The worst thing about travel is the travel… the time between adventures and experiences. All the seat time is definitely the worst part of it all. Interesting things can been seen while in route but when driving in a snowstorm or a downpour like what has been going on here out west over the last few days. It’s not that exciting. I have been fortunate enough to have a couple breaks in the weather to enjoy some great site like Massacre Rocks State park which I snuck into from a rest station off the interstate, or Shoshone Falls, a beautiful waterfall along the Snake River, of the gorgeous Glenn Canyon here in Oregon along the Columbia River which the Snake drains into. There really have not been many brown signs (interesting sights) that I have skipped if they were off I-84. From fish hatcheries to waterfalls I have stopped at them all. Usually quick stops but sometimes longer hikes were the result. Most people would cringe if they saw what my cameras have already been through just 48 hours into a month long road trip of Americas West! The weather sealing will definitely be tested.

The plan it to hang here in Oregon to visit my buddy Rip Caswell, a fantastic sculptor who went to Churchill photographing polar bears with me. After that I am heading south to visit my good buddy John who I haven’t seen since he started LanguageConvo, an on line spanish course one on one with a Latin American instructor, because it is taking up all of his time. From there I am going south. That’s all I know. Redwood forest would be a pretty awesome park to spend some time and Yosemite waterfalls would be nice to photograph with the snow but nothing in set in stone. The Subaru is showing sings of letting me down so that might be an adventure in itself getting her back in working condition.

The longest stretch of National Park-less land is behind me and from here out hopefully the days will consist of 150 or less driving miles per day verses the 400 or so I have been doing the last couple. It is awful spending that much time in the drivers seat. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Shiras Moose in Jackson Hole, Wy

In North America we have four different subspecies of moose throughout the northern United States and Canada. Populations of Moose spread from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast and from the Arctic all the way down to small isolated populations in southern Colorado and Utah. The word moose comes from the Algonquin word “Mooswa” meaning “animal that strips bark off trees.” In winter when food sources are limited moose eat bark and other woody materials to help get them through harsh winters. Moose are the largest members of the deer family with A.a. gigas found in Alaska being the largest subspecies and largest deer on earth. Even though moose can weigh up to a ton they can run at 35mph and swim at 6mph. Because they look lethargic people think they are relatively harmless but they injure many people each year. I have seen a moose chase a person around a tree for getting too close. There was a interesting article in the Huffington Post entitled Assume Every Moose is a Serial Killer just to raise awarement that they are dangerous animals. That title basically sums it up. The following is a little description of each of the four types of moose we have here in North America. If you want to see maps of their demographics or read more about them click on the lime green links.

The first species of moose that was discovered in North America was A.a. americana subspecies. This species was discovered in 1822 and after a period of intense hunting, more regulation has attributed to steady population growth. Population of A.a. americana are as much as 330,000 in the maritime provinces and northeastern states.

The next subspecies to be discovered in North America is A.a. gigas. Gigas is a Greek work meaning giant which is fitting because it is the largest of all moose. This subspecies was distinguished in 1899 and is found mainly in Alaska. Populations of A.a. gigas is as much as 220,000 animals. A.a. gigas can get nearly double the size of the Shiras moose we have here in Wyoming.

The Shiras moose or A.a. shirasi is the smallest subspecies and is found in the western states including Colorado and Utah where isolated populations exist. The Shiras moose has by far the smallest population numbers at only 25,000 animals. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population numbers have been in decline since the fires of 1988 when nearly a third of Yellowstone National Park went up in flames. Because of the fires, a lot of the food sources the moose depended on were destroyed for many rears resulting in a higher than average winter die off. Also since the wolves have been reintroduced in 1994 the populations of moose have been in decline. A wolf or even a pack of wolves would find it difficult to take down a full grown moose but a moose calf is not a challenge. In recent years moose have been birthing only one calf per year to try and improve success where in years past two calves were not uncommon. Prior to 1900 moose never use to be in Jackson Hole. Since we removed all wolves for about 100 years the moose were able to move back into the area. Now that they are back, it would not be surprising if we loose our Jackson Hole moose population in the nearer future.

A subspecies that was differentiated last has the largest population numbers. There are roughly 410,000 A.a. andersoni which was discovered in 1950. They range across most of Canada with small populations dipping down into the mid-western states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota. There are very few moose in Wisconsin (probably less that 100) but in Minnesota there are as many as 8,000 animals.

