Hi all,
Ok I guess you want to know where I am and where I have been. Well let me start by saying that I have had a few days of driving, driving in what I would call some of Americas most boring landscape in history “Nevada”
After leaving Powell and suffering the painful slow drive back through Yellowstone National Park I headed south to the lovely Jackson Hole, they say that once you got to Jackson you don’t leave, well after much thought I decided that I could always come back (and may be live)

Lake Jackson.

Teton National Park.

jackson Hole.

After Jackson I headed back down to Salt Lake City, this served as a good stop of point and I also managed to get a new hard drive from circuit city! yey! finally I can sort out my computer! After Salt Lake City I headed south west to South Lake Tahoe (yeah the place that’s on fire!) I phoned the hotel first to make sure it was still standing and the place was still open, as the fire started 5 days ago the place is kind of getting back to normal with the fire 70% under control (what about the other 30%?)
Yesterday I headed up the west side of the lake and took in the views of Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe.

Water Fall.

After the lake I headed up to Squaw Valley (the ski resort) I took the cable car up (at $20 it’s a bit steep)
Once up the top you can go ice skating, walk, swim or just sit in the bar, I on the other hand wasn’t just happy with relaxing I decided I wanted to go where no other person was going to go that day, yep the Boulder mountain range! OK stupid idea I here you say, armed with only 500ml of water, a heavy rucksack full of camera equipment and a tripod! the slopes here are very steep! and covered in loose gravel so getting a steady foot hold is not easy. I managed to get a semi good shot and spent the rest of the time thinking how I was going to get back down (safely!) after a couple turns and the odd slide I found a very old ski slope maker that acted as a very good (and free) walking pole, also I en-counted various items that had been brought down when the snow melted. After what felt like ages I made it to a track and made it down to the car park, a little worn out but in one piece.

Squaw Valley

Squaw Valley

Well that’s enough for today, I’m off to San Francisco in the morning (yet another long drive I guess!)

Take care.

Jonathan Fridlington.

Hi all,
well you worked out where I was Mount Rushmore, I also popped around to Crazy Horse (and it is crazy there!)

So you all have a choice to make:

Do you want to see “Rusty” Rushmore? or Mount Rushmore at night? the choice is yours send your votes through the comments page and I will see what I can do.

When I got to Keystone a very large black cloud appeared out of know where! this really wasn’t what I had just driven 600 miles for! I checked the weather on the net and it fore-casted rain and storms for last night and today (glad to see the weather reporting in the US is just as bad as back home!)

I made it for the light show at Mount Rushmore, now you must get here early for a good spot, they do have a seating area if you just want to sit down and not bother about getting good photographs. As the sun was going down the rangers have a chat over a loud speaker system and ask questions about the presidents (neatly everyone replied George Bush for a laugh!) hehehe! Then they insist on playing this movie about how great America is and what it has done and about how Mount Rushmore came about and how they made it (boring boring boring) then they get you all to stand you and sing the national anthem (good job I was asleep by then.) after all that, the lights go down and lights for Mount Rushmore warm up, now if your clever you would take photographs of the Mount with the lights warming up a so you get great shots!) don’t bother using your small compact digital camera with a flash to get a photograph as it just isn’t going to work (unless you can program it to take photographs with out flash and long shutter speed settings) I chatted to many a person who was disappointed with what they got!

Now the best time to capture Mount Rushmore during the day is in the morning (I don’t know, more tips being given away!) if you get there early there aren’t that many people about, so photographing an old rusty chair wasn’t a problem. Don’t forget your telephoto lens for the close up’s, oh and before I forget drive around the back (head towards Custer and Crazy horse) and get a great shot from there!

Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore.

After Mount Rushmore I headed over to Crazy Horse, for those who don’t know what Crazy Horse is well click on the link : http://www.crazyhorse.org/

Advice: pay the $4 extra and take the bus to the base of Crazy Horse! but don’t spend the $125 to go up on the arm! it’s cheaper to get the helicopter down the road for $34! (see saved you yet more money!

Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse.

Whilst walking around Crazy Horse I noticed some of Rusty’s mates!

Rusty’s friends,

It was tempting to take home a bit of Crazy Horse but these rocks are big and I’m limited to space, and with the added fact that I am now taking Rusty home with me, I’ll have even less weight!

Crazy Rocks.

Crazy Himself (really Crazy if you ask me!)

Cleaver Crazy, see the model of what it’s going to look like, and see Crazy in the making in the back! see clever crazy!

Well I am all South Dakota’ed out! I’m now back in Wyoming! and I’m heading down to Jackson tomorrow (Tuesday)

Hope you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to vote, as no votes, no photo’s and I know you will want to see either of them!!! trust me they are worth seeing.

Take care, and thanks for viewing.

Jonathan Fidlington

So where am I? a clue coming up, but first a few things.
If your in Yellowstone national Park, take a drive around before sunrise and watch the sun coming up, it’s a great sight, especially at Lake yellowstone (Awesome as the Americans would say)

Lake Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park. (this is how it should been seen)

Another tip, if you head out west and have to time head over and drive from Cody ove rand through Big Horn Mountains, it is a lovely drive with loads of twisty turns and great view points, I guess this place gets a ton of snow in the winter months so best avoid then. take the US highway 14 (not the 14A)

Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming.

Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming.

OK back to the mystery location, here is a hint:

Do you know this location?

Right if you can guess where I am (all people except Wayne H, as he is the only person who knows where I am) I might post the night time shot to die for!! it’s worth guess!

Hope your enjoying the show, the camera has been sot of busy today but having spent 11 hours driving and getting up at 4.30am and it’s now 11.13pm! I’m knackered, in need of a good sleep, but will I give up? NO I’m up early again tomorrow to get more photographs (hopefully the storm has past and the sky’s are clear, please all hope and pray for me as I need it, I’ve been lucky tonight and want to even more lucky tomorrow)

Good night or good morning depending when your viewing, it’s a new week and my days in the USA are drifting away, enjoy this part of my bloke whilst you can.

Take care and thank you for viewing.

Jonathan Fridlington

Hi All, after 600 miles and 11 hours of driving (yes I left at 5am!) I have got to my secret destination.
More will be revealed later.

I travelled east! (have a guess)

Jonathan Fridlington

Hi all,
Another day in the park, and what a day it has been. If you want some free advice, don’t go to Yellowstone at the weekends! The park has been full of people, traffic jams every where! I gave up in the end and top it all the weather hasn’t been great for taking decent photographs, it’s been very cloudy (except for this evening where the sky has cleared!!!!)
So you go to yellowstone and you have never seen a black bear in real life, well here is another tip for you, don’t get up close to these guys! nor the buffalo! they don’t take kindly to visitors inter-fearing with there hood! I saw a massive group of people about 10 feet away from a black bear, OK he was a little one but still capable of taking you out to lunch (if you know what I mean) so don’t be stupid and look at these from a distance! (Yeah another moan I know but someone is going to get hurt!)

Not much for me to post photographic wise but here is what I managed to get my camera out for:

A Buffalo (from a distance)

Grand Canyon – Yellowstone.

Water fall.

Should I have been worried staying here?

Well sorry for the lack of interesting photographs for you today, we all have are bad days, even us pro’s!
What’s next? well I’m going to be off the grid for a couple of days, I’m on a secret mission and I might tell you about it when I next get on the net! After that I am going to stay in Jackson WY, then back to Salt Lake City (just for the night) then I might go to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite NP, don’t know yet, haven’t made up my mind. I do know that from 1st to 8th July I will be in SF (working hard!)

Take care, catch you later.

