Autumn Wildlife
Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming
September 2020
No trip to the Grand Tetons would be complete without a stop at the Snake River Overlook where Ansel Adams took his famous photo. There was an overnight storm that cleared all the smoke from the air and left a light dusting of snow on the peaks. It’s rare to see the mountains this clearly.
This morning Jackson Lake was almost completely calm and Mount Moran was perfectly reflected in the water.
It pays to get up early to watch for wildlife. I found this big bull elk right as the sun peaked over the mountains. He only gave me a few minutes before he crossed the road and disappeared into the underbrush. Throughout the trip, we were constantly hearing the bull elks bugling in the forest, challenging each other for the herds of cows. I really wanted to watch the rut but they stayed well within the trees and out of sight.
As we explored new parts of the park, namely the Signal Mountain area, I saw several different Views of Jackson Lake and Mount Moran. One morning, Jackson Lake was almost completely calm and Mount Moran was perfectly reflected in the water.
One evening I was driving along the main highway and this young bull moose was just trotting along side of the highway.
As we explored new parts of the park, namely the Signal Mountain area, I saw several different Views of Jackson Lake and Mount Moran. One morning, Jackson Lake was almost completely calm and Mount Moran was perfectly reflected in the water.
We found that the buffalo herd would be near the highway in the evenings so we camp along side the road to watch them. To our surprise the whole herd begin leaping over the fence the cross the road. It was really impressive watching these giants clear the 4 foot high fence until we realized that we were directly in their path. We quickly move the car to get out of the way so I only got a few shots of the last of the herd jumping over.
Here is another classic photo location in the Tetons. The conditions were just about perfect with the calm water reflecting the mountains. I would love to return here when the sky is full of white fluffy clouds.
I stopped by the Jenny Lake visitor center to shoot a time-lapse of the clouds moving over the Tetons and I found this Mule Deer buck casually lounging about in the brush. Even though I was right next to the main trail going down to the Jenny Lake ferry, he didn’t seem at all concerned about being close to people. I set up and shot my time lapse, which took about 45 minutes, he he came out of the brush and crossed the creek. He then proceed along the far bank directly in front of me and gave me the opportunity to take a lot of very close up photos.
I found this amazing spot along the shore of Jenny Lake directly across from the Cascade canyon. I love the texture of the rocky lake bed in the foreground. I do wish the water was a bit calmer but it was the middle of the day I can’t complain too much.
There were a lot of bald eagles flying around, unfortunately they were mostly down around the Snake River and too far away. However, I did have one eagle fly over head and I only had maybe 30 seconds to grab the camera and take a few photos as he (or maybe a she) flew past.
It was almost dusk when I found this bull bull moose. He was chasing a cow and calf moose through the brush and we only saw them briefly.. It was nearly dark and they were moving fast. I didn’t really think that these shots were come out good but there were a few that were clear and in focus. This bull was much bigger and older that the one we saw earlier.
I have been wanting to get more into video so this trip I made an effort to shoot more footage. I did some time lapses, some hyper lapses and some regular clips. I didn’t really have a storyboard developed so it just ended up being very random. I really want to explore shooting video more so this was just experimenting and learning.
