The preceding ten entries contain a day-by-day description of my vacation to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. If you haven't read them, you may want to start with the oldest and work your way up. You can see them all at once by clicking on the "Jul 2006" link, located on the right edge of this blog page, below the side navigation buttons.

It was a great vacation, one that I am very happy to have taken. The scenery was awesome, the wildlife was amazing. It reminded me of the grandeur of Alaska, with a unique and rugged beauty all its own.

I think if I do a trip like this again soon, I would like to have a better camera. My digital camera is okay, but I would really love to have a digital SLR with at least a 300mm lens and a tripod. I think that is probably the minimum setup to get the kinds of photos I wanted to get. I would also like to spend more time at certain spots, and try to do more in the early morning and late evening. Those are really the best times to catch wildlife and to get great scenic shots.

We drove all night Saturday night, and stopped Sunday morning for breakfast at an International House of Pancakes (which now goes by the—in my opinion—less interesting name, "IHOP"). It was my first time eating in that restaurant chain. I ordered lingonberry pancakes, which were very good. The waiter told me that these particular berries sometimes sell for $30 a jar, but IHOP gets them at a special price. I had never had lingonberry anything before, but found them very tasty. (I later learned that lingonberries are also called "mountain cranberries," although they are not true cranberries, and they do have a somewhat cranberry-like taste, only slightly sweeter. They are served with ample sweetener, or they would presumably be quite tart.)



We made good time, and had lunch at an Olive Garden in Illinois, just east of St. Louis. I had the portobello ravioli with specially ordered marinara sauce instead of the usual creamy sauce. Yum! By 6:00 I was home. My mom thought she might rest a while at my place, but was eager to get home and couldn't sleep, so she left very soon and headed on to her home in Tennessee.

I did my best to unpack, but was totally tired and ready for bed. I crashed! Thankfully I had the foresight to have requested Monday off as well, so I had a full day to "recover" from my vacation!

Sabbath morning we went to church in Powell. It was a very small group, maybe eight of us altogether. We had a nice lesson study, but because the pastor was away, there was no church or fellowship lunch that week. So after Sabbath school we continued on our way.

One stretch of highway was an unusual blood-red color. It doesn't show perfectly in the photo below (I took it while driving), but you get the general idea.



It was a very interesting road in other respects, too. It had a very long and somewhat steep incline, and we drove a long time before reaching the top. It went in and out of open range, so I had to keep an eye open for cattle. (We did see some, but not on the road, thankfully.) On the other side, it descended through many layers of rock labeled according to geologic time tables (so many billion years old, etc.); there seemed to be an unusually wide gamut of rock layers exposed.

In western Wyoming we came to Devil's Tower, another natural site that I've always wanted to see. I wish we could have seen it in the early morning or at sunset, but our driving schedule did not permit that. It was very impressive, and I was awed at the sheer size of it.

The most easily recognized profile (colorized a bit in Photoshop):



A closer view from a path near the base; the photo suffers from some perspective distortion:



Scenery within the Devil's Tower park:



According to information inside the visitor's center at Devil's Tower, no one is really sure how the tower formed. But apparently as the rock cooled, it fractured into tall columns, each with a somewhat crystalline shape (mostly hexagonal, but some have 5 or 7 sides). Over time pieces of these columns have collapsed, and you can see fragments of all sizes strewn around the base of the tower and out into the surrounding woods for some distance.

Below is a close-up of Devil's Tower. You can see that some columns are missing their tops, others their bases. Can you spot the people in the photo at left? Even standing there in person, I had no idea of the scale of the formation until I saw the climbers and took these photos. The red rectangle is the approximate area shown in the second photo; the two big red circles are magnifications of the smaller red circles.



The rock behind me appears to be part of one of the columns that has fallen (the crystalline shape is not as clear from the ground):



We also enjoyed visiting a large colony of prairie dogs there.



In the evening we came to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We might have been tempted to stop, but we were tired, and the Black Hills are one of the places I remember well from childhood vacations, so I was not so eager to see it again. I did want to visit the Badlands, but by the time we reached them, it was already dark, so we just drove on.

With Eugene and Heidi gone, my mom and I decided we might as well head on home too. We were both satisfied with what we had seen and were ready to head back. While my mom was purchasing some items at a local convenience store, she saw a marten—something I've always wanted to see in the wild, and I was disappointed I missed it. That was the second rare animal she had been privileged to see alone!

