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So every year for the past 5 years or so I make a trip up to one of these Parks in the Fall, and this year I almost didn’t. First of all it is Markai and I 2nd Anniversary and we have to go on a trip somewhere. Thought maybe somewhere new like San Deigo, or ever Rocky Mountain National Park, but we just couldn’t miss seeing the color in the Tetons. We were hoping they would be as good as last year, so we planned a few nights in Yellowstone and then some around the Tetons. We left my mothers house early Saturday morning the 26th to head north. She lives in Afton, WY and we drove there as soon as we could get off work the night before. We were going to meet my friend Charles up in Yellowstone so he could pass on the Weapon of Choice to me for the week. I sold him a 500mm F.4 lens about 2 years ago and we was going to let me use it for this trip. I was excited cause I sure missed having this beast! When you have it on you it seems to be a status booster, people look at you and say the weirdest stuff as you walk by or set up next to them. Now you know why they call the brand CANON, cause thats what this looks like. Now I can’t wait to see what I get having this moster to shoot with.
Driving up to meet Charles we went through the Tetons first and man was it smokey! There was a fire at the base of the mountains, so we were glad that we were just driving through that day. After dealing with the long wait and slow moving traffic through the south entrance of Yellowstone, which I swear has been going on for 4 years now, we could see a new fire in the distance. The Arnica fire was between the West Thumb area heading toward Fishing Bridge, the way we needed to go. The road was open, for now, but the downside of this fire being close to the road is that is was the only way for us to get on the East side of the park. They are doing road construction on one of the main roads that I use in the park and it was closed for the season. Madison to Norris JCT was closed, so it added some distance if you wanted to go from where we were going to stay in West Yellowstone to Mammoth Hot Springs where we wanted to camp Monday night. Well once we got past the fire and met up with Charles we found a herd of Big Horn Sheep on the side of Mt. Washburn, so joined the crowd and shot pictures for an hour or so. There were about 30 of these guys that just kept coming from the top of the mountain and they put on a show jumping around the rocks. I just wish some of them had BIG curls, but they were all just small ones. While we were one the East side of the park they had closed the road due to the fire, now we thought we had a 4 hour detour so we could get to our hotel. Lucky for us they did open the road for a little while and we were able to get to where we needed to be that night. Markai and I have this favorite Pizzia place in West Yellowstone that we had to eat at since they were closed when we were there in May. Once we got there we saw they did some major remodling to this place. Seem about 6 times the size I rememberd it being, with a live band, bar, pool tables, and still room for some great pizzia. We tried one called “the Dude” this had sausage, pepperoni, garlic, and sauerkraut on it. This is where I would be yelling about how good it was! I never thought it would taste as good as it did, and I am craving it right now. However it did keep that wonderful garlic taste in your mouth for a while, so you got to enjoy it after you ate it!!
The next 2 mornings had had Markai up at 6 am so we could go out and get some early morning Elk shots, since thats when they seem to be most active. We found a few herds and got some great shots of them. I take so many pictures cause I upload them to Shutterstock.com and make a few extra $$ with them. Since the road was now closed to the East we just had to hang around the SE side of Yellowstone. We were planning to go to Grand Prismatic springs to take some pictures anyway so this was ok, but still hoping the road would open since Monday and Tuesday we wanted to be on the North and East side of the park. All the years I have been to Yellowstone I have never taken a shot of the Springs from the angle I always see pictures from, so I figured it was time. It was quite the sight being up above and looking down to it verses being next to it, so colorful! We found some Eagles, an Osprey and were hoping to find some Otters while were out for the day, but just had the Elk to get shots of that evening. The next morning which is now Monday the 28th, was smokey from the fire. It added some diiferent light for the morning but was great to have for pictures. Unfortuneatly this fire has kept the road closed still and we were unable to continue with our plans in Yellowstone. I wish we could have gotten to the other side, but having 2 main roads closed sure puts a damper on things. We decided to work our way back to the Tetons and camp there instead. It was still a great time in Yellowstone, and I can’t wait to get back there next year!


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Being in the Grand Tetons this year seemed to be a comparison trip to the year before. Last years colors were so awesome and we got some great shots, so we had to match or try and beat that this year! We spent Monday night at Signal Mountain Campground hoping not to freeze and we were amazed at how warm it seemed to be, in fact Yellowstone during the day was warmer then most Falls too. Thats why the color wasn’t as good as the year before it still thought it was late summer not Fall. There was still some brilliant color around, some looked like it came and went already some was just right and the rest was still green and turning. Tuesday we found some Moose and watched them for a few hours hoping for some great shots, I didn’t do much landscape shots since were were going to be in the Park till Saturday and it wasn’t ready yet. Tuesday and Wednesday night we were staying in Afton with my mom again to save $$ vs the outragous rates in Jackson Hole, plus we don’t see my mom that often so it was fun to hang out. Wednesday we woke up to it snowing! Wasn’t it just like 80 degrees 2 days ago now it is snowing!! Well that didn’t keep us from going back to the Tetons, it was less then 2 hrs to get there but we had all day to play. Found more Moose this day but not much of anything else, still waiting on some Bears! Thursday and Friday night we stayed in Jackson Hole since Expedia had some rooms for $59 once October hit. The day before they were $180, glad I found the deal! Now that we were in Jackson Hole and it wasn’t much of a drive to get anywhere we got up before the sunrise to get some shots. As low as 9 degrees it was in the morning!!! But it was worth it, seeing the fog rise and the mountains lighting up was just awesome. We went to some new areas around the Tetons we had never been just looking for some action. Found Buffalo, Antelope more Moose, the most I have ever seen before were on this trip. Not much for Elk since they hadn’t moved down this way yet cause the warm weather lasted so long. Finally Friday seemed to be the day for some cool stuff. We found 2 bears that were so close to the road as we drove by they could have jumped into Markai’s window! To bad the brush was so thick it was hard to see them untill they ran arcoss the road and though a pond, got some great butt shots! At least we saw some! Latter we were by Oxbow Bend where we could see a few Moose in the distance and some guy told us that 2 Bulls just had it out and the loser went through the trees. So we dicided to see if we could head him off. We find him just mins later swimming across the water, then we get closer and see him again wading through the shallows. There is no one around to see this but us! Then I knew of a road to get closer and head him off again, as soon as we got there he was standing where I wanted to drive! Got some shots of him closer now, and we turned around where he walked just in front of our car! We drove a mile down to the next road where I thought he would come out again and hoped he would go through the water. By now tons of people saw what we were chasing and a wall of people were now on the road as he popped out right where we thought he would. Since he couldn’t cross the road he went down to the water where I was hoping he would! This was awesome, but now I felt bad for the Moose, he just wanted to cross the road, and finally did after we met back up with Charles. He had missed all the action by just minutes! He at least saw it for a little bit. The next morning was our last day in the Park before we headed to my brothers. We got up early for some sunrise shots at Oxbow Bend, but while we were there we could here the Elk Bugleing and ever some Wolves howling. We decide that the landscape shots could wait, and we headed toward the sounds of the wild. We saw 3 Moose swiming across where we did the day before and that was where we were heading. We just missed one of them going across the river where there seemed to be some angry bull Elk and a sad sounding cow Elk. The wolves howling was coming from the same area and after a big of the animal calls all was silent! We couldn’t see anything since the trees were think and on the other side of the river, but we can only guess that this cow Elk just got tackled and taken down by the wolves. It is sad to think but that is what I hope to get pictures of, guess there is next time…..
It was a great trip even if the Fires and odd temeratures make the color not as good as last year. We got some great shots of Moose and Elk…



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