If you are US National Park fan, chances are you’ve been to Grand Teton National Park or it is on your bucket list. It is full of wildlife including moose, bighorn sheep, thousands of bison as well as black bears and grizzly bears including the famous 399 and her cubs. In addition to the wildlife, the landscape views are stunning everywhere you look! The best views and photo opportunities in Grand Teton National Park are generally at sunrise. As the sun rises in the morning, the skies begin to light up and the mountain peaks are slowly doused in brilliant colors. For a few brief moments right before and after sunrise a truly magical scene may unfold. It doesn’t happen every morning but when it does it may be one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen unfold in front of you.
Over the years I’ve spent months wandering around Grant Teton National Park and surrounding national forests. During one trip out there I spent a fair amount of time hiking around in search of non obvious photo spots. Out at Grand Teton, most people flock to Schwabacher Landing and OxBow Bend and then go in search of wildlife. While those are spectacular spots for sunrise shots, everyone has them and they are incredibly crowded most of the time.
When looking for unique photo spots around Grand Teton or most anywhere else, puddles, calm streams, ephemeral streams or even water in desert potholes can make for unique reflection photos that vanish when the sun comes out or more recently when a drought takes hold and dries out everything.
For this photo I found a small wet area that may or may not have been ephemeral. It was late in the season. The leaves had fallen from the trees and it was one of the worst fall years for fall foliage even in Grand Teton National Park. I set out hiking to find potential sunrise locations that would have nice reflections of the Tetons, something more than bare leafless branches in view and where some large creature might wander into the scene.
This particular spot met all those criteria. It was one of those spots where a single shot with a DSLR with a 4×6 aspect ratio would not be ideal so I’d have to haul the heavier and bulkier panoramic setup out to this spot. It took a bit of a hike in sub freezing temps before sunrise to get there. The ground was wet and not particularly stable for a heavy tripod with a DSLR, a pano head and a big zoom lens on it. A few rocks helped to stabilize everything so the shot in the panorama would stitch together well.
Most of the time when I’d been out in Teton for sunrise in the past, the highlight of sunrise was the color the sun casts on the mountain peaks and slowly drips down the mountains. Bright color in the skies was never anything I’d encountered much in the past. Was it a light fog in the air, smog, frozen fog or something else that cause the skies to turn pink? I’m not sure what it was but it was one of the most amazing scenes I’d ever seen unfold at sunrise at Grand Teton National Park.
Fortunately I had plenty of time spend out at Grand Teton during autumn of this year. After experiencing this view the first time, I returned about 7 more times over the course of 10 days and experienced a different light show every single day.
Like most of the amazing wall scenes on here, this one took quite an investment to get. It was a drive from Philly all the way out to Grand Teton National Park, many nights of lodging in Teton Village along with all the food, gas and everything else involved in a cross country trip from Philly out to Wyoming. Between the camera tripod, camera, lenses, and the tripod head, there was about $5,000 worth of gear to get this shot.
If this view looks familiar you may have seen a 72 inch metal print of it at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone where it was donated for a raffle to raise funds for the Discovery Center.
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