We took the northern route home, so we first drove up through Yellowstone. We ate lunch at Old Faithful at a grill, which had some very good vegetarian items on the menu. As we drove the loop around Yellowstone Lake we came across a beautiful elk with an amazing set of antlers, and later several decent herds of bison. (Unfortunately we could not photograph the elk. The road was congested with a long line of cars from both directions, all stopping for this one animal. The park rangers were taking people by the arm and threatening to handcuff people who were getting too close. So I decided to just drive on.) The scenery through the eastern Yellowstone entrance, along the Shoshone River, was absolutely amazing, so beautiful and majestic. A sign indicated that it was grizzly country, but we did not see any bears.

Scenes from Yellowstone:









We spent the night at a hotel in Powell, Wyoming. On the way there we saw some really beautiful clouds and an incredible sunset (the colors and streaks are natural, nothing added):

By Thursday our supply of clean clothing was running low, so we decided to do laundry. Fortunately the laundry prices were not as outrageous as the shower prices had been. I had learned a computer with Internet access was freely available to all campers, so while my mom was working on the laundry I decided to go check my email. There was nothing interesting, but at least I wasn't thinking about it anymore. (Okay, I admit it: My life revolves around email.)

We went on another wildlife hunt, this time heading towards the Snake River pullout. My mom wanted to check on canoeing, kayaking, and rafting costs, but it turned out that the reservations office was located elsewhere. (It was an interesting road going down to the river: 19% grade!)

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Jackson Lake Lodge again so my mom could rest. Eugene, Heidi, and I went for a short walk about back, which was nice.

Later, towards evening, we returned to Signal Mountain, where we saw the same mother moose and calf, as well as a red fox, and a very beautiful sunset over the Tetons.

Eugene and Heidi decided that with all the driving ahead of them, they should head out that evening while they were feeling energetic.

My mom and I were the two photographers in the group, and we were both eager to get some nice sunrise and sunset pictures in the Tetons. So Wednesday morning we both got up at 5:45 and headed to an overlook at Signal Mountain to see what we could find.

On the way there I happened to see a moose feeding in a pond. It was quite exciting, since moose were one of the big animals we were really hoping to see. We took a few pictures, and then continued on up to the overlook. Unfortunately the view we found was a bit disappointing. But on the way back we were elated to find that the mother moose had been joined by her calf. So we spent more time photographing them.

The Snake River, with the Tetons behind:



The mother moose and calf:





Later, after breakfast, we went on another wildlife safari to a place called Oxbow Bend, but did not find anything noteworthy. I did get some nice wildflower pictures on that excursion, however.



For lunch we had campfire-roasted vegetables, seasoned with a recipe that Heidi had learned from her friend Amy at Ouachita Hills. It was very good. Later we hiked along a trail at North Jenny Lake, where we saw a marmot and a bald eagle.

Eugene turning the vegetables on the fire:



Some of the scenery at North Jenny Lake:



Various wildflowers:







Back at camp, mom told us she had seen a gray wolf, something she had never seen in the wild before. I was a bit envious of her! That night as I was going to sleep, I thought I heard a menacing growl outside my tent. I became very still, and listened carefully. I was relieved to discover it was just one of our party snoring loudly!

On Tuesday we spent some more time at Jackson Lake Lodge. I think my mom was getting a little tired of "roughing it," and found the comfy, stuffed chairs and air conditioning at the lodge much more to her liking! Mom wrote letters and worked on her diary while the rest of us milled around looking at the shops in the lodge and so forth.

After lunch we set out for Yellowstone. Eugene and Heidi had already seen some of it on their way to Grand Teton from Washington. My mom was mainly interested in wildlife, but to me it was all extremely fascinating. At the first stop, a visitor's center, I meandered about looking at all the hissing, boiling, steaming mud pots and geysers. Despite the acrid smell, I found it quite enjoyable and interesting. The others were not keen on spending time on the small stuff, so we quickly piled in the car and headed for Old Faithful.

It was a gray, overcast day. We arrived at the Old Faithful observation area maybe 30 minutes before the next eruption, but of course nobody knew when exactly it would be. (I had always thought Old Faithful ran like clockwork, but I learned there is some variance in its timetable.) A man behind us kept up a constant stream of wisecracks that kept us amused as we waited. There were numerous small eruptions before the big one, and each time the crowd would get ready with cameras in hand, just in case. While we waited it began to rain. It was a bit cold, and we had to press together to keep warm. Finally the big one came, and I snapped a few photos. It lasted longer than I expected, and what a tremendous amount of water it was!

