WFNH: Working from Not Home... Wyoming, then... ??

[jhmoore]

Been planning all spring to head up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to photograph bears and then continue on wandering ... somewhere ... Montana, Idaho, Washington ... maybe? This trip would be difficult because it was multi-purpose and 5th gen 4Runners simply aren't all that large. The trip would start with me and two of my daughters driving from San Diego to Jackson, camp for a week, then Mom would fly in and join us for 4 days, then Mom & daughters fly home--taking all the camping gear with them--and I start out on my solo adventure sleeping out of the back of the 4Runner. Try fitting camping gear for four people in a 4Runner and still be able to live out of it solo afterwards without shipping your 2nd row seat bottoms back home!

Mom never came up, the kids flew home yesterday, and I'm finishing up a couple more days in the campground before jettisoning some gear, moving into the 4Runner, and hitting the road north. I'll be working my regular job most days, 9-5, but doing it from remote & beautiful places and taking some long weekends. To my tremendous surprise, the whole converting from family trip to solo living out of the 4Runner seems to be working. I'll add some pictures of the sleeping & storage platform that I built below. I don't think that I could have fit literally a single thing more in the vehicle on the drive up.

Why Jackson Hole this time of year? The kids and I are both a bit obsessed with seeing (and me photographing) bears! It's a great time of year to see them. We've had at least five good/close encounters to photograph so far (and more that were less close). I've been too busy to process many photographs, but here's a couple to start. My intent is to add photos to this thread as I go. And maybe a story or two, if anything noteworthy happens!

 

[AbleGuy]

Absolutely stunning photography!

 

[wltrmtty]

Great shots. Looks like mama grizzly 399. The cubs have grown since I saw them last September.

 

[jhmoore]

Great shots. Looks like mama grizzly 399. The cubs have grown since I saw them last September.

Yes, one of the momma bears is 399; the other is Felicia. Felicia has the two ever-so-cute cubs-of-the-year while 399 has the four awkward, gangly teenage yearlings!

 

[ITTOG]

So how do you know the names of the bears? Do they have some identifying tag on them? Otherwise I have seen many bears that look like 399.

Great pictures by the way.


Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[jhmoore]

So how do you know the names of the bears? Do they have some identifying tag on them? Otherwise I have seen many bears that look like 399.

I think there are people smarter than myself who can look at a bear and say "oh, that's Blondie's 3 year old female cub," but I haven't gotten to that point yet. For me, it's contextual: if it's a female grizzly with four yearling cubs in the relative area of Colter Bay to the Jackson Lake Dam, it's 399. But there are at least three solo sub-adults in the area (two from Blondie, one from 610), and I cannot tell them apart.

 

[jhmoore]

A story below that I wrote of our first night up in Grand Teton National Park--two weeks ago. The girls flew home middle of last week, but I'm stuck here waiting on my replacement Jackery (I broke the first one when unpacking--see my other thread). Once it gets here, I'm planning to head up to Montana near Flathead Lake... We told Katie about the bear when we were at the airport waiting for them to fly out!

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Arriving in Grand Teton National Park

Monday morning the girls and I spent in our hotel in Idaho Falls—they doing online school and me working from our comfortable hotel suite. After lunch we packed up and did the short (2 hour) drive across the mountains from Idaho to Jackson, Wyoming. It was raining in the mountains, has been raining in Jackson Hole, and is forecast to rain for the next couple days. It got down to 36 degrees at the top of the pass, mid-afternoon in the rain, which made us very happy that we hadn’t done that drive first thing this morning. Teton Pass when icy would not be fun.

We drove straight through Jackson and north into Grand Teton National Park, the mountains shrouded in storm clouds. The girls watching both sides of the road for wildlife, but not even an elk did we see until we got into the northern part of the park. As we neared our campground up at Colter Bay, we came across a huge traffic jam, which anyone who has been to any of the national parks around here knows means some big animal (bear, bison, elk, moose)… halfway through we managed to score a parking space which turned out to be directly where a big male grizzly bear was coming out of the treeline. He ambled around eating biscuitroot for a bit right across from us. Such a good sign to start the trip—we hadn’t even gotten to our campsite and already a bear!

