USA II Diary

Sunday, September 15th, 2019

Travel day.

Route: Copenhagen-Amsterdam-Salt Lake City-Jackson hole.

I was delayed an hour out of Amsterdam and it ruined the rest of the planned trip. I was late for the planned flight from Salt Lake City. Next flight 8:30 PM.

Arrived very late to Jackson and slept right away. Missed the Welcome Dinner.

Monday 16 September 2019

Spent all day in Grand Teton National Park. The national park has its name after a tall and very nice mountain range.

Met the group in the morning at breakfast. Our guide is Kurt and Colin. Kurt Johnson was my guide on the Alaska tour three years ago.

1.      Up 5:30 AM to photograph the Grand Teton mountain range at sunrise.

2.      Stop at a large Bison heard near the Snake River.

3.      Lecture on birds of prey at Jackson Lake Lodge.

4.      Picnic lunch in the green organized by Kurt's wife.

5.      Signal Hill is a nice vantage point where you can see beyond the Snake River valley

6.      Check in at Jackson Lake Lodge,

Tuesday 17 September 2019

Rainy and cloudy all day. Driven from Jackson Lake Lodge to Grant Village Lodge.

The sunrise drowned in rain so we were hunting for animals instead. We saw a large bunch of Wapiti deer at quite a distance.

Back for breakfast, we drove towards Yellowstone.

Waterfall at Crayfish Canyon

1.      A great Wapiti bull crossed the road and we followed it for a while.

2.      When we arrived at "Old Faithfull" it was bursting. We decided to look at other geothermal activity nearby. Then lunch at a hotel.

3.      Old Faithfull jumped as scheduled.

4.      Check in at Grant Village Lodge

Wednesday 18 September 2019

Cloudy but dry weather. Driven from Grant Village to Cooke City Montana just outside the National Park.

1.      Early morning tour of the "West Thumb Geyser Basin Trail" located down to Yellowstone Lake. It was freezing weather and cold while we saw the sun rising.

2.      Back for breakfast and then Midway Geyser Basin, Grand Prismatic spring. We first went on flat terrain and later a short ascent to a vantage point.

3.      Lower Geyser Basin. Firehole Lake Drive. Pink Cone Geyser.

4.      Lunch In Mammoth Hotspring. While we waited to get a table we looked at the Albright Visitor Center and Museum. The city has many green pastures in the centre and from time to time flocks of Wapiti deer walk through the city. Here, police officers are ready to stop traffic as the deer crosses the road. (No pictures when I lost my cell phone later.)

5.      Walking alone in the Limestone terraces south of Mammoth.

6.      Lamar Valley: We saw a pack of wolves that had surrounded a heard of Bison, but we didn't see anyone killed. What we saw was in a telescope binoculars at 2 km distance. It was close to sunset so we had to leave the place. (no pictures since the distance was too great).

7.      Cook City is located in Montana. We ate Pizza at the hotel because it was impossible to get a table reservation for this evening.

Thursday 19 September 2019

We stayed 2 nights in Cooke City and drove around the surrounding area.

1.      We drove back to Lamar Valley and found the wolf pack again in the binoculars. There had been a killing but a large Grizzly

bear had stolen the prey and kept the wolves at a distance. We saw Bison, Moose and Pronghorn at a shorter distance.

2.      We visited Tower Falls.

3.      We visited Dan Hartman who is a local nature photographer at his home just outside Cooke City. First we had lunch and then a lecture by Dan with pictures.

4.      Afternoon tour up the really high mountains on the Wyoming-Montana border. We were up at the height of 3200 metres (10500 feet). Although it is bear country we saw none, but there were marmots and pikas (A small rodent the size of a rat).

5.      In the evening we had a table in the city's only restaurant.

Friday 20 September 2019

Cloudy and rainy weather all day Driven from Cooke City back to Jackson throughout Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

1.      Calcite springs is located north of Tower Falls. The source can only be seen from a vantage point. It jumps with both water and hydrogen sulphide. It is quite close to the banks of the Yellowstone River.

