Teton panorama - Cathedral Group to Mount Moran

 During a visit to Grand Teton National Park in 2016, we stopped along the Teton Park Road to enjoy this view of the Teton Range.  This is a panorama of six images stitched together to show the range from the Cathedral Group on the left (Grand Teton, Mount Owen, and Teewinot) to Mount Moran on the right.

Click on the image to see the whole panorama.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Swan with young ones in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Here is a recent picture of a trumpeter swan adult bird with two young ones swimming next to it. We visited Jackson Hole, Wyoming and got this picture by simply pulling off to the side of the road with lots of other people. There was even a platform on which to stand. Trumpeter swans are an endangered species that lives in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, but this one was south of either park near the town of Jackson, Wyoming, in the National Elk Refuge. whose boundary comes right up to the road.

This image was taken with the ISO at 100, f/8, 1/400 sec.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Marmot from Grand Teton mountain range, Yellow-bellied Marmot (ground hog of the mountains)

The Yellow-bellied Marmot lives at higher elevations in the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and other mountain ranges. It's a large rodent related to the ground hog that lives in burrows among boulder fields. We saw this one during a backpacking trip along the Teton Crest Trail on the Death Canyon Shelf after crossing over the Fox Creek Pass. It didn't seem to mind our presence at all and we were able to get this shot from a distance that didn't cause it any concern about our intentions. There had been thunderstorm activity on this day and it seemed the marmot was trying to warm up on the rock.

The Teton Range in particular has a high incidence of melanism among the yellow-bellied marmot population. Melanism is a condition where the animal's skin and fur has a lot of pigment and appears all black. It's the opposite of albanism, in which an animal has no pigment and appears all white. We did see a melanistic yellow-bellied marmot on this day. It's shown below for comparison. On previous trips, we've seen a regular colored yellow-bellied marmot and a melanistic one playing with each other near their burrow entrance.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

The Tetons framed by aspens

Grand Teton, the highest peak in this photo, is the centerpiece of Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming.  This is one of our most favorite places in the world.  This photo is from the eastern side of the park looking westward.

The Teton Range is what geologists call a fault-block mountain range.  Two adjoining blocks of the earth's crust are tilting to the west causing the valley called Jackson Hole to form, part of which is visible in the midground, and the Teton Range to form in the background.  Since the Tetons are on the eastern edge of the westernmost block, this side of the mountains doesn't have foothills.  The Tetons are famous for having the appearance of springing abruptly out of the earth.

Some of our longest backpacking trips have been here.  Bob has done two solo trips, one of 13 days in the southern part of the range and another of 5 days mostly off-trail in the northern part of the range.  Together we backpacked nearly the entire length of the range from north to south over 6 days.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.