Checking in at Colter Bay Campground, I mentioned to the lady that we had two reservations—the first one in a mixed use loop (there might be RV’s) but then moving later to a tent-only loop that appeared to not be open yet. She was gone a long time checking us in, but came back to say that they were going to let us go early into the closed tent-only loop! Back corner of the campground, no neighbors until they open the loop, and never any RVs! Score.

Katie, however, was having none of it. I like having people around us, she said, to keep the bears away. We’ve seen lots of grizzly bears back there, she said. Yes, Katie, but we also saw them near our campsite last year and they didn’t bother us. It’ll be fine. And so quiet to have the loop to ourselves! Katie wasn’t buying it, and still pretty upset.

We park at our campsite, all by ourselves in the back corner of the campground. At this point the rain is turning to hail/slush/snow-ish and coming down pretty hard. We wait in the car for a break in the weather to check out our campsite. Ava goes back into the campsite first, then when Katie & I get back there, Ava pulls me aside and whispers, “Dad, there was a bear in the campground next to us.” What kind of bear? How big? A regular, big bear. I stand there for a moment and can hear it in the treeline 100 feet away at most. Katie wonders what I’m doing, and I say nothing and walk us back away to the road. My bear spray is not longer in my pocket, but in my hand with my finger on the safety.

We wander the campground a little, find the bathrooms, make a lot of noise, make a game of yelling “Hi, bear!” all while not answering Katie’s questions about what Ava had whispered to me.

After yelling to the bear a bunch and waiting out more rain in the car for a bit, I start to set up the tent… with Ava standing nearby watching the woods with the bear spray in her hand. But it starts to rain hard again. I get soaked getting the tent up. The forecast keeps updating to say more and more rain.

The tent is set up. The bear may or may not be wandering the woods nearby. Our room at Jackson Lake Lodge tonight is lovely and warm and dry and does not have any grizzly bears.

 

[jhmoore]

For anybody looking to overdose on cute babies:

 

[smlobx]

We love bears too!
Here’s a cell phone picture of a griz we took last summer at Katmai NP in Alaska. We counted 40 grizzlies in one large meadow which is affectionately called the bear garden. You have to fly in but it is well worth the expense…and yes he was that close!

 

[jhmoore]

Here’s a cell phone picture …and yes he was that close

I hope you were in a car or something. I’m not getting that close!

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

I hope you were in a car or something. I’m not getting that close!

Car wont do much help if they really want in but yes, I too am curious how they captured this shot so close. Remote camera or trail cam?

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

My wife is obsessed with bears. Last year we too were up in Jackson dispersed camping across from GT National Park. I stocked up on bear spray, bear canisters, tree pulley system w/ bear bags and even a bear fence setup around our rtt camper trailer for the wife & 2 dogs safety. Didn’t see one damn bear during our trip!

We then headed up to MT for more camping and unfortunately the areas I had marked coordinates for, trails were all closed.

Have you been finding decent spots for your solo camping with signal for your remote working?

 

[Ryanmb21]

Great photos, one of our favorite areas to explore! Very cool to work remote and enjoy!

 

[jhmoore]

My wife is obsessed with bears. Last year we too were up in Jackson dispersed camping across from GT National Park. I stocked up on bear spray, bear canisters, tree pulley system w/ bear bags and even a bear fence setup around our rtt camper trailer for the wife & 2 dogs safety. Didn’t see one damn bear during our trip!

Damn, man, that's a lot... that's the kind of setup you see in polar bear country. The grizzlies up here really aren't trying to kill you... except, you know, when they are... (I think there's been just one case in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of a grizzly ripping open someone's tent to kill them in a predatory manner... and you can't use soft-side tents in that area anymore. But other than that one case, they're not out to get you. You just don't want to be the second case!

Have you been finding decent spots for your solo camping with signal for your remote working?

I am still stuck in Jackson because of equipment issues. While I do love it here, I'm pretty ready to get going. Hoping that replacement parts arrive in the first part of this week and I can get moving. Likely heading up to around Flathead Lake next.

 

[OllieChristopher]

John you photography skills are amazing and pictures are breathtaking!! Good on you for thinking outside the box with your family and also doing a little solo fun as well. I will tell you that I have dreamed of a 4 runner for many years. Right now I'm settling on my 2wd truck and pretty happy with it. I have a couple of bikes for the hard core off road travel.

I wish you the best of luck with your replacement Jackery and continuing your fun journey.