Sunrise at the beginning of summer can be very early. But if you are in Grand Teton National Park you must get up and out for the first light on the mountains, even if that means leaving your room/tent at 4:30 AM. Summer isn’t the most likely time of the year to produce clouds needed to bounce the first light around. Yet you have to go out just in case. In my case there were only bald skies in the morning. The reflection is still nice at Oxbow Bend and worth seeing but it won’t be a prize winner.
This site will make you want to return in fall when the aspen are golden at the water’s edge in front of Mt. Moran at Oxbow Bend along the Snake River. Also the moose might roam in the water seeking vegetation there once they have stripped all the willows throughout the summer months. In this image I preferred there to be no details in the tree line since that’s how they look before sunshine reaches them. (So I exposed for the Mountain.)
Bear Cub Plays
Both Grizzly and Black bears live all over the Tetons but usually it is the black bears that visitors observe along trails leading to the mountains. They feed on berries, roots and grasses for most of the summer and fall. In the spring they may prey on young elk and deer.
One evening sky in the Tetons did produce some color so I chose to focus on the clouds and silhouette the portion of Teton Range that is recognizable from its distinctive shapes.
One could take many different exposures and combine them with High Dynamic Range software and end up with details in the mountains. But I chose to expose for the sky and let the mountain tips go dark! This image was captured from the “Teton Point Turnout.â€