IT’S 2008: GOD IS GREAT! My Winter Photos of the Tetons Part 2

Part Two:

In January of 2008, I took my first vacation to the Rocky Mountains during the winter. It was fantastic. And yet, it almost didn’t come to pass. Let me tell you about my adventure. I made plans to fly to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during the middle of December 2007. I wanted to take some pictures of the Grand Teton Mountains with snow on them. Every time that I had previously seen them, it was during the summer or early fall, the taller mountains were snow-capped, but that was all. My great plan was to make my own Christmas cards, with the Tetons in the background and a decorated Christmas tree in the foreground. I was going to fly into Jackson, buy an artificial tree along with some ornaments, and then pull off the road and set up the tree. I would snap some pictures, and then make Christmas cards. I had even talked to Grand Teton National Park officials to get permission. Alas, as with so many other human endeavors things did not go according to plan.

My flight was on a Friday, about two weeks before Christmas of 2007. I was scheduled to fly out of Nashville, Tennessee during the afternoon, catch a connecting flight in Dallas, Texas, and arrive in Jackson, Wyoming late that night. I would return on an early morning flight the following Monday. Now here is where I believe God stepped in. The plane that I was supposed to catch to Dallas was late. I was assured that it would arrive in plenty of time for me to make my connecting flight to Jackson. As I kept looking at the clock, however, I started to realize that maybe things weren’t going according to plan. The plane did arrive, finally, and we all boarded in anticipation of starting our journey. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. Get the picture. Finally, the captain made an announcement over the intercom. During pre-flight checks, the ground crew had found a piece of metal hanging off one of the wings. We couldn’t go anywhere until engineers had inspected the damage and made sure it was safe to fly. The captain said that if there were any of us that had connecting flights, and were worried about making them, we could deplane and talk to airline officials to see about possibly making other arrangements. I had been doing the math, in my head, and came to the realization that I was not going to make it to Dallas in time. So, I left and talked to one of the gate attendants. He told me that they would put me up at a Dallas hotel, and then I could take a Saturday morning flight. I explained to him that this just wouldn’t work, since I was flying out there for a photo op with only two days, Saturday and Sunday, for taking pictures, and if I spent Saturday flying then that would leave me only one day to snap my photos. I asked if we could postpone my flight until the middle of January. He said yes. Although I didn’t see it, at the time, here is where I see the hand of God working in the background. My original return flight was scheduled for a very early Monday morning flight. This was by going through Dallas. When we rescheduled my flight, I asked if I could catch a later, mid-afternoon, flight instead of the original one. After checking, the attendant said that I could, if I didn’t mind going through Chicago, Illinois instead of Dallas. This is miracle number one, if you will bear me a little latitude. I rescheduled to fly out of Nashville on Friday afternoon, January 18, 2008 and return on Monday, January 21 with a mid-afternoon flight by going through Chicago.

Doing this allowed me to make a few changes. Instead of paying the super high prices of Jackson, Wyoming, I was able to purchase a relatively inexpensive artificial Christmas tree at a local Walmart. I packed it, along with cheap ornaments and even some Christmas lights in one large suitcase. My clothes and camera gear went into other baggage. I wasn’t going to be able to have my Christmas cards made in time for 2007, anyway, so I could plan everything a little better. I had an entire month to do so.

When my great day finally arrived, everything went a little better. There was no drama at the airport. I caught my plane on time, made the connecting flight in Dallas, with plenty of time to spare, and arrived in Jackson, Wyoming at about 11:00 PM that night. I picked up my rental car, a 4-wheel drive vehicle, and made my way to the local Motel 6 where I was to spend the weekend. There was plenty of snow. You don’t know how happy I was to see the snow. In Nashville, we hardly ever saw any significant amount of snow anymore. When I was young, we did, but now the winters are more temperate and its usually rain or sleet rather than snow that falls in the middle Tennessee area. As my brother told me, it had started snowing in the Tetons, during the middle of November 2007 and had not stopped when I arrived there in the middle of January 2008. Nor did it stop while I was there. Every morning I would wake up to a fresh 2-3 inches of snow on the windshield of my vehicle. And it would snow, off and on, all day, each day that I was there. In fact, I could not even see the Tetons, at all, on Saturday or Sunday due to the cloud-cover. When I looked out to the east, I saw the sun peeking through the clouds, sometimes it was even quite sunny. But when I looked to the west, toward the Teton Mountains, all I could see was a wall of gray.

