Aurora to Eclipse 2024

Planning for the 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse began more than a year before April 8. Although the path of totality would pass over my brother's house near Buffalo, NY, I opted to travel to Texas in hopes of clear skies. The importance of a clear sky cannot be overemphasized when discussing the observation of totality. Eclipse chasers try to get close to the center line of the path of totality to maximize the duration of totality. And Those Who Know ... know that the difference between 99.9% totality and actual totality (100%) cannot be expressed in words.

My friend and fellow retired physics teacher, Dan Burns, was looking at North Waco as an option. I refreshed hotel reservation sites regularly hoping for availability. I expanded the search area and found a Hyatt east of Dallas that had opened their availability for the April 6-9 window. It seems they didn't know what they had. While other lodging options in the path of totality were harvesting dollars as best they could, tripling their normal rates, Hyatt was asking $105/night. Dan and I jumped on the deal.

We both made road trips of the journey to Dallas. Mine started in Bozeman and stopped by the Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs) en route to Dallas. I made a slow journey back to Bozeman via red rock country. Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Vermilion Cliffs, Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, and Flaming Gorge were among the "detours."

A month later, the aurora filled the skies over North America. Montana was "in the zone." I found some dark skies near Bozeman, but the northern lights were blazing nicely over the city, too. From The Headwaters of the Missouri State Park, you felt like you were under an umbrella of aurora. We had additional decent shows in August and October.

Here's the HTML export from my Keynote slideshow of all this stuff. You show be able to advance it easily enough in your browser. It behaves nicely for me in Safari and Firefox. And decently on my iPad (once I updated to iPadOS 18.2.1). HTML exports from Keynote can sometimes be a little laggy on advancing. I use the forward arrow key to advance things on my computer and just tap the screen on my iPad.

Aurora to Eclipse 2024 [HTML export from Keynote]

If you cannot get the HTML version to play nicely, here's a movie export posted to YouTube. It plays on its own; you can pause and unpause as needed.

Aurora to Eclipse 2024 [Movie export from Keynote]

Ex-Genesis guitarist, Steve Hackett was playing a concert in Dallas two days before the eclipse, so I was able to see that.

In the video capture of our "Eclipse Party" in the Hyatt's back yard, Dan was just off the left side of the screen. The enthusiastic gentleman on the right of the screen turns out to be the brother of a teacher colleague I worked with at Rio. He texted his brother once we figured out our random connection, and his brother complimented me with a colorful characterization.

Our sense of euphoric relief cannot be overstated. We thought we might get completely blocked from totality. And we had planned long in advance and traveled great distances to be there. Dan had several family members with him. Whew!

2024 04 Great American Eclipse in Dallas Photo Album

2024 04 Eclipse Road Trip Diversions Photo Album

2024 04 Eclipse Trip iPhone Photo Album

The Big AAPT Summer Loop 2013

Summer Travels: Leg 1 - Sacramento to Portland

This summer’s American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Summer Meeting was in Portland, OR this year. I took this as an invitation to create a summertime roadtrip with travel to the meeting as my first leg. Not as impressive as 2008’s roadtrip to Edmonton, AB, but we do what we can. This one had stops in Yreka, Bandon, and Astoria. Yreka so I could shoot some Northern California waterfalls and make attempts at a Mount Shasta shot worth keeping. Bandon so I could shoot sea stacks on Oregon’s lovely Pacific coast. Astoria as a transition from the coast to the Columbia Gorge. I also zipped a nearby zip-line circuit. There was physics!

Summer Travels: Leg 2 - Portland to Glacier National Park

With the close of the AAPT meeting, I was off to points east via the Columbia Gorge. I missed meeting up with Riverside alum, Pam (Krai) Pyrc in Spokane, but enjoyed lunch at Frank’s Diner. Spent a night at an awful hotel in Kennewick before heading off to Kalispell. My MacBook Pro decided it wanted to go on vacation and refused to start up. Apparently, one of the memory modules went bad. I had a second MBP with, and my iPad. And a local hardware store had the mini-screwdriver needed to get at the MBP’s innards. No data was lost, but I had to hobble along with 4GB (instead of the full 8) of RAM for the duration of the trip. I know: First World Problems! Glacier was the awesome spectacle that it always is, but there was very little sky drama that photographers hope for. I hiked out to Iceberg Lake to remind myself how non-trivial a 10+mile mountain hike can be (sometimes I forget). Spritely Zoe Zulakis would laugh at my geezerness. A subsequent walk along The Garden Wall put me up close and personal with a mountain goat.

