Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

The main destination of our September road trip, other than the badlands of the Dakotas, was the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. One of the most beautiful ranges of the Rockies is the Teton Range. Most of the range is within Grand Teton National Park, which is located south of Yellowstone National Park. There are lots of summits in the Teton Range and the highest point is the Grand Teton (13,775 feet, 4199 meter). We spent two days in the national park, which would have meant two sunrises, and to sunsets. The two sunsets were OK, but the Tetons are most beautiful during sunrise. Unfortunately, the second day was very rainy, so I only had one opportunity to photograph the sunrise. I chose one of the most iconic places for that, the Oxbow Bend of the Snake River. This area provides a great reflection of Mount Moran (12,610 feet, 3840 meter), which dominates the northern section of the Teton Range. During the day, I also photographed the Tetons from the Schwabacher’s Landing, however it already started to become really cloudy. I couldn’t miss on the opportunity to check out the Snake River Overlook that Ansel Adams made famous, and we spent both sunsets there. Other than the landscapes of the Tetons, I was able to take some photos of some of the wildlife of the park too. On the first afternoon, we were lucky to spend some time with a huge bison herd (Bison bison) on a beautiful meadow. I also photographed pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), elk (Cervus canadensis) and we even saw a bull moose (Alces alces). We looked for bears too in the park and fortunately we saw a black bear, but I wasn’t able to take any photos of it. For that to happen, we had to go to our primal destination, the first national park of the world, but that’s another story…