Spring Photography in Wyoming Trip Journal

Introduction

We timed our visit to Wyoming for the first week of June in order to allow us to beat the summer crowds. It also allowed us see the animals before they moved out of the valleys and into the hills to escape the summer heat. In addition this timing lets you see many of newly born spring animals.

For this trip we planned to focus our effort in four general areas. First, we would start in the Grand Teton National Park area targeting landscape images. We then planned to move to the Fishing Bridge area of Yellowstone National Park to search for wildlife. Jo really enjoys horses so next we planned to travel east to the Cody, Wyoming area and attempt to locate one of the area’s wild mustang herds. Finally, we traveled back to the Lamar Valley area of Yellowstone National Park to look for more wildlife.

Gros Ventre Junction Area - Grand Teton National Park

The first area we visited on our trip was along the backside of the National Elk Refuge. To reach it we drove east on East Broadway and turned left about 0.3 miles outside of town. This dirt road took us along the backside of the National Elk Refuge. The dirt road passes under several tall rock cliffs which are the winter home for bighorn sheep. We did find a few sheep but it appeared many had already begin to move further back into the mountains due to the warming days.

After driving down the backside of the National Elk Refuge we left Jackson and traveled north into the Grand Teton National Park. Right after entering the park we turned east onto Gros Ventre Junction road. When we reached the small town of Kelly we turned north and traveled to Antelope Flats road. We found this area of the park to be very productive for wildlife and also found many great views of the Teton Mountains from the valley. During our time driving in the area we found many bison, proghorn antelopes, eagles, coyotes, moose etc…

Mormon Barn Area - Grand Teton National Park

The Mormon Barn area is a great sunrise location. There are several old barns along the road that provide great foregrounds with the mountains in the background. Be sure to be on location well before sunrise in order to catch the first rays of sunrise hit the mountain peaks.  Watching mountain peaks begin to glow as the sun rises is always magical and it is a wonderful way to start the day.

Jackson Lake Area - Grand Teton National Park

As you drive around always watch for groups of people standing on the road side. Generally where there is a group, there is an animal. This was the case as we entered Jackson Lake Lodge area. After getting out and talking to some people we found that a mother moose and her calf had just bedded down in the willows below the road.

We decided to finish the day at Willow Flats Overlook (south of Jackson Lake Lodge) watching the sun set over the peaks. Since the mountains run north and south it really lends itself to sunrise images. However, if you can get a nice bank of clouds above the mountain range that illuminate at sunset great images can be captured. We were very fortunate to have such conditions and the Willow Flats Overlook provided a great location to capture those images.

Cunningham Cabin Area - Grand Teton National Park

Our next sunrise was spent at the Cunningham Cabin. There are so many possible images to capture at this location that it was hard to decide where to setup our camera. Not only is the cabin nice but there are also a lot of great fences in the area. There are many great locations to capture sunrise images of the Teton Range.

However, since it was raining on the remaining days we were in the park we were not able to try many of them. Two specific locations that remain on our wish list are Schwabacher Landing and Ox Bow Bend turnout. Hopefully we can try them on our next trip.After finishing sunrise we drove south and came across a nice herd of bison in the field across the road from the entrance to the Triangle X Ranch. They made great foreground objects set against the mountain range.

Fishing Bridge Area - Yellowstone National Park

We moved north to Yellowstone after our morning shooting in the Cunningham Cabin area. We wanted to spend some time exploring the Hayden Valley area and we used the Bay Bridge Campground as our base for a few days. This area is known for great wildlife viewing. The best approach to finding animals is to start driving the road during the first few hours of the day and the last few areas of the day. Also check out the Lower Falls from Artist Point when you reach the north end of the Hayden Valley. We also spent some time driving towards the Mary Bay area north of Yellowstone Lake. We found several grizzly bears and bison along this road. There were also many great views of ice floating in Yellowstone Lake. Hayden Valley is also a great spot to capture reflections in water. There are many small ponds of water throughout the valley so keep an eye out for animals moving beside these ponds. Often these small ponds will remain still enough to cast great reflections even with a little wind blowing.

Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area

After finishing our morning shoot in Yellowstone we headed to Cody Wyoming. Jo really enjoys horses so we planned to attempt to see some of the area’s wild mustangs. To find the mustangs we targeted the area around Big Horn Canyon. I had exchanged several emails with Matt at the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Center in the months leading up to our trip (www.pryormustangs.org). The center is located in Lowell, Wyoming and is dedicated to the preservation of the areas wild mustangs. We had hoped to meet Matt but when we stopped by the center on the way out to Big Horn Canyon he was not in. Matt had previously given us the following information so we headed up Highway 37 into Big Horn Canyon to try our luck.

Highway 37 is the range area for the subherd called The Dryhead herd. These are the lowland horses and many can be seen along highway 37. Other herds can be found in other lowland parts of the range and these represent the smallest subherd population in the range. The largest groups are the mountain horses which are composed of the Sykes Ridge, Burnt Timber, and Forest Service subherds. These can be found on East Pryor Mountain.

The way to think of it is that it is easy to get to the Dryhead horses but harder to find them, while it is harder to get to the mountain horses but very easy to find them. To access these mountain areas, a good four wheel drive vehicle with good low range and tires is needed. The Center will be doing guided trips up into the mountain this summer as well.

As we traveled up Highway 37 we spotted a small herd of horses and really enjoyed some time shooting the herd. Further up the road we came across the Ewing-Snell Historic Ranch Site and stopped to look around. We were pleasantly surprised to find it had been an operating ranch from 1896 to 1968 and was being preserved by the park. We began exploring the area and found a great cabin, corals and several old farm implements. We found a second ranch located 2.5 miles past the end of the highway pavement and enjoyed exploring it also. The name on the fence said it was the Caroline Lockhart Historic Ranch and was in the progress of being preserved by the park. It had served as the headquarters for a 7,000 acre ranch owned by Caroline Lockhart until 1955 and had a large number of buildings and some great old trees.

Cody Wyoming Area

We traveled back into the Yellowstone park via the Northeast entrance near Cooke City. To reach the Northeast entrance we planned to travel up Chief Joseph Highway until we reached the Beartooth Highway. We planned to spend some time exploring this highway since according to the late Charles Kuralt it was "America's most beautiful road". Before leaving town we also visited the Cody Old Trail Town (www.nezperce.com/trltown.html). This collection of old buildings consists of 26 buildings dating from 1879 to 1901 and over one hundred horse-drawn vehicles. Many of the building have a very colorful history and had been used by individuals like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A small fee is charged to enter but after that you are free to roam and shoot as much as you desire. We really enjoyed all the history exhibits.

The change in elevation was impressive as we left Cody and drove up the Chief Joseph Highway. I am not positive but I believe the climb was over 3000ft. Basically we left a flat arid landscape and ended up in a snow covered alpine landscape. We followed the Chief Joseph Highway until it intersected with the Beartooth Highway. Upon reaching the Beartooth Highway we turned away from Yellowstone and drove higher up the road to further explore the area.

Lamar Valley Area - Yellowstone National Park

After several hours of exploring the Beartooth Highway we headed west back into Yellowstone. Our main reason for going to this corner of the park was to spend some time in the Lamar Valley. The valley is another great area to view animals, including the wolves of Yellowstone. We used the Roosevelt Lodge area as our base while in the Lamar Valley area. As with Hayden Valley, we spent the early morning and late evening hours exploring the road through the valley.

After finishing in Lamar Valley we traveled back to Jackson via the Mammoth, Norris, Madison and Old Faithful areas. Compared to the areas of the park we had just visited, we did not seem to find much to photograph. However, if you are looking for geyser and mineral basin photographs then this area will be of interest to you. We made a quick stop by the Old Faithful Geyser area. The number of tourist in the area was quite a shock to us after having been in the more remote areas of the park. In addition, much of the day’s drive had been through the areas of the park that had burned in 1988. While the trees are growing back, they are only about 10-15 feet tall and don’t offer much to look at.

If your time in the park is limited and you are looking for the best photographic opportunities we would recommend you spend as much time in the Hayden and Lamar Valley areas if you can.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for an area in which you can capture not only great landscape images but also see some wonderful wildlife, then the Teton, Yellowstone and Cody areas are places you should consider. We had researched the area a lot before going but nothing had prepared us for the wonderful scenery and wildlife we found.

If you ever have any questions, suggestions on how to improve this guide or just wish to send us an email with a great photography spot, please contact us at ginnphotography@comcast.net.

Thank you and good shooting,

Jo and Phil