I want to tell you about my favorite National Park.
And honestly,
This is just an opportunity for me to show off my pictures.
But, since most of you know me fairly well and my subscriber list is still pretty small, I figured it was okay for me to show off a little bit :)
By the way – tell a friend if you end up liking this post!
Okay here’s my plan:
Share a pic and tell its story.
Enjoy scenes from Grand Teton National Park.
First Look
Coming south on U.S. Route 191 there’s a pull-off called Jackson Lake Overlook.
I was so nervous.
I had anxiously anticipated visiting the Grand Tetons. Some of my favorite nature photographers often posted pictures of their time there. And let me tell you that my expectations were sky-high.
We were losing light, so I was worried we’d miss the sunset. I debated pulling off the road or not or waiting for a perfect location to shoot.
Finally, we just had to pull off.
I mostly remember how majestic they looked at first sight. The Tetons are actually one of the youngest mountain ranges in North America, which is why their jagged peaks stand so high (I googled this ha!)
I can almost imagine millions and millions of years passing by and their slow formation rising from the earth – somehow still younger than the rest.
Sunrise
Sunrise on our second-to-last morning.
I think it was around 5am when our alarm went off. Groggy from sleeping in the back of our converted car-to-bed and tired from several weeks on the road (I’ll tell that story someday), we almost didn’t go.
But after that debate you have early in the morning with yourself – deciding between the type of person you are vs. the type of person you want to be – we got up.
It was moody. I think a storm was coming. We drove to our scouted location. Only one other photographer was there. Perfect.
I again had these high expectations. I’d seen amazing photographers capture sunrise and I was worried.
“Mine won’t be good enough – not like theirs.”
The stupid things I tell myself.
But as the sun rose, it started to peak. First at the very top. And then slowly it crept down.
I must have snapped a hundred photos in just a few seconds.
Sunset
Ah, this is my favorite one.
After a long day of hiking (and wheezing and whining and wincing), we sat on the side of the road waiting for sunset.
This was the one I had to get.
The shot I’d been dreaming about.
The light dwindling in the distance, illuminating the range just-so, a lovely layer of flowers and fields guiding your eye up to the peak of the slightly snow-capped mountain…
It was everything I dreamt about and more.
I love National Parks because they transport you into another world – an ancient world.
A world as it should be. A world as I wish it was. A world I long to go back to.
We’ve only visited 12, but Grand Tetons might just be my favorite one of them all.