Back in our Favorite Spot, Wyoming

If you’ve been following along on the blog for very many years, you know that we normally spend the majority of our summer in the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area. But, since this is not a normal year by any means, we took a different route, but eventually landed here. September is the best time to be here for photography anyway. After we left Montana, we spent about a week in Idaho and waited for Labor day to be over. We got here Monday, and that was good and bad timing. Monday evening we were photographing a couple of moose, and the rain and the wind really kicked up. Temps dropped 40 degrees in a matter of hours, and Tuesday morning we had about 4 inches of snow on the ground.

It was very cold too, 21 degrees. We went out that morning hoping to get some moose in the snow. We hiked around and finally found a couple of guys, but they apparently didn’t want to do anything but lay in the snow. We stood and froze for about an hour, hoping they would get up. They never did.

Wednesday morning there was still some snow on the ground, and the moose were far more cooperative.

These two big guys put on a bit of a show too. Nothing too serious, it’s still early for that.

I Can See You.

The handsome Shoshone. I was so excited to see him this year. He’s lookin’ Good!

My friend here is the official, unofficial namer of the moose in the area. It’s mostly so we as photographers know who has been seen where. This is a new bull this year. He’s way impressive and I would love to know were he came from. His name is Hoback.

The Contenders.

Fighting one minute, Drinking Buddies the next.

They clearly don’t mind each other, yet that is. Another morning we found them sound asleep together in a little clearing.

Shoshone, completely sacked out.

I’m going to point out right here that I have a very long telephoto lens, and I have cropped these images. You have to stay 25 yards from moose at all times. Believe me, this is a good idea because these guys can run really fast.

With only Al and I around, these guys were pretty relaxed. We didn’t invade their space, and enjoyed just listening to them snore. I experimented with different shots too. Which is always fun.

They got up and wandered around a little bit, then lay back down.

Saw this cute calf with his momma the other day. I missed seeing them really small this year.

Ran into this pair of fawns the other morning. I saw mom first, and waited to see if there would be fawns with her. Sure enough, these two came bolting out of the willows. They kept looking back were they had come from, and even mom went around to investigate. I was hoping something exciting would come out of the willows, but nothing ever did.

I’m betting the bigger one is a little buck.

Snacking on a yellow flower.

Just a couple more images from this week.

This is Jenny Lake in Teton NP. Yes, the water is that clear always.

Whew, that was a lot of catching up. I’m going to be blogging more, while we are here especially. I have been sharing way too many photos on facebook, and I would rather share, and save them here.