Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear with four cubs.

It’s never easy to narrow down a season’s worth of images to just five, but here are the five that either I liked the best, or that you liked the best, taking Google Analytics stats into account. Most of them came from Grand Teton National Park, with the exception being the grizzly bear with four cubs up in Yellowstone National Park. Now that the crowds are dying down as well, I’m thinking about heading back up there and seeing if I can find them one more time before they head in for the winter. All of these shots were the ones that had both sentimental value for me, as well as creating a striking image that created a great response. Some were simply being in the right place at the right time, others took a bit of extra work to be able to capture properly. I was at more of a disadvantage than normal throughout the course of the season, leaving me struggling to capture all the shots I actually wanted to get.

Northern Lights glow over the Snake River in Jackson, Wyoming.

While I was up for plenty of great sunrises, I had also moved at the beginning of summer to Wilson, Wyoming, a small town just to the west of Jackson. Many people love it, particularly in the winter, for its easy access to both Teton Village and the Teton Pass. I however, still found myself driving up into Grand Teton National Park to the same spots I always loved driving up to while living in northern Jackson. The difference was that now, instead of a five-to-ten minute drive, it was now a 45 minute drive. This made catching sunrises especially difficult and made heading up their for sunsets just as inconvenient. Given the trials though, I still found myself able to come away with some really nice images throughout the three months I lived down there. Living an extra 45 minutes from the spots I love so much left me a little frustrated, and so I moved back up to the same neighborhood I moved away from just a week ago. Thus I am now ready, and especially excited for, the upcoming fall and winter seasons!

Sunrise over Delta Lake in Grand Teton National Park

One thing I was able to take away from the whole experience is that you just have to force yourself to get out there and keep taking photos. Sometimes it’s inconvenient, sometimes you’ll lose sleep over it. Whatever the excuse, if you’re not willing to push yourself a little bit, you’re going to miss the shot. It can even feel more gratifying to capture an exquisite image that you worked a little harder for. There were a couple of occasions where I was short on sleep and once sunrise was over, I went home and straight to bed. Upon waking up and looking back at the images, it was almost like seeing something I had dreamed manifested right there on my computer, which goes without saying, is a pretty exciting feeling!

Granted it’s always easier when the scene is set up for you and you just happen to be in the right place at the right time, but it doesn’t always work out that easily. There will be times when you just have to bite the bullet and wake up early, skip a meal, drive an extra hour, etc. Whatever the case, if you feel that there’s an amazing shot to be had, do whatever it takes to get it and in the end, you’ll be much happier you did than if you didn’t. There were a few sunrises this summer I had intended to get up for, but fell back asleep only to briefly wake up moments later and see a beautifully illuminated pink and purple sky. Those are hard lessons to learn. The good news is there’s always more. The bad news is it could be a long time before you get the opportunity again, and even then, it will never look exactly the same.

In the end, if you want the shot, do whatever it takes and don’t let the excuses overpower your motivation. Stick with it and get the shot.

A rainbow lights up in a thunderstorm’s aftermath over Antelope Flats in Grand Teton National Park.

Having another person along with me for the hike into the Alaska Basin was a little unusual. I typically do much of my hiking alone so having someone else nearby at all times got me a little inspired to try some new things. I’ve got several shots with her as the subject, including this one just before we called it a day. She was very cooperative with me as I experimented on a shooting a subject I don’t normally have the opportunity to do.

With the moon casting a halo in the clouds above, she participated quite well as she stayed still during this entire exposure. As beautiful as the Alaska Basin is during the day, there’s something very magical and peaceful about it at night.

While in the Alaska Basin last week up in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness of the Teton Mountains, we were treated to a nice sunset as some higher clouds began lighting up above the landscape. In addition to the large variety of wildflower displays that were out in the area, there were also many boulders which provided a natural barrier to the Alaska Basin Lakes. Some of the lakes are leftover from snow melt, others are fed by creeks coming from the peaks surrounding the basin. In virtually every patch of grass in between the boulders and rock poking out of the ground were wildflowers. A nice treat was also a three-quarter moon making an appearance over the southern peaks.