Don’t get me wrong. It was a good trip. I even did some snowshoeing with a group out of the local Moose Visitor Center, the only visitor center in the park that was open during the winter.  And, I took lots of good photos. But they were not the shots that I wanted to take of the Teton Mountains. Still, I was happy, and as I prayed to God before I went to bed that last night, Sunday, January 20, 2008, I thanked the Lord for my blessings. I would have left it at that except for that movie Facing the Giants. I remembered the scene where Coach Taylor’s wife, devastated that once again, she was not pregnant, looked up at the sky and prayed “I will still love you.”

I know it’s just a movie, not real life; and movies are made for a purpose, but that scene kept coming back. Her husband had once asked her if she would still love God even if they couldn’t have children. That’s why that scene resonated so much. “I WILL STILL LOVE YOU!”

It’s easy to be thankful when we get our way but turn the tables and we’re much less charitable. As I said before that movie changed me, forever. It changed the way I think, the way I act, and most especially in the way that I see God. So, as I said my prayers, that night, I said that I would still love God, even if I didn’t get to see the mountains. And I was perfectly content to leave it at that. But then I got to thinking, why not? Why not ask God for a little extra? So, I said, “Lord, if you don’t mind, I would really like to see the mountains. That’s why I came out here. I want to take some pictures of the Tetons. But it’s okay if I don’t. I Will Still Love You!” Then I went to bed.

The next morning, I noticed something different. At first, I could not put a finger on it, but there was something in the air. Do we see miracle number two coming up perhaps? With a 3:30 PM flight, I knew I needed to be at the airport by 1:30 PM. Remember, I had changed it from an early morning flight to a later one after having to cancel my first trip the previous December. With the obligatory 11:00 AM check-out time at the motel, I had several hours to kill. So, I started watching some old reruns of CSI-Miami. I had never watched the show before then. It is actually quite good. Along about 9:30 or 10:00 AM, it hit me what the difference was. It was REALLY bright outside. From the motel, I could not see the Teton Mountains; they’re to the north of Jackson, but I started to get my hopes up. Maybe, I thought, I could see the mountains today. My plans changed in an instant. Now, on a trip, I always pack everything up the night before, except for what few things I will need on my return flight home. Thus, it was no time before I was rolling out the door.

And, lo and behold, what wondrous sights did I see when I finally came around that curve in the road at the entrance to Grand Teton National Park. It was the most magnificent sight I had ever laid eyes on. That long row of 12- and 13,000-foot mountains that we know as the Tetons stretched for what seemed like an endless eternity. And they were covered in a carpet of freshly laid snow. Just like Coach Taylor felt when he came home after winning the state championship, in the movie Facing the Giants, and his wife told him that he was going to be a daddy; I was overcome with joy.

Every single pull-out that I came to, saw me getting out of my vehicle and trudging through half a foot or more of snow and taking lots of pictures. I never even broke out my old tried-and-true Minolta 35mm SLR camera. I had borrowed my friend’s digital camera, and it took fine pictures. I didn’t want to go too far, and possibly get stuck so that I would miss my flight, therefore my last stop was at, what I have always considered the best vantage point for seeing the Tetons, the Snake River Overlook. For these shots, I used my tripod. Forget about trying to put up the Christmas tree, I knew there wouldn’t be time. But it didn’t matter. God had truly blessed me. I snapped shot after shot. From wide-angle to zoom and back to wide-angle again. Over and over, I merrily pressed that shutter button. And you know the best thing about a digital camera is you would know, right then, right there, if you got a good picture. No more waiting to turn in the film, then sticking around for it to be processed, or await a few days for the photos to come back, to see if your pictures were any good. You knew right then whether you needed to take any more shots or if it was time to move on.

And, finally, it was time to move on. It was time to head over to the airport, to fly home by way of Chicago, to return to the life I had left behind for such a short period. But I knew it would never be the same. The good Lord had blessed me. I know to most people it might be just a few snapshots of some tall bumps in the land, but to me, I think it was a little more. A lot of people might think, God doesn’t care if one guy gets to take a few photos of some mountains, but I think he does. God cares about us, all of us.  Just like Stanley Praimnath, trapped in the South Tower of the World Trade Center, who asked the Lord to save him, on 9/11, or Genelle Guzman, the last person rescued from a fallen North Tower, reaching out to the God that she had turned her back on so many years before, and pleading for a second chance on that fateful day, I think, perhaps because I did take that little extra time, and did ask for a little more, well what can I say. God does move in strange and mysterious ways.