Our Final Week in the Tetons

Our final week or so in the Tetons was spent looking for wildlife, and enjoying the scenery. The Tetons are a never ending source of beauty for me. Sunrise, sunset, heck…..even mid-day, they are gorgeous.

One evening we decided to walk to one of our favorite spots, and the clouds were looking pretty promising for a nice sunset.

Sunrise is really the very best time for the Tetons, as they are to the west. Waking up early to get to where you want to be is a must. Schwabacher landing is a favorite sunrise spot, especially when the leaves start turning golden.

We wanted to find elk, since fall is about the only time you can see these guys. Again, this requires an early morning because they are usually in the trees by the time the sun comes up. One morning we found this very nice bull elk with his “ladies”. He gave us quite the show.

Such a handsome guy. This is an image I did some editing magic to.

It was really cold in the mornings, so when they bugled, you could catch steam coming from their mouths.

One morning the elk were far away, but we saw 4 nice mule deer bucks. Well, 3 big guys, and a small pickle fork…2 point.

This guy had just shed his velvet. This was a first for me and I was excited to take his photo. The nice thing about the animals in the park is they are never hunted, so they grow as big as they can. And, they aren’t super skittish around people. These 4 bucks were pretty nonchalant about us.

Little Mr. Pickle Fork. I have actually named this image, “Yes..I can hear you now.”

The last big bull moose I saw was this guy. He had a few cows around, so he did what’s called flemming. It’s how they smell if the cows are ready to breed or not.

He also tore up a bush or two. Impressing the ladies?? Who knows.

The day we left, we decided to hike the river and see what we could see. We came upon the mama moose and twins. I’m fairly sure, but obviously not 100% positive, these are the twins I saw at the beginning of summer. I shared all those images in this post. Good grief they grow fast.

They both have this great light spot on their shoulders. It will be interesting if they keep that. One is for sure a boy. He was scratching his nose, and I had a good view of the boy stuff.

We had a great time this fall seeing all the wildlife, and watching the leaves change.

It’s so nice to know all the wildlife are safe from hunters, and now the grizzly are safe too. The best news of the week came out on Monday night when the judge ruled that the grizzlies need to remain protected by the endangered species act. I’m so glad to know that 22 grizzlies will not lose their lives to hunters, now, or probably ever. One bright spot for the animals and the environment, in a world of bad news lately.