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Backcountry Trail Pics

by Darin Letzring Published at Smashwords by Backcountry Adventures Press Copyright 2011 Thanks to God for His great backyard! ************************* *************************

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Table of Contents
Introduction Photos and Their Story About the Author
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Introduction I'm a big fan of spending quality time in the backcountry, away from all the hustle and bustle of the world. In the past ten years, I've seen some really great scenery in the backcountry of the national parks and wilderness areas in the western United States. I like to take a little point and shoot camera with me to capture some of the scenes and put the really nice photos on my wall as a reminder of the beauty of God's world and the solitude that can be had with just a bit of effort. All you have to do is get off the pavement and wander just three miles down a trail. My mantra is now "Three miles to a different world," and that's truly how I feel, although many of the pictures are at least ten miles from a road or trailhead. You'll also notice that there are some pictures taken in the winter. That's right, backcountry adventures don't end when the snow flies. All you have to do is embrace the weather, get the right gear, and plan accordingly. This book is meant to be a "quick read" in that it should only take 10-15 minutes to view, but I hope the impressions of the pictures last alot longer than that. You might also want to keep it handy to review when you get sick and tired of the office cubicle. The photos in this picture book were taken with a Sony T2 or Canon D10 basic camera on full-auto settings. Nothing fancy. These photos haven't been touched up at all. The colors you see are the colors I saw to the best representation that the camera could make, which is normally near 100%. With each photo is a quick blurb about the photo that leaves enough of the story to let your imagination run. I also want to take this opportunity to ask everyone who ventures into the backcountry to follow the Leave No Trace principles (www.lnt.org) as much as possible. This will help preserve the backcountry for our next generations. Feel free to add your own backcountry bucket list items at www.backcountrybucketlist.blogspot.com!

Happy hiking, skiing, fishing, and whatever other backcountry adventures you have in mind! Darin Letzring darin@backcountryadventurespress.com www.backcountryadventurespress.com

Soda Butte Creek in the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park is a great place to fish in the fall. There is normally a herd of buffalo in any picture from this part of the park. Beautiful scenery, with standout blue color of the water.

Slough Creek is also in the northeast part of Yellowstone National Park. The valley formed by the creek is one of my favorite places in the world. Very peaceful.

Colors like this are usually reserved for the Sierras, but this is in the Rocky Mountains at a campsite near Slough Creek. The colors that evening were surreal, and this photo has not been retouched.

Alaska Basin in Teton Canyon on the west side of the Teton Mountains is a wonderful place to hang out for a weekend. Our campsite was next to this creek, and we spent a lot of time just looking and listening to it. The perfect place for dinner if you ask me!

This is my wife, Tera, walking near the cable to go up Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. The weather was really cold and snowy this day, so we didn't take a chance on summiting. I call this photo "Not Today" because we had one day in our trip to go up Half Dome and it wasn't going to happen that day for safety reasons. This is our reason to make it back there some day.

A sunset on "The Salamander" in Glacier National Park. This view is from Granite Park Chalet.

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Courthouse Towers in Arches National Park.

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In the Idaho mountains. On an unnamed peak in the middle of the Sawtooths on the left. On the right, hiking down from the top of Mount Borah, the highest peak in Idaho. Notice the contrast in ecosystems in the background. These locations are about 65 miles apart on a straight-line.

A deserted island of the coast near Loreto, Mexico.

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Hiking up the ridgeline of Pebble Creek Ski Resort to the top of Bonneville Peak on an incredible mid-April bluebird day.

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The rewards for hiking uphill are fresh powder runs on "the backside."

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This large moose had his dinner right next to us while we ate our dinner below the Cirque de Towers in the Wind River Mountains.

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This is a standard view of cross-country skiing in southeast Idaho. The overcast clouds combine with the snow and naked aspens to create an almost black-and-white world. The peace while skiing single-track in the mountain calm can't be described; it can only be experienced.

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Bison graze in a winter meadow near the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park.

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I call this photo of the bison near Old Faithful "Five More Minutes" because that is about how long it will be until the sun hits them and they can warm up a bit.

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Camp in the Black Canyon area of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park. The different shades are created by the clouds from an intense thunderstorm that just passed over camp.

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Fishing the Yellowstone River for native cutthroat in Yellowstone National Park. I call this "Right Where I Want To Be" because, frankly, it is right where I want to be on most summer days.

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About The Author

Darin Letzring lives in Pocatello, Idaho with his wife and two boys. He and Tera have enjoyed seeing God's backyard, the backcountry of most of the National Parks in the western U.S. He is anxious to get his young boys out into the backcountry. See more at www.backcountrybucketlist.blogspot.com www.backcountryadventurespress.com www.backcountrycutts.blogspot.com www.backcountrycutts.com Other Books By Darin "Yellowstone's Backcountry Cutthroats" "The Backcountry Bucket List" E-mail Darin at darin@backcountryadventurespress.com

Morning coffee near Slough Creek in Yellowstone N.P.

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