For our week in the Tetons we stayed at the Snow King Resort in Jackson. This was a big hotel with lots of multi-room lodges attached. Staying there was an “ok” experience, nothing to write home about, but it served us satisfactorily. We self catered in our apartment, always eating breakfast there and some evening meals also.
The town of Jackson was very attractive indeed. It has a population of around 9000 and sits at about 6000ft in elevation. When you land at the airport a few miles to the north of the town you are immediately aware of the high, jaggy peaks close by. It’s a most impressive decent and take off from this location. The businesses along the high street in Jackson are either Real Estate Offices, Galleries (the most notable of which is Thomas Mangelsen’s Gallery) or Eating Places. There are a few souvenir shops and certainly enough food shops to get by. We liked our regular evening wander up and down the main thoroughfare working off our dinner before retiring early to the hotel and to bed. The only slight disadvantage of staying in Jackson is that we were to the south of all the main “attractions” and at the beginning and end of each day (and sometimes mid-day too) we had long distances to drive.
As is always the case, we had done a lot of research beforehand on the photographic locations we wanted to visit. Most of the locations in the park have the mountains as a backdrop, hence are east facing, hence are sunrise/morning locations. With the right equipment and the right conditions sunset shots can be captured using the mountains as a silhouette in front of (hopefully) a fiery red sky. Our favourite locations (all of which were visited several times) included the Mormon Row Barns, the Chapel of the Transfiguration, Schwabacher Landing, Snake River Overlook, Jenny Lake and our “all-time” favourite in the Tetons, Oxbow Bend. There is nothing, in our humble opinion, to beat capturing the first sunlight on Mount Moran reflected perfectly in the river at Oxbow Bend, with fall colours in the foliage and maybe a moose grazing in the foreground – we managed to witness and capture this scene, unfortunately without the moose, but we remain hopeful that we can get the “full monty” one day!
We had several “days out” in the Jackson area. We went horse riding one day courtesy of the Goosewing Ranch to the east of the Tetons. Transport from and to our hotel was included in the package together with around 4 hours horse riding in the most stunning scenery. It was just like the movies! Another day we went climbing in the high peaks. From Teton Village we took the Aerial Tramway to the top station and walked round onto Rendezvous Peak (3330m). Stunning views from the top with only a fraction of the hard work normally expended to get to this height. Another day we went up to Yellowstone – we’ll tell you more about this in a later blog.
Wildlife in the Tetons area was wonderful to view and photograph. There were herds of Bison to be seen in many locations. We were “up close and personal” with a Moose at Schawbacher Landing one day and captured some marvellous shots. Pronghorns could often be seen and photographed (with a long lens) in lots of places along the foothills. Driving away from Jenny Lake one evening in the half light we came across a herd of deer near to the road edge. A stag stood steadfast on the verge glowering at us, protecting his herd and, like a good boy, David grabs his camera and starts shooting photos.
Some useful links:
Grand Teton National Park - http://www.nps.gov/grte/
Goosewing Ranch - http://goosewingranch.com/index.cfm
Snow King Resort - http://www.snowking.com/default.aspx
Jackson Aeriel Tramway - http://www.tram-formation.com/
Here come the photos. If you want to see more images from our trip visit our galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/davidleask/america_2006
