When going to the Tetons for photography, anyone who is anyone has heard of Oxbow Bend where the above image was taken. This past fall I was on a trip with my Mom to catch the fall colors in the Tetons. We started our trip a week before this image was created. Before we had even left I knew from posts on Facebook that I would miss the fall colors for a second year in a row. I tried to not let this knowledge get me down and told myself there would be many other stories to tell. Thankfully fall in Yellowstone National Park was turning into a photographers heaven with lovely moody mornings filled with fog. Well after 6 straight days of mornings filled with fog I was starting to crave a sunrise. I mean all of my images were starting to look the same. Every time I got up early hoping for some warm golden rays, I got fog.

My first sunrise attempt of the trip I would have had sun but being that my location was filled with 15 photographers already I decided to a take a few shots and bail (don't worry that number will come into play later in the story). After that morning came the 6 days came the week of never ending atmospheric haze as Tom Murphy would call it. Don't get me wrong I LOVE fog but I was really hoping to have some sunshine in a few of my images. Needless to say,I was starting to regret my earlier decision to bail by that time it was a moot point and I had to work with what I was given. We were station din the Mammoth area for the first half of the trip and then moved to the Old Faithful area to photograph sunrises, sunsets and stars, but again we were all fogged in. I was still able to create some great shots but none that included the elusive sun.

After shooting none of the images I had hoped for we headed down to the Tetons where I prayed the sun was out. Thankfully, I was able to add two more nights on at the end of my trip at the Old Faithful Inn where I was finally able to get a few of the shots I was looking for (that story is for another blog post). Lets just say it was a long cold night where I thought for sure I was going to get eaten by a bear.

While on our way to the Tetons we had the most lucky meeting I have ever had with an animal. Literally not 25 feet off the side of the road was a wolf drinking from a pond! This is the closest I have ever been to a wild wolf; I wish I had been given more time to photograph him. I was able to get this one shot (sadly off tripod) before we ran back into the woods. As we continued on to the Tetons it looked like I was going to luck out and get a sunrise the next morning. Being that it was October I thought for sure I would have a bit more peace and quiet down here. Boy was I ever wrong.