PHOTO-ESSAYS
SPRING IN THE THUMB & HENRY DAVID THOREAU
"We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning, all men sins are forgiven." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
"One attraction in coming to the woods to live was I should have leisure and opportunity to see the Spring come in." Henry David Thoreau
"I am on the alert for the first signs of spring, to hear the chance note of some arriving bird, or the striped squirrel's chirp, for his stores must nearly be exhausted, or see the woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters."
HENRY DAVID THOREAU - WALDEN
"Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. We need the tonic of wildness, - to wade some-times in marshes where the bittern and the meadow hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground."
ROAD THROUGH MONUMENT VALLEY
WEST MITTEN, EAST MITTEN, AND MERRICK BUTTE
White Rock - 2014
ARTIST'S POINT OVERLOOK
CLY BUTTE (NAVAJO WORD FOR "LEFT") - NAMED AFTER A WELL-KNOWN NAVAJO MEDICINE MAN BURIED AT THE FOOT OF THE FORMATION.
SMOOTH IN PLACES...
RAIN GOD MESA
THREE SISTERS
THE THUMB
EXTREMELY ROUGH AND FULL OF DEEP POTHOLES IN OTHERS - CARS BEWARE!
(CONSIDER TAKING A JEEP TOUR WITH THE NAVAJO ON THIS 17-MILE DIRT ROAD - THE GUIDED TOUR VISITS PLACES NOT ACCESSIBLE FROM THE ROAD)
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK - 2017
[PICTURES UNEDITED, EXCEPT FOR SIZE]
YELLOWSTONE MEMORIES - 2017
A VIEW OF THE ROOSEVELT ARCH FROM THE CITY PARK IN GARDINER, MONTANA
A BULL ELK RESTS IN THE CITY PARK WITH HIS HAREM WHILE ONE OF HIS COWS LOOKS ON.
GRAND CANYON OF THE YELLOWSTONE
LAKE YELLOWSTONE
AMERICAN BISON - ONE OF THE MOST NUMEROUS ANIMALS IN THE PARK
A BULL ELK, RESTING IN THE SHADE OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS, GUARDS HIS HAREM AT MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS.
A YOUNG BULL ELK HANGS OUT IN THE MAMMOTH CAMPGROUND
GOVERNMENT TRAPPERS RETURN FROM CHECKING A LIVE TRAP FOR GRIZZLIES.
AND FIGHTS BRANCHES RATHER THAN LARGER RIVALS.
THE OCTOBER FULL MOON SETS OVER YELLOWSTONE'S DRAMATIC LANDSCAPE.
THE RECENTLY COMPLETED ROOSEVELT ARCH PLAZA IN GARDINER, MONTANA,
IMPROVES AND INTERPRETS THE HISTORIC ENTRANCE TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
COWS...
AND HORSES IN THE VALLEY
...AND THEN THERE IS THE ROAD TO MONUMENT VALLEY AS SEEN IN THE MOVIE "FORREST GUMP"
JOHN FORD POINT - THE FILM DIRECTOR SHOT HIS WESTERNS IN MONUMENT VALLEY: "STAGECOACH" (1939), "SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON" (1949), AND "THE SEARCHERS" (1956)
EVERYBODY STOPS FOR A PICTURE ON HIGHWAY 163....
INCLUDING ME!
THE NAVAJO NAME FOR MONUMENT VALLEY IS "TSE BII NDZISGALII." IT MEANS "VALLEY OF THE ROCKS." THE ANCESTRAL HOME OF THE NAVAJO INCLUDES THE NAVAJO TRIBAL PARK, WHICH COVERS AN AREA OF APPROXIMATELY 91,700 ACRES.
RECENT MOVIE (2013)
"THE LONE RANGER"
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"FORREST GUMP" (1994)
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LEAVING BEHIND A SNOWSTORM IN THE YELLOWSTONE HIGH COUNTRY - SOUTH INTO THE VALLEY - JACKSON HOLE
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. MEMORIAL PARKWAY
NAMED BY FRENCH TRAPPERS - "LES TROIS TETONS" - "THE THREE TEATS" LATER ANGLICIZED - "THE TETONS" - "THE GRAND TETONS"
HISTORIC BUILDINGS FROM THE MORMON SETTLEMENT IN JACKSON HOLE
FAMOUS LANDMARK - JOHN MOLTON BARN - IN THE SHADOW OF THE TETONS
JENNY LAKE
MURIE RANCH - NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK - ORIGINALLY 77 ACRES.
CONSERVATIONISTS OLAUS AND MARGARET MURIE AND ADOLF AND LOISE MURIE (BROTHERS) BOUGHT THE STS DUDE RANCH IN 1945. THEY MADE IT A BASE CAMP FOR ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND WILDERNESS ENTHUSIASTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. TODAY, IT IS PART OF GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK
IN GOOD COMPANY
A DUSTING OF SNOW IN THE HIGH COUNTRY
TIME TO LEAVE JACKSON HOLE AND HEAD SOUTH
THE RUT
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY WEBSITE.
FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK.
J. H. MCCOY
