies a few hundred feet further up.
Aspens with their fall colors
Sunrise from Oxbow Bend
Towards the end of the trip, I felt like I was just getting started. The routine or sunrises, hikes, and sunsets quickly dwindled into packing for the flight back home.
Sunrise at Blacktail Ponds
This place left me wanting more time while not having enough of it. The rich golden yellow tones of early autumn with the deep greens of the pines created beautiful contrast to the orange first light on the mountains.
Its not hard to understand why this place is so popular and so steeped in the historical movement to preserve public lands. The tectonic shift of the mountains up and the valley down has created that special hole in the middle of Wyoming. Who can’t imagine people 150 years ago trodding across the empty landscape - in size not beauty - of the great plains up into the mountains only to come across this amazing valley rife with rivers, sagebrush, pine and aspen groves, and glacial moraines all in the shadow of the dramatic peaks.
Dead tree at Blacktail Ponds
Stay tuned for a post soon about how I plan my trips and tips to make your next vacation to the wilderness a quieter escape from our daily lives.
Two weeks ago, Heather and I headed out west for a week of vacation in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Park. To say that these places were amazing is a dramatic understatement. Even after spending time in the Swiss Alps in May the landscapes of these two places are second to none.
On our first morning in Yellowstone, we came around a bend in the road to see this one tree on the hillside
I was looking for the immense beauty of Yellowstone and was rewarded with it. I was dramatically under-prepared for its scale. I have been spoiled by the proximity of the East Coast and Europe recently, forgetting the distance that the west covers.
The Madison River as sunrise grazes the face of cliffs
We spend the first half of the week in Island Park, Idaho. The drive into the park each morning was serene. by the time we hit the entrance gate to Yellowstone, the light was just beginning to strike the sides of the cliffs, casting a beautiful warm glow in the valleys. I treasured most, the view of the golden tree on the hillside. It was perfectly placed when you drove into the park.
A dead tree in the water pools surrounding Grand Prismatic Spring
If you’ve been to Yellowstone, you understand the contrasts of its landscapes. For those who haven’t, I can only compare it to Iceland. The vast and varied environments, give you only a hint of the violence in the geologic past of this area. It seemed as though the earth is spewing the colors that make up the surrounding landscape. Pools of cyan given to the sky. The yellows, oranges and reds given to the rocks, the soils, and the grasses. The greens given to the trees. Even the natural cycles of the deaths of trees surrounding the thermal areas was beautiful. The trunks of old dead trees standing defiantly in the pools of superheated acidic water.
The colors of Grand Prismatic Spring
I was ready for the colors of grand prismatic spring but never prepared for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I understand why artists the world over flock to this place to try and represent its beauty, somehow always falling short of its vastness and intimacy.
Upper Yellowstone Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
The Grand Canyon of Yellowsont
Walking along the canyon’s south rim, you witness the minerals and thermal features pushing the painted colors out of the rocks down to the canyon floor. The trail begs you to stop each time the trees open to take in the panoramic views of the sheer rock faces.
Colors flowing down the canyon
Norris Geyser Basin
Stepping away to the more mundane features, the traffic jams caused by the Bison in the park were quite impressive. No one wanted to miss the opportunity to see the amazing creatures up close. After seeing several small herds on our last day in the park, I can only dream of what it must have been like to witness groups, thousands strong, of the animals thundering across the landscape.
Bison in front of the Lower Geyser Basin
We were lucky enough to walk up to Old Faithful just a few minutes before it began erupting. With the exception of the crowds surrounding this icon of the west, the landscape surrounding all of the geysers seems out of this world. The small streams of water flowing through the grasses emanating from the acidic sources of boiling water are a contradiction. The environment in which these plants thrive seems to be inhospitable, yet somehow the extremophiles have found a way.
There is not question why this place was the first national park on the planet. It reminds us why we have to protect the pristine environments left. We must keep these places in public hands, managed for the people in a way that lets the natural environment take its own course, unencumbered by commercial interests.