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I’m back from the Grand Tetons, which is my favorite place on earth.  Here are a few photos.  More soon on my Facebook page.

Whilst I was gone, I was unable to post (except about the ESCR ruling from the Denver Airport), or personally monitor the comments, a few of which—you know who you are—got a bit out of hand. Let’s play nice.

In any event, here are a few photos.  I hope you like them.

This lone gray wolf was only 150 or so yards away, when we saw him early in the morning a few miles inside of Yellowstone. He’d been feeding on a dead elk in a stream nearby. Magnificent animal. (I have more photos of the wolf and the dead elk.)

That dusk, as we left the park, we watched in stunned amazement as a giant grizzly, that had stolen the elk, decided to do away with the wolf that had stayed nearby harassing the bear, not wanting to lose its meal ticket. The bear suddenly charged. The wolf sprang away, running for its life, the bear hot on its tale—literally—only about five feet behind. It was too dark to take photos and happened too fast anyway. But it was so close you didn’t need binoculars. The safety volunteer there said he’d never seen anything like it other than through a high powered telescope. After about a 20 second dash, during which our hearts were in our throats, the bear pulled up. There is no justice or mercy in the natural world—those are qualities distinctive of human societies.



Moon rising over Yellowstone Lake:



The Tetons are breathtaking. This shot was at about midday.



Debra and I took long hikes by beautiful lakes. I was quite taken by the reflection of this huge boulder—left by glaciers from the massive global warming that ended the last ice age:



The most dramatic sunset I have ever seen. Taken from Jenny Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park, in a slight rain.


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