Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks

My Uncle and Ant (Neville and Nicola) told me that they were coming from London to explore several National Parks and asked me if I wanted to join. It was an easy yes, and I was beyond excited to spend some quality family time with my relatives that are over seas. We had a blast together catching up and exploring Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park.

It just started to sprinkle when I was taking this photo. Soon after, it was powing down and haiing. We waited in the car for the weather to die down, then we went on an amazing hike to a waterfall and hot springs. On the way back, we got poured on and hailed on; but it was definetly worth it.

¥ellostone had such beautidul hot springs and geysers. I think the best ones are worth the walk.

There were many fallen trees in Yellowstone mostly due to harsh environmental conditions. However there has been an extensive amount of reforestation. I love this HDR image of the old fallen tree with the rising new ones. I feel it captures a site that was commonly seen around the National Park.

Yellowstone's environemnt is so unique, I haven't been to another park or forest where there was so much actiity underneath the land

Morning Glory is quite an impressive site. the pool is so clear and colorful.

It was rare seeing a hot spring with anything liveing nature around it. I thought this was a unique site of flowers so close to the harsh environment.

From Yellowstone National Park we drove to Grand Teton National Park which has been said to be one of the most scenic drives in all of North America. It was! I was itching to pull the car over so frequently to take a picture.

Arriving in Grand Teton National park was a jaw dropper. I think it is one of the most beautiful National Parks I have been to yet. (It was also a great tiem fo year to be there)

This image of the Grand Tetons was taken at a place called Shwabackers. It is a 4 photograph HDR panorama. Each of those photos consists of 5 separate images that have been compiled together to create a higher dynamic range of that image. Schwabackers is a great spot to see beavers and their dams which slow the rivers flow down creating nice reflections.

I am pretty sure every time I took a glance at the Tetons, I was fortunate to see them a new way. With different lighting, with different cloud densities, height, and clarity at different points. It always caught me by surprise to see the same mountains in so many different ways, and each and every time it was unique and beautiful. What a magical place to be.

A double rainbow at sunrise. So majestic!

A view of Mormon Row Historic District with the Grand Tetons in the background. There were some wolf pups that were playing with eachother close to the green building. We used binodulars to view from a distance.

During this trip, we went on a wilderness adventrue tour. (It was amazing! We had a very fun, extremely knowlegeable, and polite tour guide) There was great excitement over seeing a grizzly bear and her "COY" (Cubs Of the Year). I was being told to "stay patient and point my camera at the bushes". Then we heard baby Elk cries for about 30 seconds unitil it went quite. Pretty sure the bear and her cubs got a nice breakfast. I was able to get a blurry photo of the bear with the few seconds she was spotted, and was totally ok about it. I felt I was being pulled away from this distractingly beautiful site of Mount Moran. I sent up my camera, framed it, and bracked my shot 7 exposures and rendered them using Photomatix Pro into a B E A U T I F U L HDR image.

This image is of Mount Moran in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

Here is one of the three of us in front of Mount Morran that our tour guide took.

Everything is so green, and alive. It was such a great feeling to be around such a healthy and thriving enviroment.

This is a look from one of the many trails we hiked. Such a pleasant place to walk through. Make sure to be loud for any bears that might be around. On some of the hikes, there was an abundance of sage growing. It had such a wonderful smell, I kept breathing through my nose and out my mouth and occationally would pluck some fresh sage while walking and rub it in my fingers and smell it.

There was plenty of wildlife to be seen in the national parks. I saw a variety of birds, antelope, bison, foxes, wolves, deer, moose, and beavers.