Old Faithful (not so spectacular on a cloudy day!):



After that we visited the Old Faithful Lodge, an amazing structure that has to be seen to be believed. The rough timber architecture inside was amazing. It looked like some impossibly elaborate set from a Hollywood production.

After that everyone seemed ready to go home, but I saw pictures of the Grand Prismatic Spring in the gift shop there, something that had awed me ever since I was a kid, and I persuaded everyone to go see it before heading back. Although not nearly as impressive from the ground as from above (the linked image is someone else's photo), still it was really neat, and I was glad I could visit a place I had always wanted to see.

Eugene and Heidi on a walkway at the Grand Prismatic Spring (you can see the steaming hot water pouring into the river behind them):



The Grand Prismatic Spring itself:



The walkway:



Me at the spring:



Some interesting patterns in the mud:

Monday morning we went to register at the camp entrance, as the booth there had been vacant when we first arrived. We learned that our camp site that previous night was technically reserved for vehicles with trailers, and that a "much better" one was available in the same camping area, not far away. So we tore down the tent and moved to the new site. It was a bit disappointing. Instead of nice, soft ground to pitch a tent on, we had a gravel box. There was also less privacy. The toilet facilities for that group of sites was probably less than 50 feet away, which was nice in some ways, but not so nice in others. But the scenery was good, and the neighbors quiet. All in all, it was a reasonably good camp site.

The Tetons as seen from the viewing area behind Jackson Lake Lodge:



Our first objective was to locate Eugene and Heidi. We drove to the Jackson Lake Lodge where my mom tried to call them on a pay phone. On the way out, I tried my cell phone again. I had a voice mail! I pressed the button to start the message, and heard, "Hi, this is Eugene...," and at that moment my phone completely died! There was nothing to do but return to our camp.

We decided to set up camp after breakfast. Just a few minutes into our meal, Eugene and Heidi drove up. They had gotten our voice mails, and had seen the note we had left for them at the camp entrance. We ate together, and then found hot showers nearby—a bit pricey but worth it. Thus refreshed, our day's adventure began.

Our campsite (Eugene, Heidi, and Mom slept in the orange tent; I slept in the green one):



A deer that frequented our camping area:



The bear-proof box where we stored our food:



We took a boat across Jenny Lake to a trailhead on the other side, and hiked along a beautiful mountain stream up to Inspiration Point. We had a great time playing with the very friendly (and well-fed, but not by us) chipmunks. We also saw a deer close by. It was a great hike, and at the end we were content to call it a day. We did some more grocery shopping in Jackson. I tried to find a pump for my air mattress (another "left behind" object), but without success. That night, after pitching our tents, I spent a good half-hour or so inflating my mattress the old-fashioned way. Although the daytime temperatures were very warm, sometimes hot, the air cooled dramatically during the night, and I got a bit chilled—but not too much

Heidi, Eugene, and Mom on the dock before taking a boat across Jenny Lake:



From the trail leading up to Inspiration Point—there were so many scenic spots along this trail, I soon stopped taking photos. I could have filled up my camera's card with just those!





At Inspiration Point: Heidi and Eugene:



Another friendly chipmunk (I really like the colors in this photo):



A beautiful sunset back at our campsite:

When I awoke Sunday morning, I realized I had gotten sunburned during our one day in Colorado. Evidently the high elevation had contributed to that, since I rarely get burned when I spend time outdoors in Illinois. (It must be remembered that the base elevations at many of the places we visited out west are higher than the highest point in my home state.) For the remainder of the vacation I tried to remember to use sunscreen....

After getting our tire repaired at Sam's Club, thanks to a temporary membership, and after a little last-minute grocery shopping, we were on our way to Grand Teton. It was a unique experience for me, driving across the seemingly endless, windswept, desolate plains of southern Wyoming. We had the good sense to fuel up beforehand, because there were stretches without a single gas station for a hundred miles or more.

Wyoming scenery:



On a whim, I asked my mom whether she knew of pronghorn (antelope) living in that area. She didn't know, but said it looked like the perfect habitat for them. It reminded her of the places she had seen pronghorn while living in Arizona. It wasn't long after that, maybe an hour or two later, when I saw a pronghorn standing majestically at the crest of a rocky bluff, not far from the road. Later we saw more and more of them. Unfortunately they were extremely skittish, much more than deer and other animals of that size, and I could not get a good photo of one.

