Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of visiting nearly 50 national parks, monuments and memorials. Often, we’ve done this with our family, and with virtually no exception, we’ve encountered friendly, kind, helpful and passionate rangers who have been eager to make our visit memorable and enjoyable. Here’s just a few fond ranger memories from our trips to the national parks.
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If you’ve followed us for any time, you probably know of our deep affection for the national parks. It is no overstatement to say that our country’s national parks are one of our greatest treasures – a crown jewel founded on some of the deepest principles of our nation. Principles like freedom, democracy and equity. The parks are open to all and owned by every single American.
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Sunset from Cape Royal on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Way back in the summer of 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act that created the National Park Service – a federal bureau designed to protect the 35 existing national parks and monuments (the first national park, Yellowstone, was founded by congress in 1872, with the remaining added in the next 40 years). Fast forward 100 years, and America’s parks system encompasses 413 areas (with Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument being added just yesterday!). Of these, there are 59 national parks, 84 national monuments, and 78 national historic sites. In total, the Parks Service oversees over 84 million acres, with land in every state.
A Bull Bison crossing Geyser Hill in Yellowstone
Over the past year, we’ve had the pleasure of visiting many of the national parks, from Cape Cod to Bryce Canyon. This past autumn, we took a grand circle tour of 6 of the great western national parks: Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Arches and Mesa Verde. In total, we covered over 3,600 miles in just 10 days, but we packed those days plum full of adventure. Each park was spectacular in its own right, but if we had to choose a favorite, it would be the granddaddy of them all – Yellowstone. We spent four days in that park, two in and around Mammoth and two days around Old Faithful. We even had the great honor and luck of staying in the original 1903 portion of the Old Faithful Inn.
Spruce House dwellings at Mesa Verde
Since then, we’ve been on a few other national parks as business trips have brought us nearby. This past winter, I visited the Grand Canyon and Arches again, and for the first time, visited the Colorado National Monument and its epic Rim Rock Road. Just a few weeks ago, we took our family to explore another first for us, the Cape Cod National Seashore. All in all, we were blessed with spectacular weather throughout – including more than one sky-on-fire-gorgeous sunset. This year may have marked our first big foray into the national parks, but rest assured, Lord willing, it will not be our last! Happy birthday National Park Service – and here’s to many, many more centuries of success and joy!
Glowing Aspens and Vibrant Blue Skies in the Grand Tetons
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Summer Wanderings Part 3: Massachusetts
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After 10 days of travel, 3,000 miles, 4,200 photos and over a month of editing, we’ve finally arrived at our last post from our Autumn in the National Parks Collection. Over the course of our trip, we also photographed 142 ultra-high resolution panoramas – most in excess of 100 megapixels. The national parks, with their wide open vistas and expansive views lend themselves perfectly to the medium of panorama – offering a unique perspective on the parks that better represents the true scale of the subject in a way that even the best conventional photos can seldom do. So, without further adieu, here’s about 40 of our favorite Panoramas, offering a sort of summary of an amazing, breathtaking, glorious tour of our nation’s crown jewels!
Here in Florida, without towering mountains, but replete with tall trees, it’s hard to get a panoramic sense of distance, yet out west the opposite is true, and vistas such as Bryce Canyon (top) and the Grand Tetons (above) lend themselves perfectly to the medium. Below, I tried my hand at some panoramic astrophotography in Arches – that’s the aptly named Ham Rock in the foreground. Over the last decade, stitching software has come a long way. When we first got started, I stitched everything manually in Photoshop. I took forever and the amount of airbrushing required to bring it to a professional level was rather tedious and slow. But today, with the built-in panorama capabilities of Adobe Lightroom, I am able to stitch even wide angle images with ease, all while maintaining their raw characteristics. There’s still some tweaking in Photoshop, but nothing like when we first got started.
As always, please feel free to download as many photos as you like – they are full HD images, 1080P, and perfect for your computer, tablet or television – and if you enjoy our photos, please follow us – and for extra bonus points, share this blog with your friends to help us get the word out!
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Autumn in the National Parks – In Panorama
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Welcome to part two of our wonderful out west adventure. Today, we’re featuring the two days we spent exploring the southern portion of Yellowstone National Park. After spending two nights at Mammoth Hotel (one night in the hotel, one night in a rustic cabin) we headed South. Our route took us east, through Tower Junction, and then south, to Canyon, West to Madison Junction, and finally south again to Old Faithful Inn (below), where we had the great privileged of staying for two nights. While in the southwestern portion of the park, we explored a myriad of geysers, hot springs and thermal features in and along the Firehole River. Wildlife was fewer and less diverse in this area, though winter apparently brings many species south to the thermal-heated landscape. We did see some lone Bison, like the big bull above, as well as a smallish herd near Midway Geyser Basin, but that was about it. However, the geothermal features proved nearly as interesting as the wildlife, at least to Bryn and I.
So, a little more about Old Faithful Inn. The inn was built over the course of one year – 1903 – by just a little over 50 men. The great hall (above) stands 78 feet tall to mimic the height of the surrounding evergreen forest, and is topped with an honest to goodness tree house – a bit of whimsy the then 29 year old architect Robert Reamer added to the massive interior. The hotel was built out of locally sourced wood and stone – quarried and cut within a 5 mile perimeter of the hotel. Our room was in part of the original hotel (called the old house) – room #51 – in a cozy little corner on the first floor overlooking the front entry. Now, as you can see from the image in the gallery below, the historically accurate drapes may have left a little bit to be desired, but I have to say they were better at masking what was inside than I feared. Overall, the historic room was truly wonderful, with all the modern comforts we needed, but with all the time-traveling charm of life in a grand Victorian hotel.
We also tried our hand at a bit of astrophotography – our first was foray spent with Old Faithful during a cloudless night with a nearly quarter, waxing crescent moon. Even with the brightness of the moon, the amount of stars we could see after just a few minutes outside was stunning. I didn’t realize just how much light pollution we have in FL – It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Milky Way with my naked eye! So, we setup our shot while waiting for the big event (about 90 minutes apart) and we were ready when the geyser erupted. Above is our favorite shot from the show. All in all, Yellowstone was an amazing experience! Next up, Grand Teton National Park!
As always, please feel free to download as many photos as you like – they are full HD images, 1080P, and perfect for your computer, tablet or television – and if you enjoy our photos, please follow us – and for extra bonus points, share this blog with your friends to help us get the word out!
Interested in buying some of our fine art photography or just want to see some more of our work? Check out our Out West collection at our site: http://fineart.deremerstudios.com
Autumn in the National Parks – Yellowstone South
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