Summer Travels: Leg 3 - Glacier to Yellowstone

It’s a good long drive from Glacier to Yellowstone. YNP’s North Entrance puts you near Mammoth Hot Springs, Rustic Falls, and various other treasures. I moved on to accommodations in West Yellowstone (late planning kept me out of in-park lodging). I crisscrossed the park in my days there and eventually met up with fellow skeptical teacher (and TAM veteran), Barbara Drescher and her family. They were in the park seeking out wildlife sightings and had done quite well. They tipped me off to the hike up (and I mean three miles of steep grade, lung-busting up) to the Mount Washburn fire lookout. I walked it near sunset and frolicked among the herd of bighorn sheep that grazed to mountain slopes. They were adolescents, so no big racks to shoot, but they weren’t exactly camera shy. I had never seen YNP so completely overrun with visitors. And these were well-fed, American visitors driving big Fords and Dodges, speaking with southern drawls. The economy is officially back!

Summer Travels: Leg 4 - Yellowstone to Grand Tetons

The Tetons were not so overrun as Yellowstone was. There was a bit of unhelpful haze that obscured some of the contrast in the views of the Tetons. But I found a nice new view to photograph, one that required a four wheels of my 4WD Nismo. And I tried my hand shooting a different dilapidated Mormon Row barn. Oxbow Bend wasn’t in full cooperation mode, and Schwabacher Landing was off limits due to the sequester. That would sting less if I had ever been down there for a shot. Restaurant find: Bubba’s BBQ—it’s a real-deal kind of place with a free-standing smokehouse, and they run out of meat if you show up too late on a busy night.

Edmonton Roadtrip: Yellowstone Glacier Banff Icefields Jasper Tetons 2008

WYoming MonTana AlBerta, aka WYMTAB

The AAPT’s summer meeting was in Edmonton this year. I decided that it would be great to drive the Nismo to Edmonton and make detours along the way, because gas was at an all-time high (for that era). I made it to Yellowstone, Glacier, the Canadian Rockies (from Banff to Jasper), and back through Glacier and the Grand Tetons. 

The meeting was great, too. And several Edmonton skeptics (folks I know from TAM and Randi’s online forum) rolled out the red carpet for me and had an impromptu meetup/dinner in my honor! Such great people.

2008 07 WYMTAB Gold Photo Album

2008 07 WYMTAB Silver Photo Album

2008 07 WYMTAB Bronze Photo Album

2008 07 AAPT Distinguished Service Citation

Tetons Tower Beartooth Yellowstone 2006

The Grand Tetons

First leg of my WYMT06 trip. I booked an afternoon float through Grand Teton National Park followed by an early morning wildlife tour. On the float trip, I saw some beavers, bald eagles,  Canada geese, and some nice sunset clouds. On the AM safari, we spotted moose, elk, osprey, a doe and her bambi, bison, and pronghorn. 

Return to Devil’s Tower

This was payback! In 1978, Jean, Dena, and Dean traveled to the location from the then-hit film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We motored out way to the trails that circled the base. I circumnavigated the volcanic monolith with trusty camera in tow. I shot the monument from every conceivable angle. When I returned to the parking lot, I discovered there was no film in the camera. Twenty-eight years later, I returned with a digital camera (set to not shoot without a memory card installed). Two of the three trails at the monument were closed, but I retraced the loop trail and got my boatloads of pics. 

Toward the end of my full day there, a thunderstorm swept the prairie. I thought it would be worth the effort to try getting a lightning shot. I managed to stay fairly dry under my van’s hatch and learned a bit of technique in the process. I did manage to catch a keeper (though I missed a better shot). I hustled back to Gillette (60 mi west of The Tower) to post-process the pic. At Applebees, a fellow patron inquired about the shot. Her family had seen me by the side of the road getting the photo. And her older son was a student in Julie Bennett’s class. And her husband is the older brother of my schoolmates, Suzy and Katy Manett! The odds must be crazy!

Beartooth Scenic Byway

I had never traveled the Beartooth Highway, the high-altitude scenic drive across the Absaroka mountains. Stunning vistas greet drivers along every turn of the 64-mile course. You scrape up against 11,000 ft at the top of the pass. I spent one night at each end so I could sneak in some hikes and linger at the views.

Yellowstone

The Beartooth highway leads to the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone remains my favorite national park. Originally set aside for the geothermal oddities, now also a wildland preserve. Natural settings that were ordinary in 1872 are extraordinary these days. I focused my explorations on the northwest section of the park (Old Faithful to Norris Geyser Basin). Hiked to Lone Star Geyser,  lonely Monument Basin, toured the mudpots in the secluded Pocket Basin, explored the Artist Paintpots, and tried to catch a nice shot of Great Fountain Geyser steaming at sunset. Capped it off with a full day trail ride in the northern section. Note to self: next time, go for the half-day ride. And yes, my horse was named “Widowmaker.” I passed through the Tetons one last time on my way back to Sactown. My last photo of the trip was one with me in it.

