Saturday, October 25, 2014

Grand Tetons National Park

#Grand Tetons and #Yellowstone ranked top on my National Parks list. Grand Tetons is just south of the yellow stone park, So don't miss out if you are planning for yellow stone. The nearest airport is Jackson hole, WY, but the tickets are way costly no matter what. So we were left with two options, either fly to Boise, ID and drive (5 hrs) to Jackson hole or fly to Salt lake city and drive since both got the same driving distance, unlike flying to Denver which will be close to 8 hrs of drive.

Planning for Hotels/cabins is a challenging one for yellow stone, since you need to book at least 5 to 6 months ahead of time. They have free cancellation policy up to 24 hrs prior to your reservation, so people book in advance and then a bunch of cancellations as usual. So keep calling them often to complete the booking for all your stay or book in advance. Based on the cabin booking, you can tend to plan your travel inside the park. Also based on that you will know which entrance to take for yellow stone.

 we crashed in a hotel at Driggs, ID closer to Grand Tetons entrance.

Some links on planning for hikes:
http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm
http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/hike.htm


Day 1: Sunrise at Mormon Row Barn.

Most of the scenic locations are on U.S route 191.
Right after the Moose junction on route 191, you get to see a road towards your right called Antelope flats. Take that road to see one of the most frequently captured shot in Tetons.

Mormon Row Barn



From there just continue to the next look out place, schwabacher landing. Park the car and walk a bit to get to this beautiful location.

Schwabacher landing




Next look out point, snake river overlook.

Snake River outlook


After the schwabacher landing spot, while going north on route 191, if you want to do rafting there is an access point to the snake river at deadman's bar road, continuing further north you get to see some cabins to your left.


When you are at the intersection of route 191/89 and 287, make a left to enter Moran Junction. And there comes a beautiful look out point, ox-bow bend. A breath taking view of the Tetons reflected on snake river.

Oxbow bend

On taking the Tetons Park Rd at Jackson Lake junction, the Jackson Lake dam is a good spot to stop by and check. Then we had our late lunch at Signal mountain lodge, the food was good we enjoyed it.

Our next stop is at Jenny lake and we did a hike to hidden falls and Inspiration point. Before that we went to Jenny lake outlook to get this picture and then to Jenny lake visitor center to park our car to catch a shuttle boat for the hike. The last return boat was at 4-4:30 pm, else you have to hike back around the lake, which is what we did and it was fun, I highly recommend it.

Jenny Lake

Hiking back from Inspiration point/hidden falls


So if we further go down south we get to see the Moose junction which we passed by that morning (its a big loop around the park), but we are running short of time to reach yellow stone for dinner and cabin check in. So the plan was to go north from here, either through route 191 or through Tetons park rd. We took Tetons park rd since we want to drive up to the signal hill mountain before heading to yellow stone. And there we were blessed with some wild life, we saw some deer mule with an amazing glow of the sun, which made our day !!!

Signal Mountain





The day came to an end, while we drove to yellow stone for the night to our cabins at Lake village.


Yellow stone lake

After dinner was trying to take some shots of milky-way with my friend. That's the end of Grand Tetons, wish got more time to explore and do more hikes around. Will continue my Yellow stone trip in the next post.


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Cherry Blossom - Sakura

#CherryBlossom #sakura is once a year bloom which happens sometime between end of March to 2nd week of April, however the peak lasts only for 3 days. (For the past three years it was around April 9th-12th). Millions of people flock from all over the world to see this beauty, which means it will be crowded like anything.

1) How to know if its the peak or not?:

One good way to know is to follow nps website and its live webcam.
http://www.nps.gov/cherry/cherry-blossom-plan-your-visit.htm
http://www.nps.gov/cherry/cherry-blossom-web-cam.htm

I personally like this below website to follow upon and check the various stages of the bloom from a week before up till the peak. They pretty much cover A-Z on the subject matter.
http://havecamerawilltravel.com/cherry-blossoms/

2) What time to plan for?:

With the morning sun kissing the just bloomed flowers is the best time for brilliant shots. To get into the city most people recommend metro and the nearest metro to get down would be Smithsonian station. Trust me metro will over flow during these times as well. 

But if you are doing a picnic or carrying a bunch of camera gears, I would say early morning commute is easy for both driving into the city/parking and photography. In general DC parking is one hell of a pain and needless to say during cherry blossom season, so again go early morning. I usually park in one of the parking lots (A,B,C or road side parking) near Hains point, you will see these lots once you enter Ohio drive SW. Hains point as such is a beautiful place for picnic along with the bloomed trees on either side of the road, so don't forget to pack for your picnic.

GPS co-ord: 38.863364, -77.025632
                                

3) What to see and photograph?:

The trail map in the nps site is very handy to know what to see and where to go.
I would recommend to do these trails and have given some GPS co-ord for the photos below.
i) Memory Loop
ii) Tidal Basin
iii) River walk



 GPS co-ord: 38.887390, -77.041172


  sunset from tidal basin, GPS co-ord: 38.885260, -77.044611
                    







This view is just across the Kutz bridge, next to the Independance Ave SW. GPS co-ord: 38.887638, -77.038104.





Enjoy the blossom !!!