We stopped for lunch at Rock Springs, and mom took over driving. Along the way we saw some beautiful deer just next to the road, but did not take time to stop. We arrived at Jackson (the big tourist town just south of Grand Teton) around 8:30 p.m., and continued on into the park. We were hoping to meet up with Eugene and Heidi at a campground at the northern end of the park, Lizard Creek, but the park is extensive and it took us a long time (perhaps an hour or more) to get there. To complicate matters, my cell phone was running out of power. It turned out that one of the items I forgot to bring was my cell phone charger. Mom's cell phone simply did not work in the park (score one for Verizon, zero for Cingular).

It was nearly sunset as we came into Grand Teton National Park. We could not stop for photos, so I leaned my camera out the window and tried to get shots as we sped along. The view of the mountains with the golden clouds behind was striking.



After much driving around in the dark, we did not find the rest of our party, although we did spot two black bears together along the road which in some way made up for the frustration. We finally set up a temporary camp at Colter Bay, and decided to resume our search in the morning. My mom helped me set up my tent, and I promptly went to sleep. She decided to sleep in the car, since she did not have a tent and planned to stay in the tent my brother was bringing. Unfortunately she did not sleep so well.

I awoke the next morning to a beautiful sunrise in eastern Colorado. I was very tempted to have my mom pull over so I could get a photo of an old wind mill in a field that we passed, silhouetted against the dawn light. But we were both wanting to make good time, so kept on. We had breakfast at a little rest stop, and enjoyed an honest-to-goodness chilly summer morning. I drove the rest of the way to Rocky Mountain National Park, enjoying the 75 mph speed limit (which we continued to enjoy through Wyoming and South Dakota). Seeing all the ramshackle towns in eastern Colorado and throughout the western states ahead on our journey, I amusedly thought to myself that by comparison the cities and towns of southern Illinois are practically the cradle of civilization.

We arrived at the park at 9:30 a.m. We were quite pleased with our travel time.

Some of the scenery in Colorado as we neared Rocky Mountain National Park:





Mom did most of the driving in the park. We looked around the visitor center a bit, then headed to a talk about big horn sheep. We hoped to actually see some sheep, but there were none around at the time. The talk itself was a little boring, and when we got to the part where the ranger wanted everyone in the group to join in a song, we decided to leave.

Mom taking a rest near a waterfall:



We continued on a route towards the Alpine Visitors Center. Along the way we passed several beautiful waterfalls. At the first one, a friendly little chipmunk came and posed for me.



We enjoyed hiking around the falls, and took quite a few pictures. Later, at the Alpine Visitors Center, we saw our first big animals—elk. We saw them in small groups—one, two, or three together—and in larger groups of 30 or more. I'm sure we saw more than 100 altogether. Unfortunately they were too distant to get good pictures. (Wildlife photography rule to live by: If you want great photos, expect to bring at minimum a 300mm lens and a tripod. You might get lucky without these items, but you'll do much better with them.)

Views from near the Alpine Visitors Center:







We left the park in the afternoon. My mom was tired, and we were both anxious to get to our next destination. Unfortunately, not far down the road we had a blow-out. But we were blessed to be quickly assisted by a husband and wife, who we learned were devout Christians and extremely helpful and generous. The man and I unloaded the trunk to get to the spare, and he did virtually all of the work putting it on. We were very close to Ft. Collins, so they offered to follow us over and stay with us as long as necessary. We treated them to something to drink while we looked for a hotel (we all ordered orange juice or lemonade!). Since they had the bad tire in their car, they followed us over to the hotel. I tried to give them something for their time and effort, but they refused. So we wished them God's blessing, and parted ways.

We got to our hotel room around 5:00, and both my mom and I were so tired that we laid down on our beds without changing clothes, and almost immediately fell asleep. We slept almost 12 hours—I guess we had really been pushing ourselves!

July was a totally crazy month, with two magazines—the 48-page 3ABN World and the 72-page Catch the Vision—to complete from concept, through design, editing, and final production in a very short timeframe. The deadlines were fixed: July 14 was the deadline to have Catch the Vision magazine ready for ASI, and July 21 was the deadline to have 3ABN World out the door before my 11-day vacation. I would be home only one day after my vacation before heading out again for this year's ASI convention in Dallas, August 2-6, so there was no margin for sliding. Completing just one of those magazines in that time period would have been challenging enough. For the week and a half leading up to the first deadline, I put in some long hours. Not counting Friday and Saturday nights, I was up past midnight on all but one or two nights, and one night I worked until past 3:00 a.m.!