2006 07 Wyoming-Montana GOLD Photo Album

Yellowstone Tetons Glacier Banff Icefields Jasper Moon Craters Yosemite 2005

Yellowstone 
Forty hours after getting back from France, I was driving with Jean from Sacramento to Salt Lake City. It’s a long haul, but one I’m increasingly familiar with. A nearly disastrous misadventure in Winnemucca was survived and we joined up with Heather, Tyler, Heather’s SO, Ben, and his son Jason. The PhyzVan was put to the test: parked for two weeks, then run out on a 650 mile one-day trip, then loaded to the gills for some mountain driving. We made it to Yellowstone and took in the sights, sounds, and—of course—smells. The geyser basins, Fire Lake Drive, Paint Pots, Terraces at Mammoth Springs, elk, bison, bears, and that one thing Ben saw. 2005 07 Yellowstone Photo Album

The Grand Tetons [hey, a chance to use my French]
Our time here was short, but I snuck out early the second morning and snapped a few keepers. Especially fruitful were stops at String Lake, a picnic area with a view (replete with split-rail fence), and the very simple Chapel of the Transfiguration. 2005 07 Grand Tetons Photo Album

Glacier 
Next it was up to the northern border of Montana for a stay at The Many Glacier Lodge in Glacier National Park. You really are up close and personal with nature there; bear-bells might actually do some good. The dramatic, glacier-cut mountains, valleys, and resulting waterfalls, and not-always-shy wildlife make Glacier a place worthy of return trips. Banff We kept the PhyzVan pointed north and continued up to the Canadian Rockies. First stop: Banff. In Canada, there are major towns inside national parks. Banff, for example. I wasn’t completely thrilled with the photo-ops here, but it had its charm. 2005 07 Glacier Photo Album

Lake Louise and Lake Moraine 
Now these places delivered on landscape scenery! Lake Louise, nestled at the bottom of a wide valley and catching the runoff of a glacier at the far end, posed politely for tourists’ cameras. I hiked up to a tea house tucked away at the edge of a high mountain lake and drank my tea while a storm moved in. Lake Moriane gets my prize for most picturesque destination in the Canadian Rockies. I snapped some nice keepers and sent one in for Paul Hewitt’s Conceptual Physics 10th edition (for a section on color and scattering). Yum!

Jasper 
The sun sets at about 10pm or so at this latitude. We boated out to Spirit Island on Maligne Lake on a stormy day (late July is still Spring up there). We also journey out to Angel Glacier and Cavell Glacier, though the weather wasn’t with us there. Then it was back south along the Icefields Parkway to enjoy the sights and part company with the Canadian Rockies. 2005 07 Canadian Rockies Photo Album

Craters of the Moon 
After a night in a scary down-market no-tell motel in Arco, Idaho, we enjoyed a day at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Old lava fields--what regions of Hawaii will look like in 1000 years--and air so unpolluted they measure it for baseline levels of atmospheric contaminants. We were there at midday, but better shots would be had early or late. 2005 07 Craters of the Moon Photo Album

Yosemite
We kept the PhyzVan pointed south and drove to Yosemite for a late-July visit. The falls were surprisingly robust given the season. And it’s hard to get tired of Yosemite. 2005 07 Yosemite Photo Album.

Yellowstone and Grand Tetons 2002

After a week of settling into her new home in GR, Mom came out to join me on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Neither of us had been there since 1982 (that’s nearly twenty years!) We spent several days there, and drove like crazy from point to point, but still missed out on a few destinations. But we made it to Geyser Hill, Upper Geyser Basin, Black Sand, Midway, Biscuit, West Thumb, and Norris Basins, Fountain Paint Pots, Firehole Lake Drive, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Upper and Lower Falls), and Mammoth Hot Springs. We saw buffalo, moose, elk, and deer. And we spent a day in Jackson Hole, as well. The weather for our Grand Teton photo shoot wasn’t too agreeable, but we made a go of it. And we did get some nice shots of the antler arches in town. [Jean staring down the malingering tourons is a rare gem.]

2002 07 Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Photo Album

Dave & Dean's Senior Trip 1982

Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain National Parks and points between and beyond. Starring Dean & Dave, with Bryce, Bob, and Jean, among others. For the title characters, it was post-Creston, pre-Michigan.

Wall Drug, Mount Rushmore, and Devil's Tower were visited as well. Rocky Mountain cameo appearance by Doug & Patty.

Jean-Michel Jarre's “Arpegiator” from 1982's The Concerts in China provides the soundtrack.

Dean & Dave's '82 Senior Trip

My first trip to Yellowstone

The Baird clan loaded into the Blue Goose (1967 Buick Special Wagon) and drove to Yellowstone in the summer of 1975. We also had stops in/at Mitchell, Laura Ingalls Wilder's space, Wall Drug, Mount Rushmore, The Tetons, Rocky Mountain, and others. That's a Leica rangefinder I'm shooting, an Elton John's Greatest Hits T that I'm wearing, and a "raised by wolves" 'do that I'm owning.

I became enthralled with Yellowstone. It captivated me more than any other "out west" destination did before or since. It remains my single favorite national park to this day.

Jean's video