Those are the four types of moose you might run into wandering across the northern part of North America. Populations of moose are pretty healthy in most the region now with tighter regulation on hunting. With the reintroduction of wolves and other ecological changes, populations are dwindling in some areas but rising in others but overall populations are healthy.

People basically throwing money away is something that is tough for me to handle. I try to educate as many people as possible about how to make money while spending money but some people just do not get it. I am not going to say I have things completely figured out but I do get hundreds and hundreds of dollars back each year from rewards on credit cards. Use credit cards INSTEAD of cash! One of my favorite credit cards paid me 500 dollars for spending 3,000 dollars in the first three months. I also pay NOTHING to pull money out of any ATM ANYWHERE in the world. Picking the right credit/ debit card is an important money saving decision and can result in a pretty good payday for using it to get things your are going to buy anyways.

As far as rewards go there are many different rewards companies offer including cash back, gift cards, airline miles or cash back on merchandise in a specific store. I have friends that are hung up on racking airline miles for one or two points a mile (essentially 1-2% cash back) when they could easily get themselves a card that pays one to five points per dollar depending on rewards for that quarter (1-5% back). Typically, the things you buy that pay 5% back are things you buy a lot of like gas, groceries, drugstores, restaurants, etc. Here are the cards I recommend.

Chase Freedom Credit Card – This is by far the best card out there and the only one I would use if I didn’t travel so much. The card pays you 10 cents for every transaction and one to five cents per dollar you spend there after. This means if you go buy a bolt for 16 cents and you use your card your are only paying 6 cents! Or if you go to McDonalds and order one thing off the dollar menu it is turns into the 90 cent menu! Thats a 10% savings! Also for this quarter the chase freedom card pays 5 cents additional for every dollar spend at gas stations, drugstores, and Starbucks! So instead of paying $3 per gallon on gas I only pay $2.85 per gallon! And I get 10 cents just for deciding to use it!

Chase Safire Preferred – This is my go to card while out of the country and even while in it. It is a phenomenal traveling card because you do not get charged foreign traction fees. Foreign transaction fees really add up while traveling especially at 4%. Also if I need to cancel a trip that I booked with the card I get reimbursed. If I rent a car they cover the collision insurance. Rewards are not the best but not bad. 1% one everything except 2% back on restaurants, airfare, hotels, rental cars, taxis, and cruises. One of my favorite things is when I call them for any reason I do not get a recording! It’s a real person! Unfortunately this card costs me $95 a year but since I spent $3,000 on it in the first three months on rent and other living expenses I got $500 back! That should cover me for a few years.

Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking – This is a good card for every day life and traveling alike. It is a card that will reimburse you for taking money out of any ATM anywhere in the world. This means if the ATM company charges you $2 or $3 dollars to take out cash, Charles Schwab Bank reimburses your at the end of the month. You also do not get charged a currency conversion fee or foreign transaction fee like most other cards. This is really a great thing because I know a lot of people who travel a lot and get charged $15 dollars to take money out so they take out their maximum allowed each time. Walking around with that much cash in some of the places I travel is a poor decision but luckily I can just take out enough for a day or two and not have as much of a risk.

I have a few other cards but they are nothing special and I travel with them just as backups in case I get robbed. Now using credit cards can get people intro trouble. If you are going to use a credit card for everything you have to see the credit card as a debit card. This means only buy things that you have the money to pay for. It cannot be seen as a way of accessing money you do not have. That is a dangerous and irresponsible way of using the card. Use it responsibly and you will get thousands and thousands of dollars back over the upcoming years just as I have.

Of the three cards listed here I highly recommend getting the Chase Freedom and the Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking. One last example on the Chase Freedom Credit Card. If I bought 50 dollars of regular priced gas and used my Chase Freedom card I would only pay $47.40 where if I were to use an airline card at 1 mile per dollar I would essentially be paying $49.50 or at 2 miles per dollar I would pay $49. You gotta ask yourself: Do you want a 5% discount on gas or do you want to use cash and pay full price? Happy buying!

