Travelogues
2008 Rocky Mountains Trip

September 29 - October 2

 

During the week, I worked from the motel during the day. It gave Carol a chance to shoot on her own and go to some of her favorite places. Then I would join her to shoot in the golden light. Because we were on Mountain time, I even had a chance to to shoot sunrise a couple of mornings before work.

Continuing our good luck, we photographed moose at Black Tail Ponds,Google Earth View Schwabachers Landing,Google Earth View and Oxbow Bend.Google Earth View We even got to shoot a moose cow and calf as we were ready to leave Schwabachers Landing. Each day back at Oxbow Bend meant even better fall color. We've never been to the Grand Tetons this late in the season, so we've never had this kind of fall color

Grand Teton
Mother & Calf Grand Teton Oxbow Bend Aspens

We had a good sunrise at Schwabachers Landing, once we found a place to squeeze in between all the other photographers. Being here at prime time has definitely meant a lot more photographers at the major locations.

Pronghorn On Wednesday, I got a great chance to shoot pronghorn. We often see bison and pronghorn in the Elk Ranch FlatsGoogle Earth View area, so we generally stop and check it out when we're in the area. There was a herd of pronghorn way out in the meadow feeding. I started hiking out toward the pronghorn, always heading at an angle away from them. When they lifted their heads, I'd stop for a few minutes. When they returned to eating, I'd move forward again. Pretty soon, they got used to me and didn't really care as I continued to get closer. I eventually got up close and personal with them before I ran out of CF storage. It was pretty amazing to get up that close to them. Pronghorn are usually very skittish and difficult to photograph except

Patriarch Tree

We used the GPS route I created last time we were in the Tetons in 2006 to find the Patriarch Tree (43° 47' 0" N, 110° 41' 51" W).Google Earth View This was a very famous tree that was used in lots of advertising in the 50's and 60's. When the road was changed, it no longer went past the Patriarch Tree, and it's been largely forgotten. I ran across it in an old photo and decided to try to find it. It took a couple hours to find it in 2006, but I marked the route with my GPS to make it easier to find next time. The shape of the Patriarch Tree in front of the Cathedral Group of the Tetons still makes for a great picture.

 

Schwabacher Landing