Grand Teton | A story about chasing a red moon and nearly hitting a deer

The scenery is more elegant than the name

Just south of the famous Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park seems to be just an appendage of people's Yellowstone trips. But in fact, Yellowstone is more named for its geological and ecological value, and in terms of scenery alone, Grand Teton, which has the most powerful name in the national park, is the one that really stands out.

It is said that a long, long time ago, when French explorers came to the mountains in the northwest of Wyoming, they might have been convinced by the magnificent scenery of this area, and it was more like how they suffered physical and mental torture in the long-term exploration. In short When I go to my country and miss my hometown, I think of beautiful people, so I call the three peaks on the horizon Les trois tétons, which means "three chests". And the highest main peak among them is called Le grand téton, the grand one, the big one, is self-evident.

So Grand Teton National Park, in fact, should be translated as ______ National Park, please translate it yourself.

If you don't delve into this pair of things, how can you see three of them? With the beauty of the Grand Teton Snow Mountain and Lake scenery, it is indeed possible to compare the West Lake to the West Lake. However, the focus of this journey is not only the three beauty mountains, but also the total lunar eclipse under the snow-capped mountains.

Chasing the red moon

I learned about the total lunar eclipse on May 15 when I was on the Coast Starlight after being blown into my ears by the gossip of the front row passengers, and immediately set a small goal. First, it is rare for astronomical wonders to happen in the "must go out" season after the exam; second, the sky photography technology has skyrocketed in the United States, and it is time to start advanced. However, it was a long and tangled process from learning that there was a lunar eclipse on this day to deciding to go to Grand Teton to chase the red moon.

Mainly, this total lunar eclipse is not very friendly to the west coast. When the lunar eclipse begins, it is still below the horizon, and it is bound to miss part of the partial lunar eclipse. And we don't have a telephoto head and the equipment is sloppy, so we don't need to think about taking close-ups, so we must find a suitable scene. Since it is a moonrise with an eclipse, if you want to take pictures from the partial eclipse stage, you must be in a place that opens up to the east. When the stage of total lunar eclipse is reached, I have to worry about whether the moon will rise too high, so the scenery and the shooting point should not be too close...

As for the weather, it's up to people to make things happen. As long as it's not one of those places that don't get foggy only a few nights a year (that's you, the Golden Gate Bridge), it's always worth a gamble.

Therefore, in order to decide a shooting point, it is not enough to look back and forth with Google Street View for several rounds. It is better to use a trigonometric function to calculate it. Before I decided to go to Yellowstone, I had already struggled with Howard about where to shoot in the Bay Area:

Until one day, we were successfully tempted by Delta's sudden special offer and decided to advance the originally planned Yellowstone itinerary by a week. Another day, it dawned on me that on the night of the eclipse, I wasn't going to be in California. As a result, the relevant calculations are intensively launched around the candidate positions of Yellowstone and Grand Teton:

-- There is a mountain to the east of Old Faithful, and the only high-level seat is in Old Faithful inn, but the room was fully booked tens of thousands of years ago....

-- There are also mountains on the east side of Yellowstone Lake, and the lake is frozen, so there is no reflection...

-- The inspiration point at Jenny Lake in Grand Teton is beautiful, but a seven-mile night walk in a snow-covered valley?

After all the calculations, the final seat that was finally decided was the Mormon barn on Mormon Row, south of Grand Teton. Dilapidated barn, the blood moon rises from the horizon, reflecting the pastures and snow-capped mountains behind it is bloody... It gives the impression that... Link, be careful! I have to say, I had already had several intracranial orgasms for this brilliant idea of mine before the trip started.

However, the final result proved that my trigonometry ability may not have deteriorated, but it is obvious that I have not yet developed the literacy of professional photographers who forget to eat and sleep.

It is said that on the day of the lunar eclipse, the sky was clear and the air was clear. We drove all the way from Yellowstone to Grand Teton, and actually ate a huge portion of taco of good quality in the only open Signal Mountain Lodge in the park. Mountains and rivers are far away, of course, food cannot be wasted. We ate and ate along the lake and mountains, and when we filled our stomachs with cornstarch, asked for two packing boxes, and burped out of the restaurant, we found out that something was wrong - how come it's past eight o'clock already?

Grand Teton has built roads along both sides of the Snake River, and we happen to be on the west side of the road, blocked by Signal Hill, and it's completely unclear what's going on to the east. I drove back out of the park 2.5 times faster before I saw the scene to the east.