Last week I returned from a trip with some fellow artists to go and photograph arctic animals. We were searching for arctic fox, polar bears, and caribou. unfortunately there were no arctic fox or caribou around to put on a show for us. The caribou moved through the area about a month before we got there and the arctic fox are pretty illusive in general. We were pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of red fox both in the red and cross color phase. That will be a later post. This post is about the polar bears. Many people think that they are vicious and dangerous animals but as far as I can tell they are comparable to a black bear. A black bear is really nothing to fear. It’s more like an overgrown raccoon. The last person to be killed by a polar bear in Churchill or around was 1983 and in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in the last two years we lost four people to grizzly. And it is not because of animal population numbers. In the GYE there are about 1,000 grizzly and there are 900-1200 polar bears that pass in or around the small ocean side town of Churchill as they move from their summer to winter range. We went at the time when they were beginning their migration out to the ice sheets. Each day we saw about half a dozen polar bears. We were lucky enough to have one come right up to the car and it even jumped up on our rental to check out if we had any food for him. Of course we did not but someone must have been feeding him based on his behavior. He grabbed the door handle and tried to open the door on my friends vehicle right in front of me and my buddy Mike. Here are some of the bear shots I took on that trip. Enjoy!

It has been a great fall in the Tetons and Yellowstone this year. The color change was slightly disappointing but there were some pretty awesome sunsets and wildlife photo opportunities that I was able to take advantage of. Last year I just spent pretty much every day looking for bear but this year I spread myself out fairly evenly between all the wildlife. From elk to beaver, even pika and flowers were on my radar. Here are a few shots from the last two weeks or so in the area. Enjoy!

I have been having some really good photography opportunities while working at Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris over the last two weeks. Here are some images while at work, and some that were out of work.
Cubs of 610 playing above.
Bison in Antelope Flats during a good lightning storm below.

Northern Lights could be seen a few days ago due to a pretty intense solar storm.
During a tour last week I we got really lucky and had this bison swim right across the river in front of us. It was really neat to see and something I have wanted to see and photograph for some time. Right place, right time.

And of course the big a beautiful Yellowstone Lake above.
It is nice the black bears are starting to make an appearance again. This cub was digging for grubs with its sibling and mom right next to the road a few days ago. Roadside bears are becoming more and more frequent here in Jackson Hole because it is almost like a refuge from the big bores that want to kill them.
And last but not least, above is a great horned owl. Largest owl here in the Tetons. I have no idea how someone spotted this 50 yards off the road in low light. It was an amazing spot.

I was out at a party with my buddy from Illinois, Matt. I met Matt last year out in the park and we went on some fun adventures together both in the park and in town. His family had just left and it was his last night here so I met him at his friends apartment. I was there for a few hours before I got the text that the auroras were out from my friend/ coworker/ old roommate Mike. I immediately set out to get some nigh shots with my new lens and was amazed at the intensity of the auroras. I had been shooting them for about a half hour when Matt pulled up and got some shots too. He didn’t stick around too long but I was out from 11pm to around 3am bouncing between multiple locations in the southern end of Grand Teton National Park. I have been asked many times if I enhanced the photos at all but all I did was reduce the noise. Here are some of the images I captured.

The first two images are shooting from Gros Ventre Junction north towards the Airport. The next two were shot from behind Black Tail Butte. The last one is shot near the intersection of Antelope Flats Road and Mormon Row.

Its a pretty rainy day here on Little Corn Island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. I woke to a hot room at 4:24 in the morning because the power was out so my fan was off. Chickens were just starting to make some noise and rain was just starting to trickle down. From 4:24 on I didn’t get much sleep because the rain was pounding down on my tin roof of Three Brothers Hotel I was staying at. At 7:07 I finally got out of bed and headed down the the dock to meet Captain Willie, the young captain that was going to take my friend Andrew and I out fishing.

I got to the Corn Islands about a week ago via plane and a small boat trip. I was going to take a bus a boar and another boat but I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and two or three days of travel to save 100 bucks. I booked my flight at 9am that morning from Leon and had to take a series of taxis and busses to make it to the airport by noon. While I was standing in line to check in I saw Hannah and Andrew, two people I met in Granada who were also heading to Little Corn Island. The three of us spent most the week together diving, swimming, hiking around the island and just relaxing. We did a few dives together. One of the dives was 16 miles off shore and most of us were feeling pretty seasick. Hannah by far had the worst of it. I am surprised she didn’t puke because she sure looked like she was going to. Once in the water though things were fine. We saw a huge school of barracuda, sharks, rays, eagle rays, and lots of colorful fish. The is a pretty nice spot to dive. The island is pretty small and there is not a single bar on it that I would consider a party spot. Anywhere on the island can be reached in under thirty minutes. The beaches are beautiful and the people are very friendly. Most people here speak Creole, regular English, and Spanish and are of African decent. Very chill place and one that ranks up there on the list of places I would return to in the future.