Earlier this week myself and another hiker headed out into the Alaska Basin for the first time. While still in the Teton Mountains, it’s technically just outside of the National Park located inside the Jedediah Smith Wilderness bordering the western edge of the park. August has been described as the best time to go for the dramatic wildflowers displays.

We hiked into the Alaska Basin via the Static Peak Divide through Grand Teton National Park on August 18th and while the wildflowers were on the decline, they were still out in amazing displays! It was almost as if Jackson Pollock was painting from the sky in purples, reds, blues and yellows on a canvas of green. It’s an incredibly dynamic place with an obvious abundance of wildflowers surrounded by enormous peaks, all pouring water into the basin.

The Perseid Meteor Shower put on a great show this year! A couple of nights before the peak, I went out to Shadow Mountain in Bridger-Teton National Forest to watch the show. I was surprised by the amount of light pollution coming from Jackson, but it luckily didn’t deter from a beautifully dark sky farther north. I was able to catch two meteors in this particular shot. One is visible streaking across the Milky Way Galaxy, another, a little more faint, is just beneath that almost perpendicular to it.

Did you get any shots of the meteors? Let’s see them!

While driving north along Highway 89 in Grand Teton National Park, it’s hard not to give all your attention to the west where the massive east face of the Tetons rise out of the valley floor. While setting up for sunrise the other day at Blacktail Ponds, one of the many pullouts to appreciate the dramatic view, I found for a short while at least, that the view to the north was actually much more interesting than the obvious view to the west. I wound up catching several different shots shooting north before the sun eventually began rising on the Teton Mountains. Yet another example in my array of shots that prove that the main subject you were originally intending to shoot might not be the most interesting.

My body insisted on staying in bed this morning, but it had been a while since I caught a good sunrise and I was determined to force myself to get out of bed. I headed up to Blacktail Ponds in Grand Teton National Park and rather than sticking to the overlook, I headed down into the ponds and slushed through a path to capture this photo, among many others.

Sure a bed can be extremely cozy, especially when you’re waking up early and haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep. Sleep, however, can be caught up on. Sunrises like this don’t repeat themselves. Just keep that in mind.

On my way back down from Delta Lake last week, I was on the lookout for some new pika shots since the route back takes you through a large boulder field in Glacier Gulch of Grand Teton National Park. It’s the perfect place to find both pika and marmots thriving. While I wasn’t able to come away with any pika shots like I was hoping, I did catch this curious little marmot scrambling around nearby. He went through a number of different poses, and this was the one that I enjoyed the most.

This was one of those shots that I wasn’t in much of a hurry to process simply because I didn’t really like the way it looked before bringing it into Photoshop to see what I could do with it. After a couple of quick edits just to see what happened, however, it began taking form and I simply kept going until I had this. It’s one of those images that just brings you into the zone and then all of a sudden after a short while you find yourself pleasantly surprised with an image that you begin growing fonder of that you originally weren’t all that excited to process. This is another image from last week’s quick backpacking trip up to Delta Lake.

Delta Lake is rather unique lake in the Teton Range of Grand Teton National Park. While most high-elevation glacial lakes have a pristine, bold blue about them, Delta Lake is more of a brilliant turquoise color. What makes it turquoise is that it’s fed directly by Teton Glacier which carries minerals into the lake just below. In addition to that, the Grand Teton is directly in front of you giving you about as close of a view as you’re going to get of it without climbing up. Although after staring at it for a bit there you’ll be tempted to!

For those reasons, Delta Lake continues to be one of my favorite destinations in the Tetons, though there’s still quite a bit left to explore!

If you saw last week’s sunset posts, then you saw the tail end of the thunderstorm that ripped through Jackson Hole that I got caught in about three-fourths of my way up to camp at Delta Lake in Grand Teton National Park. I made another attempt earlier this week and in addition to finally making it up there, I had this entire scene all to myself the entire time. The only downside was that I was so exhausted that I wound up sleeping through the full moonrise. Regardless, I was awake with plenty of time for a spectacular sunrise!

I had seen the sun rising on the Grand Teton plenty of times in the past, but never so close, especially with a beautifully tranquil, turquoise glacial lake right at the base. You can expect to see more posts from this trip in the near future.