Vacations Are Supposed to be Relaxing

Most people plan their vacations with lots of "down time" figured in: maybe on a beach or at a resort. A little down time is always good, but it really wouldn't take long for Dan and me to get quite bored with that! 

Morning light is so pretty! 

Our trip started in a very popular vacation destination -- Yellowstone National Park -- but we quickly parted ways with the typical Yellowstone tourists. No lazy sleeping in for us. We were actually up much earlier than our usual evening-shift normal life allows. (We were in bed much, much earlier than usual, too!) Many people include hiking in their Yellowstone vacation, too, but not like we do. No boardwalk strolls or even trail walks for us. We had a destination (or three), a compass, a GPS, and bear spray. We wandered up and down steep hillsides and through new-growth lodge pole pines so thick that it was tough to squeeze between them. (I have the scrapes and bruises to prove it!) 





So what is the pay-off for pushing ourselves like that? Solitude! Yes, solitude in Yellowstone National Park. There is nothing better than sitting on a log with one you love, eating lunch surrounded by God's beautiful creation while elk bugle all around you. We "discovered" a waterfall that was new to us and watched elk behave like they behave when no human eyes are around to observe. (The wind was blowing our scent away from them, and they truly had no idea that we were there.) We smiled at a chipmunk munching his way through a stem of grass while a sage grouse trilled softly from a nearby perch. 


These are the feelings that we hope to capture in our photography. Yes, we could have taken pictures of a magnificent bull elk on the courthouse lawn in Mammoth without ever getting out of the car. But what fun would that be? 

We had this bull, for this moment anyway, all to ourselves.