2.      Yellowstone Grand Canyon. The famous view up Yellowstone River to Lower Falls which has been photographed and painted many times.

3.      Sulphur Cauldron and Mud Volcano.

4.      Lewis Falls.

5.      Time to go for a walk in Jackson before dinner.

Saturday, September 21st, 2019

Tour of the surroundings of Jackson. Two nights at the Lexington hotel.

1.      Early morning tour along the Gros Ventre River. It was cold and we didn't see anything special.

2.      Later in the day we saw a moose cow with calf and at a greater distance a moose bull.

3.      Kelly's warm spring is a hot spring. People have set their aquarium fish free here in the pond Sign strongly warns against this practice as it risks the new fauna eradicating the old one. You can find the American Bull Frogs here.

4.      An old Western movie set. Has been used in Django Unchained and Shane.

5.      National Museum of Wildlife Art. Outside there is a group of statues of extinct birds. We had lunch there.

6.      Part of the group went on photo safari with Colin. A Pronghorn ran parallel to the road and we had a series of good shots. Later we walked along the Gros Ventre River and had a number of good shots of Moose on the other side of the river.

7.      Farewell dinner at a restaurant in the city.

Sunday, September 22nd, 2019

Travel day. Route: Jackson Hole – Chicago – Newark airport.

From Newark in New Jersey, I took a taxi to Wellington hotel. Unfortunately, I lost my cell phone in the taxi and with it part of my pictures. I arrived at the hotel after sunset.

Monday, September 23, 2019

The temperature went up to 31 degrees C today, the highest on the whole trip.

1.      I took a hop on/hop off bus down to the 9/11 memorial. Last time I saw only the two basins that is placed where the towers stood. This time I saw The National September 11 Museum placed in the underground.

2.      I had lunch in WTC Oculus, which I also saw the last time I was here.

3.      The High Line is a pedestrian street in the height of the second floor. It is built on a former freight rail bridge. There are flowers, shrubs and trees along the pedestrian zone.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2019

Today, the temperature was 25 – 26 degrees, and it was the same the following days.

Failed to get ticket to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

1.      I jumped again on a bus that drove north along central park's west side. After the park, we drove into Haarlem and passed Columbia University. We turned south and came down 5th Avenue along the eastern side of Central Park.

2.      I jumped too early off the bus and had to go a long way before I reached the Guggenheim Museum. The building was built by Frank Lloyd Wright. There is an inner snail walk around an atrium yard throughout the building's height. Modern painters such as Fernand Leger, Picasso, Braque, Kandinsky and others. A department with a current exhibition by Jean Michel Basquiat as he calls: Defacement. https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/basquiats-defacement-the-untold-story

3.      The Metropolitan Museum is almost unbearably large. I managed to see most of the first floor, but there is a total of three floors. Ancient statues, a section of Rodin's works and much more. After two museum visits, I was pretty tired.

Wednesday 25 September 2019

Partly cloudy but dry weather

1.      Empire State Building. When you buy a ticket you get through an exhibition first that tells about the construction of the building in the early thirties. It was then the tallest building in the world. There is both an indoor and an outdoor platform with city views.

2.      Then I went for a walk around the Rockefeller center before Finishing the day with a good dinner at a restaurant there.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Departure day. My flight leaves first 10:00 PM so I had most of the day available.

There are no pictures from the day because I lost my cell phone.

1.      I started by going for a walk in the south of Central Park, located within walking distance of the hotel.

2.      I went past Moma but they were temporarily closed.

3.      I took a trip down to the most southern part of Manhattan and went for a walk in Battery Park.

4.      I left well in advance for Kennedy Airport. It took an hour by taxi.

Friday, September 27th, 2019

Flight route: New York – Amsterdam – Copenhagen

I actually managed to sleep half the time across the Atlantic.

Landed in Kastrup 1:55 PM

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