Framing the Sound

Tag: hiking

  • Unforgettable Road Trip: A Concert and National Parks

    My wife has completed the bookings of where we’ll be staying as we make our way west to visit 4 national parks come September. I hope it will be an epic journey with epic scenery. The trip, delayed for five years, was for a reason I’m sure you already know.

    The first stop on our journey will be in Cleveland, OH, for a concert. We will hear and see one of my favorite bluegrass stars – Alison Krauss. We saw her there several years ago with Robert Plant. But for this show, she’ll be with her new/old band and we’re really looking forward to it.

    After Alison’s show our drive continues west to Madison, WI. Then we head to Wall, South Dakota. We’ll be visiting the first of four national parks – Badlands National Park. Then it’s on to Rapid City for an overnight stay before heading to Cody, Wyoming. Mt. Rushmore, Devil’s Den, and the Black Hills are planned short stops in Cody.

    We’ll rest up at the Moose Creek Lodge in Cody. After that, we’ll drive to one of the oldest national parks. It’s one I’m really excited about – Yellowstone National Park. First established in 1872, Yellowstone might be the most well-known. Maureen has scheduled 2 days for us to get as much sight-seeing and photography in as possible at Yellowstone. I’m sure that’s not nearly long enough to see everything. I plan to choose my photography locales very carefully. Hopefully, I’ll find at least one or two areas for epic photos during the 2 days.

    From Yellowstone, our next stop is Grand Tetons National Park in Moose, Wyoming. “Mountains of the Imagination” is a coined phrase you might’ve heard in reference to Grand Teton. Jackson Lake will probably be framed up in my camera while there, Jenny Lake too!

    Our final national park visit before heading back east to Pennsylvania will be Glacier National Park. It is located in West Glacier, Montana. Glacier National Park is known as “Crown of the Continent.” It very well could be the crown jewel of the journey for us. It’s no mistaking that this national park is one of the most photographed of them all. I’ve heard that Going-to-the-Sun Road is a must do drive so that will be something we’ll motor on.

    A 2 night stay at the grand Glacier Lodge in East Glacier, Montana will finish our epic, and probably historic journey to see, feel, experience the marvel, and photograph four of our Nation’s most beautiful natural wonders.

    It’s said that some things come along only once in a lifetime. I hope that in this instance, it’ll be at least one or maybe two more times in a lifetime.

    A happy photographer

  • When Winter Ends

    And the warmth of spring begins that’s when my brain slowly but surely signals the rest of my body to start preparations for another new gardening season. It also tells me to start planning for a new photography season as well. Let me explain…

    I’m not a cold weather photographer, never have been and probably never will be. Me and cold don’t get along at all. I might brave the cold for a short walk with my camera to where my back yard meets the tangled woodlot after the first snow, and after Old Man Winter decides to slack off for a while.

    A day or two after that first snow melts, Nature reveals the tangled, cold, wet, soggy woodlot behind my house. Maybe I’m just a cynical old man when it comes to trying to be a winter photographer. But I always lose my cynical outlook when spring returns and I hear the first chirps of tree frogs, and robins with their confusing but pleasant song of “is…it…spring…or…still…win…ter?”

    If you’re wondering what helps get me through these forever lasting northeast winters, it has six strings and the wood it’s made from might just be related to those trees in that woodlot I mentioned.