Went for a ride

I am looking for a different place to shoot the milky way and possibly the Perseids this weekend. We decided to head down to Crescent City, it is about a 30 minute drive. Here is the picture in the daylight that I think will make a great foreground for the stars. I am however not sure what I was thinking after I took this picture. Let me explain. When I step outside of the car just to take a documentary image I close the door. So, one would think when the picture is taken you open the door to get into the car. I ended up closing the door and giving Roy this look like how I ended up on this side of the door. You can now have that image in your head. Well, when a door is open what do you do you close it. I’m just glad Roy did not drive off. Once I got back in the car we decided to explore the coast of Crescent City. I love the unique rocks and beaches that dot the landscape. Look for some pictures from here in the future.

We finally are heading home it is dark and I am pulling my let’s fall asleep while Roy drive. As you can tell from this video, I did not stay asleep for long. I am also glad Roy was a truck driver. I am also glad we have both views from the camera.

You can see Roy’s lips move and catch a light going by us. He said that it looks like we will only see one logging truck on the way home. He also explained that he loved driving at night because there was usually little to no traffic. My though was yeah with little to no traffic you get animals. That is how we lost a windshield in 2000. That was compliments of a wild mustang. That is just about when I had my reaction. This was a half mile out of town, and she was standing right in our lane. I grew up in the Midwest and have seen deer in the middle of the road, I will say they are small compared to the cow elk in the middle of the road. The cows can weigh between 400 and 500 pounds.

I have to say I am glad we got home safe, and the cow decided to head back off the road.

A Few More Buffalo and a Turkey

The turkey however is not who or what you think. Roy is a turkey yes, but he is not a wild one. On one of our last days in South Dakota we decided to do the wildlife loop one more time. Roy and I were talking about how we had not seen any turkeys this year. Someone had to be listening because just about then on the side of the road we saw turkeys. We were able to follow their journey in the brush for a couple of hundred yards.

We had to go off the beaten path to find where the buffalo were hiding. Unlike, the time we thought the day was going to be a bust and discovered them right around a curve where we had never seen them before.

Early evening right before sunset the light is definitely golden and magical. If you add a little dust in the air you can capture (in my opinion some iconic buffalo pictures).

I also loved the fact that the crowds of the summer were gone by late August early September. I think the animals were also happy for that. I love how the buffalo will use anything they have to itch that scratch. He must of spent a good ten minutes just standing around and loving all over this tree stump.

I am in awe especially after spending all summer around these massive animals and the herd.

Seeing the interaction between mom and calf and how it changed over the summer. The powerful image of a male standing firm and tall. I felt blessed and lucky to be able to take photographs this particular night because it seemed like everything came together. The rain had finally stopped so when a buffalo would lay in a ‘mud’ hole you wondered where Pigpen was from Charlie Brown.

I could have spent all evening hanging with the buffalo but that was not to be. We saw some clouds building on the horizon which meant only one thing. There was going to be an awesome sunset. This summer we did not have many colorful sunsets. I am glad that we experienced this one.

I wasn’t done taking photos yet. I was going to try and recreate a cell phone photo that Amanda one of the workers at the campground captured. The backstory: She is a camper and every weekend she would pitch a tent. Then one weekend she was walking towards her tent that was lit up just enough to show a silhouette of her dog Zeus. She snapped the picture with her cellphone. I loved it and thought maybe I could repeat it for her using my camera. We tried to repeat it but the magic was gone. This was one of the nights that the moon looked full so, we decided to try a silhouette of her and her dog with the moon in the picture. I had fun setting the scene and snapping the pictures. It was the perfect end to a day of magical photographs.

Only 68 miles.

That is how far away the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery is from our campground we are staying at for the summer. I bring this up because. Spearfish and Deadhorse was warm and sunny. We had an amazing time even stopped for ice cream. On the way home we were delayed by some big horn sheep. right outside of Deadwood. You can see a few clouds in the sky and a bit of blue. So, it should be nice like that at home, right!

That was not the story at all. 68 miles away there was a freak storm. I get a text from Monica the owner of Timber Ridge Campground (which is home base for the summer). Asking where we were and how was the weather. I said Deadwood and the weather was good. She then sends me a video.

