John Sully

<p>I would not do it towing that long a trailer. It is pretty narrow with sharp hairpins near the top on both sides. Lower down on the north side, it's not too bad. I didn't drive it last year, but the last few times I've been over it (almost every year) there has also been a fair amount of construction with longish stretches of pretty bad road. <br>

It is astonishingly beautiful, however, park the trailer at a campground and spend the day, it is well worth it.</p>

<p>When I first saw these they looked pretty promising, but I already had a couple of Kirk ballheads:</p>

<p>http://www.acratech.net/categories/ballheads/gp.html</p>

<p>Besides, they look cool!</p>

<p>The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad in Chama, NM -- about an hour NW of Taos -- is a great scenic ride.</p>

<p>In Bozeman, I would recommend driving up Hyalite Canyon south of town and take a hike up either the east or west forks of Hyalite Creek. The west fork is waterfall rich. In the area and about an hour or so east of town is Big Timber. Take the road toward Harlowton (US 191) and about 10 miles north of Big Timber on the left you'll see a sign for Big Timber Creek Canyon (I think that's how it's phrased, been a couple of years and they changed the sign recently). This is a beautiful hike into a lake filled glacial cirque in the Crazy Mountains. </p>

<p>For a shorter trip, the hike up the M trail a couple of miles north of town on MT 86 has a good view of the valley. If the weather is clear you can see all the way to the continental divide about 50 miles away.</p>

<p>Have fun in my fair city.</p>

<p>The will take different routes. Although I haven't taken either, the one from Mammoth will go up 89 to Norris Junction and then across to Canyon and from there to the Grand Canyon. From Old Faithful the tour will probably go up over the Continental Divide (twice!) and then along the Lake from West Thumb through the Hayden Valley to the Grand Canyon. <br>

The trip from Old Faithful should be more spectacular and varied scenery wise and may well provide better wildlife viewing opportunities in the Hayden Valley. </p>

<p>The only road open is from Gardiner (the north entrance) out to Cooke City. There is not problem with that road being closed due to budget issues as it is the only access to Cooke City during the winter. Jackson would be a poor choice to spend the whole time, since the only access to the park is via snowmobile or snowcoach. Staying in West Yellowstone is a better base for exploring the area of Old Faithful and a large part of the other major geothermal features in the park -- it is a long way from Jackson to Old Faithful, Fountain Paint Pots and lots of other cool stuff. It is probably worth it to stay at the Snow Lodge for a night or two. </p>

<p>On the north Gardiner or Livingston are good places to base operations out of. The Mammoth area is interesting and there, or at least used to be, people who operated snowcoaches out of there which would allow you access to Norris a very interesting area. Also from Gardiner/Livingston/Bozeman you can easily get to the Lamar Valley which generally hosts pretty good Bison herds during the winter. For my money, I'd split my time between West Yellowstone and Livingston (or Bozeman, but then I live there) as Gardiner is pretty dead during the winter.</p>

<p>I'm with Steven here. Not only weight, but space is at a premium for a real backpack and not just a day hike. When I backpacked when I was younger, I'd take a 35mm body and two zooms (20-35 and 70-300) a few filters and a Gizo 014(?) travel tripod w/a small Kaiser ballhead. So for a real backpack, you want to keep things as light and compact as possible, two words that do not describe an RB 67!</p>

<p>You are really not allocating enough time. While Seattle is reasonably close to all of these places, driving time can be substantial because of backroads -- especially to North Cascades. However, here are some suggestions:<br>

1) Artist Point, near Mt. Baker (just past the ski area). While not in North Cascades proper it has fantastic views of Mr. Shuksan and a trail which goes up to Mt. Baker. This is a gorgeous area in fall -- haven't been up there in mid summer, although I expect it is just as beautiful.<br>

2) Olympic takes at least 3 days as there are 3 sites that I really like for photos: Hurricane Ridge, Hoh Rainforest and Rialto Beach. <br>

That's four days out of seven, plus the 4th which makes 5. <br>

For North Cascades, I once spent a week up there camped at Colonial Creek, going to a different place each day. Didn't even scratch the surface because I was limited to day hikes. North Cascades is a backpacker's and hiker's paradise, but not so good for a quick out and back from Seattle.</p>