Because it was raining and the lightning was right over us this morning we decided to postpone the trip for noon. It’s almost noon and time to head out. Hopefully I do not get seasick.

I expected a bigger blast of hot, humid air when I stepped out of the airport onto the streets of Managua. I was slightly disappointed that it didn’t create a lasting impression like it had in the past but none the less I was happy to see Mike, who was there to pick Matt and I up. He took us to a host family for two nights in Managua. It was difficult understanding and speaking Spanish until today, two weeks into my trip. Something just clicked and today I had a good conversation with Frank, a young man who is going to the university. I met Frank on top of the bell tower of a church here in Granada. Today, I also had a tour guide explain a few trips to me and he talked for five minutes and I understood almost everything he was saying. It is awesome to be able to know what people are saying and be able to partially respond.

It helps that I spent a week in La Paz de Carazo where my host family never leaves me alone and is always wanting to talk. I learned so much from them over the last week. I had stayed with them in the past but I knew much less Spanish then. This time around I was actually able to talk about politics here in Nicaragua with Johana, my host mom, this morning while she was cooking my breakfast over the fire. I really enjoy spending time with this family because they take me in like one of their own kids. Willian had me help him put a roof on a building, Johanna had me plucking and gutting chickens for lunch, Grandma had me digging holes for plants, and I got to go with Jessica, a 12 year old girl, her aunt and uncle Willian and Johana to cut down about 20 banana trees for out food. To get the bananas we took the horse with a cart on the back across a field to their banana plantation. It was fun cutting the trees down with a machete.

Mike had a group he took here to La Paz and I helped shovel cow manure for a day to be used for biogas stoves and fertilizer. I also went with them to see a natural healer and wine maker. Two bottles cost me 35 cords each, about a dollar fifty. It is a great desert wine made from all local products with the main flavor being hibiscus. It was interesting to watch him preform a examination on three of my friends, and prescribe herbal remedy. He would touch a part of the patients body and touch both forefingers to thumbs to create a link similar to a metal chain. He would pull them apart and if the link would break, something was wrong with the part of the body he touched. Then he would say different plants that could cure the problem and when the finger link would break, that was the medicine he prescribed. Then to determine the quantity the person should take he would say different numbers and when the link broke, that’s the amount the person needs to take. There was a lot of laughing going on and one woman who was told she had to take a pepper extract for five days because she had a problem with her ovaries said that she didn’t believe but looked a little worried after the diagnosis.

It has been a great trip this far and I am sad to leave La Paz but it’s exciting to be traveling solo again. Off to Granada in the morning with two weeks to go in my trip.

There is nothing I hate more about road trips than driving at night. It’s not just that more drunks are out, deer are out committing suicide and my typical battle with drowsiness. There are other reasons too like High Beams, missed sights, low visibility, and difficulty finding a place to sleep for the night.

I hate it when people do not dim their brights and refuse to do so after I flash them. It is a little nerve racking when you see deer along the road every few miles throughout Wyoming, South Dakota and Wisconsin. It is difficult to see deer if one were to pop up in between me and the other car, both shining lights at one another. Also it’s pretty easy to overdrive your lights when the speed limit is 75mph. I typically let a big semi pass and then follow close behind it. It is difficult for me to not go the speed limit or speed, especially when using a GPS. It drives me crazy to see the ETA get later and later.

Also when driving at night you do not see the sights. There are a lot of neat statues, land features, and sites along the way that you miss under the cover of darkness. Also when it is dark it’s not as easy to find a place to sleep. Sometimes if you are not careful you will wake up at the end of someones long driveway, on private property, or be forced to sleep in a less than ideal place.

Still the biggest thing I worry about are running into deer, bear, elk and especially moose. Moose are massive and they are dark colored and their eyes do not reflect, at least not that I have noticed. I’ve almost hit a few. On Village road that leads into Grand Teton National Park six moose were killed this winter along a two mile stretch from people going way too fast. It is frustrating because moose populations are already dwindling with the increasing grizzly and wolf populations. Soon there will not be a moose to see in Jackson Hole. That will be a sad day. If you come to Grand Teton National Park make sure you do not speed for our wildlife’s sake.