All I could text back was holy CRAP. I guess it came out of nowhere. It did not appear on radar and only lasted for 10 minutes. Her hubby Pete was shopping in Custer SD which is only 14 miles from the campground, and it was blue skies. Just strange how weather can be so different within a few miles. After about ten minutes the skies cleared, and the sun came out. It took us about an hour to get home and there was still hail on the ground. The damage we received from this hailstorm was very minimal. It involved the lid to the citronella candle, our decorator lights and a bunch of leaves in the yard. The lights looked like someone used them for target practice. The awning had tiny bb wholes near the edge that is attached to the trailer. The awning is self-retracting and will roll itself up if there is a threat to it. This worked like it was supposed or we could have had more damage.

I don’t remember every being in a hailstorm before. This is one first I did NOT need to experience. We got ‘treated’ to a hailstorm the next night. It seems I needed to get the full effect of a hailstorm not just the damage afterwards. We were just leaving Rapid City after dinner and some shopping when, the hail started to pound. You can see us pull under the awning of a gas station to wait for it to pass over us.

We pulled out from under the cover when it looked like it was letting up. This allowed us to stay behind the storm. Our dash cam was able to catch the aftermath of hail on the road by catching the steam rising from the road. Once in the trailer and getting ready for bed the sky let loose again. This time I think the hail was larger. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks down on the trailer roof. One sounded like it was the size of a bowling ball had hit the roof. Lucky for us the only damage was a small crack in the skylight over the shower.

This has been a crazy summer of weather. I was however able to practice shooting lightning so that is a plus.

Enter the Night

I love this time of year because I can explore my dark side. At least for a couple days of each month I turn into a night person and become allergic to the sun. Milky Way season. This year we tried a completely different place in Custer State Park to capture the Milky Way. So earlier in the day we checked it out and I was lucky to capture this red winged blackbird. I never did get a clear shot of him in flight. (I think he knew I had a camera and wanted his picture.)

There were also geese in the lake they even made an appearance in the middle of milky way shooting. Roy turned the car lights on to leave and they froze like deer in the headlights. Shooting at night at least for me adds an unreal fear of being eaten by big foot or at least being nudged by a deer. The funny thing is I do become super aware of every noise, water drop, or breeze.

The first night as always was like a little refresher. The night was perfectly clear so clear in fact I was able to get milky way reflections. We started at the lake and I got some reflections and free light painting compliments of a campfire and some car lights. I also was using a higher ISO and shorter shutter speed.

You can see in some of the pictures a mist lifting off the lake. This sight was super freaky in my opinion and the picture below doesn’t do it justice. This is me trying to get some light from the car to paint the lake, not the effect I wanted, still a cool photo IMO.

We decided to leave the lake and head over to Legion Lake which is where we shot last time. We did however move parking lots to get a different perspective. It is interesting how just a slight change of position can change the whole focus of a photo. Here are some pictures from the second stop of the night.

On the way out to hunt the lights we had a fox cross the road in front of us.

tiny guy

Then we were greeted by deer on our return home. Off on the side of the road we did see some elk.

deer me

The second night started off not looking good at all. We went to the lake first and the milky way was socked in. So as always I’m like that sucks let’s head home. Roy in his wisdom that I am starting to listen to more. (only took 30 years). First wanted to head around wildlife loop in the dark, I said no. This is right after we left the lake and had already spotted two deer in a matter of thirty seconds.

get outta the road

So then he says let’s stop at Legion Lake. We did and something wonderful happened the sky started to clear. That red in the picture is someone me who forgot to turn off her headlamp. So, once we saw that it was clearing, we headed back to where we started the night before.

After learning from the night before I changed where my camera was set up and did a few more portrait style inside of landscape.

Tonight, seemed extra quiet and every little noise had me thinking I was going to be eaten. I am so glad I didn’t make Roy take me home.

Two things he always says that are right.

You don’t know unless you go
Wait awhile things will change!

Almost missed them

The lights were a dancing again. I checked my app and saw that the auroral oval was right overhead at about 11:30pm. Off we went, and yes, they were out. Driving up the Steese Hwy we could see them right outside the car windows. Trying to get to our spot before they fade away. We had passed up the local viewing spots at the top of a hill. It was fairly busy for a small area plus I wanted to see if I could get reflections by the pond.

The lights are still dancing at this point but, the sky was getting cloudy, and we were driving straight into fog. So, we pull in the pull out and realize the fog is just getting thicker no lights out here. I was amazed what 15 miles makes in weather and clouds. We decide let’s turn around and head back to the place where the locals hang. I’m glad we passed it by the first time because this time we had one pullout all by ourselves.

We shot here for about an hour before I got too cold, and the lights started to fizzle out. The fizzle didn’t fizzle for that long, as I was getting ready to put the camera away. I go and snap a picture right as Roy turned on the car lights. Here is the result of that picture.

