Riley’s been higher climbing mountains and trekking in Nepal, but Karen’s never been this high – walking – in her lifetime. Another check on the bucket list!

The Dip was ensconsed in a pine forest in Moraine Campground (8200 ft.) with magpies and blue birds for company and a small forked-horn deer hung out next door.

Mid-October finds the aspens aglow, golden grasses, clear streams, and the elk in rut. Rocky has over 3 million visitors per year and while many of the visitor centers are closed by October, there is still a mass of people taking in the sights and sounds (hmmm, that was an elk bugling!).

Fall is short-lived in Rocky. Rain, snow, wind, and freezing temperatures caused an over-night change in the park. The golden aspens turned brown and dropped their leaves to the ground. Snow capped the mountains all around. The small elk herds started to gather in larger concentrations for warmth and protection. They know that winter is on its way.

For us, it is time to move on to warmer and lower climates – Aztec, NM and Big Bend National Park, TX here we come.

More images are available here - Enjoy!

Meet The Dip!
Our little tin box (aka the Snow Coach, a 25 foot travel trailer) has given way to our new home – a 40’ Monaco Diplomat. The Dip will be our home for the next nine months (or more if we decide to sell the Gresham house). Transition is the keyword for this year…..

So far, 2011 has found us working in Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley NP, and Grand Teton NP. We also found time to return to Glen Canyon NRA to photograph the NPS firefighter training course. A year is not complete without a visit with our friends at Grand Canyon (they always find projects for us to work on!).

We had a short stay in Gresham – had to get those doctor appointments in – and we’re off again. A stop in Healdsburg, CA with our dear friend Keron Psillas (www.keronpsillas.com) at Barbier Farms found us helping with their Fall Dressage Symposium. Keron and Dominique Barbier’s new book – Meditation for Two will be available through Amazon this week! Congratulations!!

Next stop – Rocky Mountain National Park. We’re working our way there now. Those of you who know us, know we’ve been developing emergency services plans for our National Parks over the past two plus years. We’ve become deeply involved at the park and national levels, developing a national template for structural fire planning and we’re in the process of developing a remote planning tool for assisting parks without our being on site. Three parks are in “test” mode now – War in the Pacific NHP (Guam), American Memorial Park (Saipan), and Rocky Mountain. We’ll be stopping in Rocky to validate the process.

The transition from the little trailer to the luxury of a 40’ motorhome comes with some interesting trials. First, the trailer was 27 feet and weighed just over 5,000 pounds. The Dip weighs 33,000 and is 61 feet long with the car on the back. Bottom line: it’s a truck, not a car! Second, it is a complex piece of machinery… So, here are a few things that we’ve learned along the journey (a little tongue-in-cheek).

1) The brakes work very well – had a farmworker stop suddenly… didn’t hit him… Hmm, what’s that hot brake smell?
2) We can pump sewage a long distance – parked next to a house in a vineyard for 12 days and actually pumped our sewage 20 feet into their septic system. Thankfully, there were NO spills…
3) We have rearranged the compartments twice and, what the heck, might as well do it again…
4) We can ignore those road signs that say “Trucks Restricted, nothing over 30’ from kingpin to axle” and “No Trucks over 65’” – However, my arms get really tired turning the wheel and Karen has to take Xanax to keep from screaming…
5) The water pump doesn’t work well when you run out of water, however, it was easy to replace and cost $115 in Winnemucca (at least I won that on the craps table…)
6) The breaker for the house outlets can be overloaded… The service tech on the Monaco helpline chuckled when he told me that the breaker for that circuit was on the inverter and not in the house breaker panel. (I overlooked that in the owner’s manual…)
7) A 13’ high by 40’ long solid area that is held up to the wind actually makes a really good sail. What lane were we supposed to be driving in?

Stay tuned for more adventures in The Dip!

Our start as volunteers in the National Park Service found us at Grand Canyon, and working our way to Zion National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument – four of the most beautiful places in our nation… 

Bunking with the scientists at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre brought us to the Canadian sub-arctic, and a whole new appreciation for the energy and dedication of those that are studying climate changes and other elements that affect the world we live in. Sitting over dinner with a native Inuit scientist, hearing not only about bilge water in the large ships that pass through our oceans, but to also learn of his village’s yearly subsistence whale hunt, reminds us that technology may be growing by leaps and bounds, but many cultures still maintain their basic survival needs… 

Back in Gresham, we thought we’d have a simple summer – a few odd projects around the house, increasing our stock photography portfolios, and enjoying time with family and friends. By June, we were back to working on emergency services consulting projects (nicely paid ones!!) and CatonPhoto.com was back in business with commercial shoots for Gresham Ford and the Center for the Arts Foundation. And – excuse our brag – we had our first e-commerce sale through our Zenfolio account!! Coming this fall, our customers will be able to purchase fine art prints, note cards, and/or electronic images directly from CatonPhoto.com. 

Who knows where we’ll end up these next months, year… but a return trip to Churchill is on the agenda, and more work with our National Parks – stay tuned and follow us as we show you our world as we see it.

All photos copyright CatonPhoto.com 2010.

Change… at times it’s hard to embrace and other times it’s just what you do.

The Park Service provided housing for us this time around – it would have been utterly miserable trying to stay warm in our trailer, let alone keep it from freezing up!

We’ve been snuggled into a modular trailer unit in one of the residential areas. It is a quiet neighborhood; but we have a lot of daily visitors.

The deer come in all sizes, from the littlest one that is so cute – I hope it survives the winter – it seems so much smaller than the other fawns. A lone doe and her fawn are our most regular visitors, but occasionally we get a larger group. Of course, we also get the stags who come to check out the “ladies!”

The stags come in 2-3 points – up to many points. It is amazing to see how many have broken antlers.

We’ve only had a few elk sightings, they must be staying elsewhere.

At least we know one thing – the animals will be glad when they can stop eating from the broken juniper and pine branches and see grass again. So will we…… see grass that is…

Happy New Year!