 

<p>Most of the park is pretty well closed off still. Check the road reports. It has been a cool, wet spring here. Right now, the road from Mammoth to Tower Junction is closed. The road over Dunraven Pass is still closed. Most of the Grand Loop is closed. <br>

Bison will probably be found in the lower altitudes, I would go in through West Yellowstone and look in the Madison Valley. You'll probably see Elk in there too. Bears seem to be pretty active in lower altitudes. Last week there was a Grizzly attack (this time of year!?) in the Gallatin Canyon near Big Sky. Usually this time of year you can catch bears along the road from Mammoth to Tower Junction, but the rock slide there promises to keep the road closed for a couple of more days at least. If the road is open, wolves, elk, bison can be seen from the road in the Lamar valley. </p>

<p>I used to live in Santa Cruz and went down to Big Sur all the time (spelled a couple of times a month, it wasn't very far). If you are planning to stick to the highway sweeping vistas a the rule so I would take a good wide angle lens and the 18 on you 18-135 is not wide enough. Get the wider EF-S zoom (the 10-22). If you want to go tramping in the woods, a nice macro is the ticket. I used to use a Canon 100/2.8 macro. No need for a real long lens in this part of the world (especially off the road). Photo ops tend to be looking at details or shooting big vistas, not much use for a tele.<br>

As you get down to SoCal, stuff stops being so picturesque (except for the girls in the bikinis), so your normal zoom will serve you well. Between Big Sur on the south and SF on the north the prime spot is Ano Nuevo State Park (if CA still has those :)). There you might want a tele to shoot the elephant seals. They are big and mean...<br>

For Yosemite, anything goes. Fast lenses are nice because because the valley at least is best shot at sunrise. During the day and at sunset there are too many people up and roaming around.<br>

In almost all of these cases a tripod is absolutely necessary. Get a good one. Basically what you are looking at is a full bag tour. I all of these locations I have used every one of the lenses I had (sob, long term unemployment hurts) in my bag, ranging from a 15/2.8 ultrawide to a 400/5.6 tele. The most useful lenses for me were the ultrawide/wide lenses and the mid-range zooms. I would suggest taking a look at the shots you got with your A330 and think about what you liked and didn't like and what you might have liked to do better. Start from there. It all depends on what you like to shoot.</p><div></div>

<p>Quite lovely. Here in SW Montana we had a good windstorm on Tuesday night which pretty well finished up the fall color here. It's all on the ground now. <br>

It was a gorgeous fall here and lasted much longer than we had a right to expect. Next week -- first snows of the season..</p>

<p>Take the lenses you like most. Don't listen to what others say. If you like to work with it, it is the lens to take. Period. End of rant.</p>

<p>I live in Bozeman and go up there all the time. </p>

<p>The best luck (and it is luck) I've had is in the Lamar Valley in the middle of winter. But I've never seen them close enough to get a good shot. The closest I ever came was the first winter I was up here and one ambled across the road right in front of me. I'd never seen one before and my first thought was "that's the biggest damn coyote I've ever seen". Shortly afterward, that changed to "damn, that was a wolf!". This was in the days of the Druid pack, which sadly met it's demise last year. This winter might be real good for wolf watching in the Lamar as new packs try and establish themselves.</p>

<p>I live in Bozeman and go down that way several times a year. Moose and wolves are going to be problematic. The best times I have had seeing wolves are in the winter, the only time I've seen moose is just outside of Yellowstone near Cooke City in the winter. Bison and Elk are probably going to be best seen in the Lamar valley or Hayden valley. The whitebark pine crop is having a bad year, so the grizzly bears have been reported coming to lower altitudes already this year, you might get lucky. For wolves and grizzly you will need a looooong lens, and really even then it won't be long enough. Elk and bison are easy. Be sure and save some time for Firehole Drive (a right turn just north of Fountain Paint Pots (another good thing to see), if you are traveling from the south) it is really cool. Three days will be enough to hit the highlights, but really....<br>