There are some disadvantages to shooting in a pullout near the road and I also took a few of those pictures.

There is one picture where Roy flashed headlights.

I enjoyed watching the lights ebb and flow. The clouds wisps in my opinion put some added personality to the lights. Once everything was packed back in the car it was time to head home. We did do a detour because the lights came out again a stop by Creamer’s Field explore Fairbanks said this was a good place for viewing the lights it was. I stayed in the car and just enjoyed the view. It was funny seeing people pulled off the side of the road out of their cars to watch the sky.

Enjoy the slide show of lights.

Clear SKIES

Yes, it did happen. We have had almost two weeks of clouds and rain at night. I was starting to give up hope of seeing the Auroras this trip. I looked at the forecast for possible lights it looked promising. (Just like 5 times before) The next thing was to find out if it was cloudy or not. I found an app for that windy the clouds were not overhead. Time to pack and go outside I look up and see stars and what looks like a small green cloud. I will give you a clue stars don’t shine through clouds. I knew the lights were coming out. We had plans of driving off the base to a spot northeast of town plans changed. The lights were out and did not want to drive for an hour. We went right down the road from the camper and set up the camera. After a few pictures we noticed that a tree was blocking some of the light so, we changed locations.

The next location had an added bonus of a beaver dragging a tree to his lodge. It was cute but made me paranoid of every noise I heard when I was outside. I was imagining that a beaver was right next to me with every sound I heard.

bigger than him

I took a few more pictures here and decided to head back to where it all started for the night. The whole show lasted about two hours and the lights were gone.

Enjoy the slideshow.

The Mountain

I have gotten lucky this trip I consider myself in the 7.5 % because this is the third time, I’ve seen Denali in all its glory. We spent the week in Nenana Alaska and decided to head down to Denali it is only a 61-mile trip. Hell, in 5 weeks on the Kenai we put 2,500 miles on the car. I’m not sure how many of you have watch the movie or read the book ‘Into the Wild’ Here is a background article of Chris McCandles who inspired ‘Into the Wild’ I go down this rabbit hole, because I wanted to visit the replica of his magic bus. We did just that when we ate at the ‘49th State Brewing Company‘ in Healy.

Roy and I decided let’s get the scooter and chair out to go eat. That was a great plan until we get inside the restaurant. The bar area has booths and high-top tables (not that handicap friendly). The other area of the restaurant had low tables, but you had to go down a step. I have to give a shout out to the manager and the owner, because they brought a low table into the bar area so we could sit and eat. The manager came over and apologized for the oversight and that they might try and figure out how to keep on low table over in the area. I had a soda flight and Roy had a beer flight. He also had some smoky popcorn used to clear the palette. I tried one; smoky does equal hot here. I kept my mouth shut until Roy asked how I liked the popcorn. I liked the root beer and the spruce tip soda, the cola was ok, and the fourth flavor was not memorable at all.

After lunch we head to Denali there were no clouds in the area, so I knew there was another chance to see the mountain in its glory. We drove until the visitor center where I got back in my chair and decided to explore the visitor center campus like never before.

In that way I am loving my chair. I had never thought about exploring museums or visitor centers before I actually was able to travel on some of the trails.

After zooming around the campus, I got back in the car, and we drove as far as we could which was mile 15 on the Denali Highway. We decided not to take a bus further into the park because of the landslide that occurred at mile 46.

We did not see any animals on this trip into the park. We did, however, see the mountain clear as day again. The other thing that was intriguing was the snow level and how it just stopped.

One of the close mountains had a fresh light layer of snow. This is as close as I would like to get this year to any snow. I love seeing it from the distance.

After a full day of sightseeing, we headed back to Nenana. My aurora app said that there was a chance for sightings that night. So, the skies were clear, it wasn’t that cold, and we found a good spot. All that was needed was some lights.

I did get some pictures of the barge that was right in front of the car. After a lit bit we decided maybe a change of scenery was needed. I also was getting cold. Back inside the car we head up the road to a wayside with a different view.

The new view was more profitable in the fact that the auroras had appeared. These were the first we had seen this trip. They were fleeting and very short. The most interesting thing was seeing the lights at twilight. I am hoping to see more of the lights this year but, the clouds are hanging around. This is not good. Here are three photos of the lights from that night.