Jonathan Fridlington

Hi all,
Yet another day in Yellowstone National Park.
Justice has been done, I informed the Rangers the other day about the stupid idiots parking near the Eagles nest causing the traffic to pile up, today they have someone there controlling the traffic! see telling people does work sometimes.
I have had the biggest shock of my life today, I nearly fell over (don’t panic I’m OK) I saw a whole family wearing their very own FAMILY designer T-shirts, yes you guessed right they had the family name written on in it as well as “holiday tour 2007″ what is that about? If that wasn’t bad enough I noticed another family later all wearing the same matching tacky “Yellowstone National Park T-shirts” errrrrrrr!

I took a drive over to Lake Yellowstone, it’s a lake in Yellowstone National Park!

Today’s images:

Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

Lake Yellowstone, yellowstone National Park.

Lake Yellowstone, yellowstone National Park.

Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

Rusty taking in the sun and waves down at the lake. (he has been working hard today so I let him chill out for a while)

Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park.

Well that’s it for today, I’m worn out, it’s been a long day for me.

Coming up tomorrow: More Yellowstone national park (what a surprise)

Take care and thanking for viewing.

Jonathan Fridlington

Hi all, well another day in Yellowstone, another big image day. Sadly I haven’t really taken any substandard images so you will have to do make do with a few good ones for a change.
I haven’t seen Yogi yet!

Today has been a Polariser filter disaster! Yep a Geyser blew up and etched my filter with ACID! so if your here with a DSLR make sure you have at least a skylight filter in front of the lens. Lucky for me though the camera shop in Yellowstone West sells Polariser filters (and half the price of the UK!, I bought 3 filters for less than a Jessops Polariser!) If you just a compact digital bin it afterwards as it won’t be worth any money.

Ok so what does a polariser do? well it turns a crap sky into a dramatic one, it get’s rid of unwanted reflections from glass or water (ideal if your shooting hot springs!) (example later)

Right for today’s show:

Tree, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.

Geyser, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.

Hot spring, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.

Hot spring, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.

OLD FAITHFUL (being faithful, right on time, these Americans sure no how to put on a timed show!) Yellowstone National Park.

Morning Glory Pool, Yellowstone National Park (I have been told that this has been destroyed by visitors over the years, people tossing stuff into it! Please don’t toss anything into anything at all (except rubbish into the bins provided)

Geyser, Old Faithful district, Yellowstone National Park.

Right back to this filter,

Can you spot the difference?

Another tip for you: tripods, They are handy to have around with you.
First they support your camera when taking images, this is the most common use for them, but have others:
They come in handy as a walking pole, OK expensive and some time uncomfortable walking pole but it does the job, then you can use it as a weapon, that’s right in the right hands a good metal tripod can cause damaged to anyone and anything! You could also walk around with it and just look like a cool photographer and not use it all. I prefer the traditional way, setting up gives you time to think about composition.

That’s all for today, I’m now going to spend my evening working out where to store all the images! Yep portable hard drive is FULL! and the one on the computer is not getting any better!

Take care, thanks for viewing.

Jonathan Fridlington.

Hi all,
first my thoughts go out to my friend Jenni and her family, her Grandma passed away.

On a slightly lighter side of things I’m now in Yellowstone National Park, at this point I would like to have a moan at the Americans again! Yellowstone is a lovely place and should be kept that way, when there are signs saying keep off or keep out, you should. When you see signs saying no stopping or a certain speed limit, you should stick to these signs! When a sign saying no pets allowed in this area, you shouldn’t be walking your dog there!
All RV’s should be banned! full stop, no questions asked, they should all be off the road as from tomorrow! They are a pain in the ASS and take up to much space on the road.

So what is Yellowstone National Park like, well I’m guessing years ago before people tossed stuff into the hot springs for a laugh it was nice, OK despite to the moan about the Americans not caring for one of there parks it has been a nice day. I’m sure you will enjoy all the photographs that I have taken (shame I won’t be posting all of them here!) It was nice to see some wildlife knocking about the place, but please if you see me taking photographs don’t point out the obvious, I’m not stupid, I know what a Buffalo looks like! (and don’t park your car in front of my lens when I am setting up and have been there before you “have some respect”)

I’m just going to post a few of the 500+ images that were taken today.

