Salt Lake City to Grand Teton/Yellowstone mid-September

[Pat Kearns]

We flew into and out of Jackson Hole and got home this evening. The trip was great. I want to thank Michael Kadillak and mmerig for their suggestions. Michael the Gallatin Valley is absolutely a beautiful drive with lots to photograph. I think I could spend an entire week there photographing the valley. Sadly, the Beartooth Highway was closed due to snow so that will have to wait for another trip. mmerig, thanks for telling me about Gros Ventre. We drove down it for a few miles from the highway from Jackson but not as far as I would like to have gone. That's another drive I would like to take another time. The trees were just starting to turn and will probably be at their best in about another 5 days. I don't think they will be as spectacular when we were there about a dozen years ago. I went out to the Mormon barns and met another LF photographer named Rick Garfinkle that was from California. I made him a couple of offers to buy his Kodak Master View but he just didn't want to sell it. I told him if I had one I wouldn't sell it either and wished him good light. I have to say when I was working a week's vacation went by fast but being retired now a 10 day trip goes by faster. When we were leaving today my wife said we can't let another dozen years go by before we go back. That sounded promising.

[Drew Wiley]

When I was nearly back to the Green River trailhead after recently spending two weeks backpacking in the Wind River Range, we ran into a retired couple from Tennessee who had hauled their own horses all the way from there just to test them out on the local trails, and then return next year for a month-long horse trip. That's a lot of gas and effort, but when I informed them what lay ahead was even better, it reinforced their resolve even more. Then, when we finally got to the car and started heading back still all dirty, I wanted to pull out somewhere along the river to clean up. But first, I set up my tripod because an afternoon rainstorm with some spectacular light coming over the Gros Vente range was headed our direction, reflecting in the water, which is rather wide and gentle at that spot. Wyoming can be addicting.

[mmerig]

. . . . The trees were just starting to turn and will probably be at their best in about another 5 days. I don't think they will be as spectacular when we were there about a dozen years ago.

The fall colors are nearing their peak now, and it looks to be a good year for colors. Maybe not the best -- but better than usual. I live in the Teton Basin in Idaho and have been working on the Jackson Hole side lately (Gros Ventre, Teton Wilderness, Grand Teton National Park), so I see the changes every day.