Thankfully both magazines got out the door. Catch the Vision is essentially an overview and annual report about 3ABN. We did not change the overall design much from the previous year, but did rework some of the page designs to freshen it up. Nevertheless, updating the photos and written content alone were both challenging. 3ABN World is our monthly publication with news, inspirational articles, program schedules, and more. The greatest task with that publication is coming up with fresh, creative designs for the feature articles from month to month. I was very glad to get it all done! I left my assistant Kenton to review the 3ABN World proof the following week and make any last minute changes. I tidied up my desk. I couldn't help but smile as I wisked out the door—Wyoming, here I come!

Here is the final cover design for Catch the Vision magazine, 2006 edition:



My mom had arrived late Thursday night, the 20th, from Tennessee. As soon as I came home around noon that Friday, we began loading our camping supplies into the car. To make our start interesting, a big thunderstorm rolled in and knocked out the power while we were still packing. Unfortunately I had my packing list on my computer, so after vainly waiting for the lights to come on, I went ahead and tried to remember everything I would need for this trip—inevitably missing a few minor items as I would later discover. We finished packing, grabbed a little lunch at Subway, and hit the road!

I drove the first segment. We stopped for supper at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in mid-Missouri. It was noticeably cooler there, a welcome change from the heat wave in Illinois. I saw a brilliant shooting star or two flash by in the night. I continued driving until just past Kansas City, just a little before midnight. Mom drove all the rest of the night.

At 3ABN's Spring Camp Meeting I was introduced to the music of Sandra Entermann. Sandra is a Seventh-day Adventist vocal artist with a beautiful voice. Moreover, the songs in her repertoire contain great messages, and several that were new to me have become favorites already. Her choice of musical accompaniment is also always appropriate. I've purchased two of her albums: "If I Stand" and her most recent album, "Rest."



My favorite songs on these albums are "Chorus of Faith," "Ready for the Storm," "Remember Me," "Were It Not for Grace" (awesome!), "The Strength of the Lord," "Raining on the Inside," and "Too Many Times."

You can hear samples and purchase her latest album from Westney Productions.

Yesterday I watched a movie with friends, "End of the Spear." It is based on the true story of missionaries who reached out to natives of Colombia, South America. Despite a major setback involving the loss of all the men in the group, those who remained decided to continue their work. It was such a powerful story, with a very beautiful and touching ending. The movie dramatically depicts the collision between the fierce, warring tribe and the steadfast faith (and self-sacrifice) of the missionaries.

I highly recommend it. There is some violence, mainly natives and foreigners being impaled by spears. But the gore is very minimal. I did not find the movie visually disturbing, but if you are sensitive you might need to exercise discretion.

Incidentally, two of the missionaries were Jim and Elisabeth Elliott (Elisabeth is a well-known author in Christian circles, whose books include "Passion and Purity" and "The Mark of a Man").



You can find the DVD on Amazon.com, among other places. The music was very beautiful, too (I don't own the audio CD, but it's probably quite good).

My previous post got me to thinking about fractals, so I downloaded this really cool application called IFSLab (a freeware application, available here for Mac OS X only). This program is so much fun to play with ... it's a bit addicting. Anyway, here is one of my first experiments with this program, recolored a bit in Photoshop:



Below are a couple more scenes I made with the same software. Every one of these scenes is created the same way: by defining a simple master object (a basic line drawing like a triangle or other polygon), and then cloning it a few times, scaling and positioning each clone to define how the fractal iterations will develop. The results are rendered in real time, which is what makes the program so easy to play with.

As you can see, these fractals strongly mimic natural patterns we are all familiar with, suggesting that fractal structures are building blocks in the physical world. I spent maybe 10-15 minutes on each of these; more time or expertise with the software could yield more realistic results.

I have always admired Islamic art, especially because of the geometrical, mathematical basis for its beautiful and intricate patterns. Recently I purchased a Dover clipart book full of copyright-free Islamic designs, and I absolutely love it. Here is a sample:



Personally I am very intrigued by art based on math. To the uninitiated, mathematical art may sound very plain, rigid, boring. However, it is possible to mathematically construct very beautiful and intricate designs. Fractal theory suggests that many objects in the natural world, appearing complex or even chaotic as a whole, are actually built from relatively simple mathematical repetitions (examples would be tree branches, sea shell patterns, snowflakes).

Music is also a prime example of art with a mathematical basis: timing, rhythm, and harmonics are all based on math. (The degree to which two given notes harmonize is related to the alignment/correlation of the "peaks" in their respective sine waves.) It is often alleged that many of the great classical works have strong patterns that can be mathematically derived, and this is perhaps true on a lesser scale for other genres of music.