Mount Rushmore revisited

I think I have seen this carving from a bunch of angles this trip. (I have pictures) It has given me an appreciation for how large and small in perspective this sculpture is. I say this because one picture I zoom in and the Presidents take up a large portion of the photo. In real life if you focus on just the sculpture it is large. Think for a moment and let your eye pull out and see the whole mountain.

I saw the size difference when I took the first picture of Mount Rushmore from a pull out on the way to the Mount. If you zoom in you say wow that is big to be able to see it from here. As you see from the zoom out you see it only covers a small piece of the mountain. I read facts like the faces are 60 feet high that is ten six foot tall men stacked one on top of the other. The noses are 20 feet long. That is very large in the scheme of things. Here is a good look at the profile of Washington. At this particular pullout point Washington is all you see.

Compare that to the fact these are all carved into granite that is 5,550 feet tall. The mount does dwarf the presidents, but it does not dwarf the achievement of the people who created Mount Rushmore. Here are 75 facts about Mount Rushmore

I have to say the ability to be able to photograph Mount Rushmore at different times of the day and night has been fun. I was able to capture a sunset and wait twenty minutes and capture the nightly lighting of Mount Rushmore. It is amazing how one National Park can change a perspective.

Maybe there is a deeper meaning here; that if you pull back and take a look at everything IT is not so big. Or maybe my mind’s eye and camera’s eye has gotten better at noticing the different perspectives of an object. Your choice.

The Dark of Night

After clouds, a thunder storm, some campground lights, and wrong locations I was finally able with Roy’s assistance to get some Milky Way pictures. June 11th was the night that both of us realized how dark the night is. We even got lucky and had just a tad of light from a building which allowed for some semi natural light painting. I will take any help I can get when it comes to lighting up the dark scenery. We are returning tonight to the same area just a different position.

I was spooked by the quiet of the night. It was funny we were near water so every little plop I heard the hairs on my neck would rise up. I lived in Florida so water + plop equals Alligator just saying. So there were no gators only maybe a turtle or two, we did see a sign for turtles not gators. I will say there were a couple of times during the night I did feel like I was being watched and it was not Roy’s eyes. It was just almost like whatever it was might have been just curious, if not I would have been eaten. I am not sure if this was intentional or not but I found that both of us were talking in hushed tones, it almost felt like when you were a kid and did not want to get caught talking in church. Very peaceful and strangely refreshing. I also tried my hand at some night landscape that I need to work on that is also another beast in it’s own way. As we were getting ready to leave Roy asked if I wanted to leave my tri-pod there until tomorrow, I said no. Well I get all packed and put me seat belt on and say I’m ready to go. He asked are you sure. I had left my tripod I am so glad he looks after me. (this is after he couldn’t stop laughing).

So I am finding the internet does not work very well during the day, maybe that’s when we are supposed to be out exploring. I did do a little bit of exploring earlier in the day due to internet not cooperating. Custer State Park is broke up into three scenic drive areas 1. Iron Mountain Road (twisty turning) leads to Mount Rushmore. This road also has pigtail bridges and one lane tunnels. 2. Wildlife loop here you will find bison, burros, Prairie Dogs, and an occasional deer. 3. Needles Highway there is a tunnel that feels like you are being threaded through a needle. That isn’t how it got it’s name. We will be driving each of these and I know I will have some pictures.

So before our night adventure began we decided to drive into the town of Custer. Yes, I bought a t-shirt. I also stopped in the visitor center where I got more travel books. I was also warned tongue in cheek – not to hang here during Sturgis unless I enjoy mega crowds. They are looking forward to it after last summer. After browsing through them I see a trip to Wind and Jewel cave in the future. Plus I found info on what to do when we are in Rapid City. After the adventure of the ‘big’ city we decided to head up to Sylvan Lake lodge (we were thinking dinner). The lodge was just too crowded and lacked parking. I was able to practice some landscapes and people scapes. So we took a short drive down the needles highway.

I do want to share a snippet or preview of one way traffic. Coming down the Needles highway we approach a one lane tunnel, there is a little bit of a bottle neck. We could have gotten on the end of this round of going through the tunnel but we waited. So after four cars went through coming towards us we decide to inch forward. Picture this we are inching our way in the tunnel and this little car enters the opposite end. A true game of chicken. (Roy did not back down). It was cute watching the little car creep out in reverse.

So for dinner we ended up at the Blue Bell Lodge, they have the sweetest lean Buffalo. (Which probably roamed the grounds at one point. ) They advertise that it is from South Dakota. From here we headed home did some web surfing and started our night adventure.

I am posting some photos of the buffalo from our first night in the park