Trip report: Grand Teton National Park Autumn Foliage and Wildlife, 2009

Grand Teton National Park is a beautiful place to visit and photograph anytime of the year, but in autumn, in particular, the park comes alive with colors. The cottonwoods and aspen start to change color, and the park turns into a carpet of orange, yellow, green, and sometimes, even red, indicating that winter is just right around the corner. Wildlife is also out and about at this time of the year, as many species take part in the annual mating season, and some get ready for the upcoming harsh winter season.

I just returned from Grand Teton National Park, where I got to see and photograph the fall foliage and some remarkable wildlife. Traditionally, the peak for the fall colors in the park has come around the last week of September, with many veterans claiming that the “exact” peak date in the past has been September 30. I will say that I was in Grand Teton NP from September 27 to October 2, and the colors were well, alive, and stunningly beautiful during my trip.

I flew into Jackson Hole Airport on Sunday, September 27, 2009, and after landing and settling in, regained my bearings in the park. I started my serious shooting first thing Monday morning, Sept. 28. On that morning, I arrived at Oxbow Bend about a full one hour before first light. It was so dark, that I needed a headlamp and flashlight to see. Oxbow Bend was a circus of photographers. There were the professionals and the amateurs, but also the workshop groups, whose instructors lead their students in photographing the fall colors in Grand Teton NP every year. Before sunrise, everybody was busy establishing their exact position, and it was very tight quarters. You could see the light coming from all the photographers’ headlamps. It looked like light coming from fireflies. They were lined up with their tripods all along the road looking over Oxbow Bend. They were also down below the road, up along the little hill that is along Oxbow Bend. Photographers in every nook and cranny – behind every tree, behind every bush, hidden behind the tall brush, etc… You get the idea – all vying for that unique shot. I personally went down the hill, and found what seemed like a quiet, secluded spot along the shore of the bend, only to learn that a photographer was also working right above me!

During my trip, I was hitting all of the standard main photography spots, and even some new out-of-the-way locations, and photographers were all over the place… literally. Many of my images, especially the ones taken in the northern part of the Teton Range, were affected by the Bearpaw Bay Fire burning near the western shore of Jackson Lake.

From about Sunday, Sept. 27 through Tuesday, Sept. 29, the weather was pretty good – sunny skies and some clouds. It turned cloudy and even rainy a little on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and an early season snowstorm dumped fresh snow on the park that night.

The following morning, Thursday morning, October 1, I awoke early around 4:30 a.m. to find a clear starry night from my motel in Jackson. I thought sunrise would be fantastic! With a fresh coating of snow and clear skies, I was sure to get a unique shot of the Teton range. I arrived early at Schwabacher Landing, and a fellow photographer and I established our positions along the last of the beaver ponds way before sunrise. By sunrise, everything was in place – snow on the ground and on the trees, a nice ray of sunlight illuminating the scene. However, I was still disappointed as the clouds were still covering the Cathedral Group. They did not let up until later that day. In spite of the not-so-perfect scene before us, we were still able to get some great images that morning. Plus, Schwabacher Landing’s resident beaver was out and about, going back and forth collecting materials for a repair to his beaver dam. This provided for some unique shots.

I visited Schwabacher Landing about three times during my visit, and on all of my visits, I had a chance to photograph a Great Blue Heron that was hanging out in one of the center beaver ponds. This experience was amazing and warrants its own blog posting, so stay tuned.

That Thursday, October 1, actually turned out to be a great day for photography, and despite hearing some complaints about some imperfections in the scenery (clouds obscuring some of the main Teton peaks, imperfect light, etc…), I am sure that many masterpieces were created that day. There was sunlight, and just enough clouds to provide for some dramatic skies. Some of the snow from the previous overnight snowstorm was still visible, and this provided for some unique autumn shots that hint at a little bit of winter.

If I were to pick one timeframe where the best of the fall colors (or “peak”) could be seen in the park, it would have to be somewhere between the afternoon on September 30 to October 1. On these two days, the weather in the park transitioned, and it became significantly colder (even down to 18ºF overnight), and this brought out the colors in the trees more. As a result, without being a naturalist, I am placing the date for the “peak” of the 2009 fall colors right around October 1. From eye-balling it, it just seemed that the colors were more alive and vibrant on that day. It happened very suddenly, and if you had blinked or taken the day off, you probably would have missed it, but I think the peak was somewhere in there.

A conversation with a ranger seemed to confirm this. In addition, she added that for the fall 2009, the cottonwoods in the park did very poorly this season, and the aspen did very well. Every season is different. Some seasons are good for autumn foliage, and some are not. Some seasons the aspen do well, and the cottonwoods do poorly, and some seasons the opposite is true.

I have begun processing the images that I took from my trip, and I hope that you enjoy looking through them. I am posting them on my Flickr site (link to set), as well as on my Web site (link to album), almost simultaneously. The Flickr site gives you an opportunity to comment on my photos, while my Web site allows you to see the full-resolution originals. More will be posted in the upcoming couple of weeks.

Note: Originally I had planned to also visit the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. In light of the roads heading into the northern part of the park being closed (one closed for road construction, and another closed due to the Arnica Fire), I decided to cancel my excursion to Lamar Valley and save it for a future trip.

Tagged as: Fall, Grand Teton National Park