Obama's Christmas Tree

Seeing a gigantic, beautiful Christmas tree lit up in Boston or in New York City has always made me wonder where these trees are cut from. These conifers take years to grow and are not easy to cut and transport safely. This year I was one of hundreds of proud Wyomians gathered in the Jackson Town Square to witness The Capital Christmas Tree parade through for the first time.

This year's sixty seven foot Capital Tree comes from the Bridger-Teton National Forest right in my backyard. Taking their every precaution with all the ropes, custom stand, and steady speed limit of 25 mph on the highway towards town, it was apparent this tree is special. It's set to parade through Wyoming for ten days and then make the trek to the nation's capital in another ten days. On its journey the 83 year old Engelmann Spruce will consume sixty five gallons of water every day from its custom bladder! I tried to get the 6,000 lb. spruce all in one frame, but it wasn't meant to be.

Between all the cops and kids on horses, the media, the parade, and the band playing in the town square for all us Americans, my national pride level was through the roof. However, it's probably the first and last time I clap for a tree.

A cloudy day in the valley

Having no work lined up for today, we went to bed last night looking forward to a sunny forecast and dreaming of finding the Ski Cabin miles out in the mountain wilderness. Even though the fog/clouds never dissipated we knew that the cloud cover was only up to about 8,000'.  Driving up to and through the clouds to the top was a surreal experience; It was my first time going from overcast and cold to blue bird sunny skies and warm in 10 minutes. Arriving at the parking lot I was treated to quite the view.

It would have been nice to get higher up and actually ski but today was my day off. On the way back home I took a detour and snapped a pic across the National Elk Refuge. Quite the stark contrast from just a couple thousand feet up. Seeing the cloud cover start to recede miles away was impressive too. It was like being in two different worlds in a matter of minutes.