Grand Teton is a relatively small park and is right next to Yellowstone, easy to see Jenny Lake and the eponymous peaks and Old Faithful in a single day. <br>

You might try contacting Salvatore Vasopolli at http://vasapolliphotography.com. He's a good friend of mine who has been photographing Yellowstone for 30 years. He's good enough to be a featured photographer on the Outdoor Photographer website.</p>

<p>Beware, it is my experience that both head and legset manufacturers tend to be, shall we say, optimistic in their ratings. Subtract 50% to be sure.</p>

<p>You really can't go wrong with Gitzo or Manfrotto legsets. As far as ballheads go, the Arca-Swiss brand heads strike me as overpriced. Better to go with Acratech, Kirk, Markins or Really Right Stuff. A recent dark horse seems to be the Giottos heads w/the Arca-Swiss QR system. At about $165 street this seems to be a pretty good midrange head, but in general the line between good and garbage is around $250 - $300.</p>

<p>The screw clamps (old style) are compatible with more plates than the QR lever style clamps (I wonder why?) so are probably a better bet. Get plates which are made to fit your body and/or lenses. You can leave them on all the time so attaching your equipment to the tripod is a very quick and easy operation. In addition the custom fit plates are designed to resist twisting forces once your equipment is mounted on the head, more important than you might think if the head is not set up in an entirely loose configuration (trust me, this sucks). </p>

<p>Most of my experience has been with Kirk heads (BH-1, and two modified Kaiser heads) and the BH-1 is a great head. The two modified Kaisers were also nice heads, and you can still buy the unmodified versions, but the Arca-Swiss instead of the standard mount made them much better. I used a small Giottos head on a Manfrotto monopod and it was a fine little (and the operative word is little) ballhead.</p>

<p>OMFG! The low chrominance noise at 12800 almost makes it usable. Really nice up to 6400. It's a home run and if this is an example of what Canon is doing in NR, then things are looking good.</p>

<p>Should be able to set most of the basic stuff from the flash menu. I know I can with my vastly inferior SX10 IS :). This includes manual power, FEC, 1st/2nd. The fancy stuff needs to be set from the flash though, although I would expect that FP can be set from the body -- I know I could do it with my Elan 2, EOS 3 and D30.</p>

<p>I used to have an EOS 3 and an Elan II. The EOS 3 was a great camera, especially if you buy it with the power winder. AF with the f/2.8 lenses was incredibly fast and it would AF with f/8 lenses on the center AF point. Load the power winder up with fresh AA's and you won't have to worry about long exposures. An EOS 3 w/Power Winder is about $300 used.</p>

<p>The Manfrotto looks like a better tripod, however, beware of the itty bitty ballhead. Also the four section legs a likely to be problematic. You might look at the 190 series (replaces the 3001) and get a decent ballhead in the $150 range, Giottos makes a nice one with an Arca Swiss QR system for around $160.</p>

<p>Ah, call it southeast :). I really like Hwy 49. It has lots of cool old funky towns and tons of history. It's been a while since I lived in Northern Cali, and I had forgotten about Locke, it is pretty cool, although I have never taken a photo trip there, just cruised though. The delta is pretty damn cool in the winter when you get the tule fog, this time of year the near 100F temps tend to dampen my enthusiasm for the landscape (although the "poor man's Transpac", aka the Delta Ditch Run is pretty cool.)</p>

<p>Williams was always a town I drove through on the way to Lassen Volcanic, never though there were photographic ops there. Like the old Caddy.</p>

<p>But, skip Tahoe. It's a great place, but a long ways from Sacto.</p>

<p>A good wide to mid tele f/2.8 zoom is reasonably fast, although it is going to be expensive. Of course, getting 3 f/1.8 primes to cover the same range (28/50/85) is going to cost the same or possibly more. Zooms are incredibly convenient, since you don't have to change lenses all the time, a nice feature if you have to work quickly. </p>

<p>Get the f/2.8. It is a great lens.</p>

<p>Here is the other one...</p><div></div>

<p>Highway 49 south of Sacto provides wonderful old building photo ops. Check out the John Marshall gold strike area. Here are two photos.</p><div></div>