How can you start so early! On the road where the sky is gradually darkening, I watched the huge moon rise and change in front of my eyes, but the navigation showed that it was still half an hour's drive from the brain-filled plane, and it took 20 minutes to speed. What is even more psychologically tormenting is that every place on the road that can be parked, there are several cannon cameras that are set up, and the long cylindrical lenses are straight at the moon in the distance.

Looking at them, people can't help but doubt themselves: such a professional boss has chosen this place to shoot, will the framing here be better? What's more, watching the full moon slowly turn into a crescent moon, and then turn into an embroidered eyebrow... How can one not be itchy. So we got lost in our rush and taking pictures. All the parameters were adjusted, and the tripod was unfolded and tucked straight into the back seat. When we saw a position that seemed to be possible, we parked the handbrake and opened the camera to take a picture, and then continued on the road. .

I am afraid of missing the scenery along the way, and I am afraid that I will not be able to reach it when I stop. Ah, isn't this life?

But it finally stopped. By the time we got to Elk Flat Ranch Turnout, the moon had only an arc left, and it seemed that the barn would definitely be out of reach. Jianzhi, the great god who was parked here actually put out four machines by himself, which is an excellent endorsement of the scenery here. We are also not inferior, and decided to carry our little ones to join his big group.

So get out of the car and settle down. The night was dark, and the moonlight continued to dim. In fact, the naked eye could only see the red moon in the sky and the headlight of the great god next door. I also saw the photos later and found out that we were in a wild alpine meadow, and the buffaloes not far away were grazing on their own, despite the spectacle of the sky.

This is not the place I chose in the plan I had planned for so long. In the Grand Teton, where the scenery is open all the way, it is only an ordinary roadside observation deck. But at this moment, the scenery is surprisingly good. The idyllic pastoral is stacked with snow-capped hills, all sounds are quiet, only two cars are parked on the side of the road, five cameras stand in the grass, we chat about the sky, in the pulse of the earth, waiting for her shadow to complete the moon cover up.

A few minutes later, the total lunar eclipse begins.

When the blood moon really appeared, he didn't care about Wen Qing's feelings. Quickly change the aperture, adjust the shutter, reframe the focus, and shoot one by one. The great god next to him has completely entered the assembly line mode. The four machines are pressed one after another, and a new cycle starts after finishing one round.

The monster is reborn

The total lunar eclipse stage lasted for one and a half hours. After watching and filming for more than an hour, I was a little tired. I thought that the results were quite fruitful anyway, so I said goodbye to the four-packed god. Before leaving, he reminded us: "There are many animals on the road, drive carefully!"

It's a trope that applies to national parks across the country, and it makes me seriously underestimate the wildlife density of Yellowstone's Grand Teton. Just as I was driving, not speeding, and walking at night under the starry sky that appeared during the lunar eclipse, I suddenly felt a bright light in the right rear-view mirror, and when I looked closely, it was actually a pair of straight eyes staring at me, Standing on top of a deer head just illuminated by the headlights, less than half a meter away from the car, it is obviously crossing the road! I swerved, slammed on the brakes, honked my horn—everything was enough for the police to issue a ticket. After slowing down and looking back, the deer was obviously frightened too, stomped a few times, did not cross the road, and jumped back to the grassland again. If he took a step forward just now, he would have cut off his horns and my car door in the lightest case, and the car would have been destroyed in the worst case.

Benji next door was half asleep, and I was actually a little sleepy, but after doing this, both of them were completely awake - so they stopped by the roadside to watch the stars for more than half an hour.

Just two days later, I encountered a deer in Yellowstone in the middle of the night. This time he even stood in the middle of the road, and I made a sharp turn to the opposite lane before avoiding it. Could it be that after the appearance of the red moon, the wild monsters will really be reborn?

After the fright of the high-speed stag, the total lunar eclipse also ended, and the moonlight slowly returned to the world. Silent all night. By day, Grand Teton is a completely different landscape.

Regarding Grand Teton, it is really difficult for me to describe her energy in words, so I have to put pictures. It can only be said that on the afternoon of the first day, we had just come from Yellowstone, the lunar eclipse had not yet begun, the mountain had not yet climbed, and even the main peak of Teton had not yet been seen. By the lake of Colter Bay, the steep mountain wind had just At rest, Moran Mountain reflects on the water, and the year-round snow reflects sunlight. The family next to him was struggling to drag a kayak into the lake. Apart from that, there was no one else on the shore of the lake. The afternoon was clear and quiet. Suddenly I felt, and for the next few days, to Grand Teton: "I'll be back."

At least the flag that the Teton Crest Trail ridge crosses is here!