Hope you have enjoyed today”s update, sorry I’ve been off for a few days, I have just been relaxing and recharging the old batteries.

Thanks to Wayne H. for his assistance in helping find a few things on the net, and few ideas for the future.

Take care, see you soon.

Jonathan Fridlington

Hi all,
A tip for anyone traveling, if your motel or hotel doesn’t have high speed wireless, go and sit in the car park of one that does! that way you get a cheap place to stay without having to pay for the Free breakfast and the free WIFI! (Comfort Inn & Travel Lodge have come up with the goods so far)

Well I have had two nights in Salt Lake City, this place is nice although it did take me ages to find the lake!

Salt Lake City famous for the Olympic Games and Temple Square.

Tabernacle, Salt Lake City (this ones for all you Fletch fans out there!)

Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City.

The City Tram that runs (well) around the city.

A view of the lake (kind of)

And I know you are looking forward to seeing “Rusty” so here is with his new friend down by the lake enjoying the sunshine.

Rusty & friend.

Well not much else to report about Salt Lake City, I walked around the down town for a little while, it’s just has a few shops and office buildings, the odd bar and restaurant. I spent most of the day catching up on my Rusty project, got some great shots around the lake and other places to (not the Tabernacle though!)

Well I’m heading North today (again) bit of a short trip but I fancy a rest day and take in the area a little.

Hopefully I can find a another hotel to sit outside of and check my emails and all the messages you all keep posting.

Take care and thanks for your time.

Jonathan Fridlington.

Hi all,
I have thankfully left Las Vegas this morning and headed to a part of America that the is truth is still unknown, yep I’ve been to the edge and back and made it! So where have I been? “Groom Lake”? nope never heard of it, well this area is best known as “AREA 51″ OK so you can’t see the worlds longest run-way, in fact all you can see is some hills and some guards sitting in pick up waiting for you to step over the line and gun you down and then hand you over to the local Sheriff in bits (who by the way must be fed up with processing obsessed UFO fans that try to get further into the area than they should)

Before all that I drove down the “ExtraTerrestrial Highway-375″ to “Rachel” the home of the “Little A’Le’Inn” where you can dine and enjoy the company of the friendly staff who will point you in the direction of Area 51, tell you stories and sell you tons of stuff with (guess what) Aliens on it. Thanks to Betty for making my lunch, the chat and the directions, they worked a treat! (only one mile out) and the guards didn’t even get out of there pick-up truck to welcome me and the fellow 2 brits and an America that were already there (shame on them!)

One big disappointment was that the worlds largest KFC logo has now been removed from the desert (bummer) but here’s the link if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about:

http://www.kfc.com/about/pressreleases/111406.asp
http://www.kfc.com/about/pressreleases/111406/popup_satellite.asp

So what about the photographs? well due to the fact that I was sworn by the guards never to reproduce the photographs of the site and the surrounding area ever you will never see them, but below are some images I took before I swore an oath to America.

Remember the Alamo? Well this place is the first hint that you are getting close to Area 51, don’t talk to the locals they are all cloned robots that are Government controlled! Alamo has two sides to it’s front. 1) The bus picks up the locals and takes them to work at Groom Lake 2) It’s almost your last stop to get gas before you run out like the idiots at I met at Little A’Le’Inn! (make sure you have a full tank before driving in the desert!)

Hold on to your hats! Low Flying Aircraft (that you may or may not recognize)

Welcome to the “Extraterrestrial Highway”

Rachel.

“Little A’Le’Inn”

And now for the fun stuff, the photographs that your not meant to see:

The end of the road for you and me.

The sensors keeping an eye and ear on you.

The watch tower keeping an eye on you.

Me at the edge.

I found this abandoned camp site complete with massive telescope just 1 mile from the guards!

Well I hope you have enjoyed today’s update, I’m off to Salt Lake City tomorrow.

Take care

Jonathan Fridlington