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Grand Teton National Park trip 2011

Peter and Ethan and Mila and Kanishka and Phung and Christina and Rajiv and Kelly and Quang and Pablo and Maria and Alan and Mary’s excellent adventure.

Phung, Kelly and Christina at Idaho border: three smiling grinning ladies with Idaho sign in background Rajiv and skull: wide-eyed grinning man next to skull

a storm and a clearing storm:

rain on windshield: big drops of rain on windshield

sunlight streaming through clouds teton range Sept 2011: photo mostly of clouds with a mountain range in the distance and little light on a lake in the mid distance

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Going kayaking at sunrise requires getting up while it is still dark to hook up the kayak trailer for towing:

Mila and crew move kayak trailer: people pulling a kayak trailer into posistion to hook it up to a S U V

oxbow sunrise kayaking 2011 700 pixels: mountains behind kayakers at sunrise

and at the same location a little later in the morning:

swan and ladies thumb knotweed: swan on a lake with pink wildfowers floating on the water in foregroundMount Moran and swan oxbow bend 2011: Mount Moran in the background and swan on the water at oxbow bend on the snake river

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And on another morning we got up before sunrise to look for animals and for the first hour or so saw only one elk in the distance. As we were stopped at a usual place to sight moose, another early riser driving by told us where we could see two bull moose a little down the road. We watched them munching bitterbrush and getting along even though it was mating season and they were quite probably rivals:

2 bull moose near dornan's 2011: two bull moose in sage flats close to each other, looking at each other

Then over a nearby rise came a third bull moose. (Oh, by the way, they are seven feet tall, nine feet long and often have 5 feet wide antlers.) In the second picture below as he walks into a parking lot, you can see the first two moose in the distance. (The Outdoor Club has lots of pairs of binoculars to lend out on trips like these.)

bull moose seen from car 2011: interior of car at window looking at a bull moose walking by bull moose moving from sage flats to parking lot: bull moose walking from sage flats to parking lot

and in this picture you can see a photographer (not one of us, we were in our cars) running for cover to the front porch of a store. (The moose was not chasing the photographer, he just got too close.)

photographer runs from moose 2011: bull moose in foreground, photographer running to cover of a store porch in background

On another morning:

elk crossing road at sunrise 2011: two elk crossing road with Mount Moran in the background

and another, sometimes you can watch animals for awhile but not get a photo due to the bushes:

calf and cow moose near Moose Wilson road: calf and cow moose crossing stream only partially visible through the bushes

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The all day hike to Lake Solitude can be hot, but the 9,039 feet elevation lake is quite cold. Yes that is snow from the previous winter melting into the lake in September:

photo by Peter Ye Ethan Wilkie jumps into lake solitude: man jumps from granite rock into lake photo by Ethan Wilkie Peter Ye jumps into lake solitude: man jumps from granite rock into lake photo by Peter Ye Ethan Wilkie swimming in Lake Solitude: man swimming in a mountain lake

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One evening part of the group toured art galleries in town and others took advantage of a free lesson at the local climbing gym:

photo by Peter Ye group at climbing gym 2011: people in front of a climbing wall 2011 tetons trip climbing.jpg: climber almost to the top of a climbing gym wall photot by Peter Ye Kelly Gomez at climbing gym: girl almost at the top of a route on a climbing wall

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When you have a bunch of people who want to go white water rafting, you can all share one raft without strangers:

Outdoor Club group photo 2011 rafting: people in raft just before setting out

Kanishka, Christina and Mila white water rafting: a few people on a raftwhite water rafting tetons trip 2011: raft on whitewater, no people fully visible, just arms and paddles

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For our wilderness overnight some of us backpacked in and some paddled kayaks and a canoe.

2011 paddlers and backpackers 200 pixels: 2 backpackers on shore and three paddlers in kayaks near them paddling in to leigh lake 2011: kayaks and canoe on lake

lunch at leigh lake 2011: people sitting on logs and on a kayak at lakeshore

a deer wandered through the campsite:

deer behind tent 2011: deer in trees close behind a tent Peter Ye and deer in campsite: man, deer and six-person tent in a wooded campsite

Thunder and lightning postponed swimming, so part of the group took a hike around the lake to look at a section of forest regrowing after a fire two summers previously:

photo by Peter Ye on trail to bearpaw lake: four hikers in burnt forest with two years regrowth of brush and grasses

and finally, swimming after the thunder and lightning had been over for a half hour:

swimming after sunset 2011 700 pixels: people swimming in a mountain lake after sunset

The water is shallow a long ways out into the lake. ethan peter phung kelly and christina in lake: sitting on a log or standing in a lake after swimming standing or sitting on a log after swimming: standing or sitting on a log after swimming

leigh lake last light of sunset 2011: leigh lake last light of sun setting between the peaks

morning:

tent mates Leigh lake 2011: slightly out of focus photo of smiling people in a tentphoto by peter ye morning mist on Leigh lake: long bank of mist across most of a lake

The main page for De Anza College Outdoor Club Grand Teton National Park trips is: Grand Tetons

 Updated Friday, December 9, 2011 at 8:24:00 PM by Mary Donahue - donahuemary@fhda.edu
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