We did a long weekend in Grand Tetons National Park, and although we were just a couple weeks too late for peak fall color and a little too early for lots of snow on the peaks, I still came away with some really nice photos.
The first full day we spent in the park provided lots of great opportunities to play with reflections. Calm water and morning light, plus a couple ducks thrown in for good measure, complemented an iconic overlook featuring Mount Moran reflected in the Snake River at Oxbow Bend.
Low early morning fog complimented the reflection of the mountains on Jackson Lake.
Always gorgeous, Jenny lake and the reflection of Grand Teton proved as spectacular as we’d hoped. We’re particularly fond of Jenny lake and the rounded stones on the lake bottom that are so clearly visible.
After a good day in the park, we had a nice dinner and a bit of rest, then I went back out for some night photos. I’d been scouting locations as we explored, and settled on Cunningham Cabin. Built in 1885, and consisting of two separate rooms connected by a central breezeway, this cabin is still standing and has a superb view of the mountains.
While waiting for the sky to darken, I was entertained with sounds from a nearby herd of elk. It was a surreal experience, listening to fairly nearby elk bugle, grunt, and lock horns while not being able to see them. I was amused to learn that a battle between male elk sounds very much like little boys having a stick sword fight!
Unfortunately, the moon wasn’t cooperating with me that night, and was closer to the Milky Way than I expected. However, an earlier evening photo with high, wispy clouds turned out surprisingly well, especially considering it was just a test shot!
We had two primary goals for the next morning: finding moose and photographing barns. We found the famous T.A. Moulton barn before seeing any moose closely enough to be worth photographing. (Not to say we hadn’t seen any – we saw five! – but they were all at a distance.)
Very shortly after leaving the barn, we came across a large bull moose resting in the sage not far from the road. We very easily may have missed him, as he was hidden behind a stand of trees in the direction we were coming from. However, another photographer with a long lens cued us in to the fact that there may be something worth photographing there.
We returned home having met some of our goals for the Tetons, but we’ll definitely be returning to explore more photo opportunities.