Personal - National Park Visits
In the Middle of June I had the chance to photograph a wedding out in Denver, CO. This was beautiful, and such an honor to be able to go across the country to photograph a wedding. Being that I love to hike and explore, I thought the trip would be much better spent if I took my family with me, and we went through some national parks on the way there - and on the way back. In the end, we went to the Grand Teton National Park, Rocky Mountains National Park, and Yellowstone National Park all in a matter of a week. Here are some highlights from that trip!
Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park was the first place we stopped on the way. This was also the park we had the least amount of time in, which I regret. The Tetons, with the plains just outside of them, are some of the most dramatic mountains i’ve ever witnessed. In addition to the incredible backdrop, you still get a lot of the wildlife you get in Yellowstone. Unfortunately we didn’t get a great sunset for the one we were there, but after sleeping about four hours we woke up for sunrise and after dodging some fog, we ended up with something incredible. The sunrise photos were genuinely super hard for me to pick, so hopefully you like them all. Note i’ve uploaded some of them to my landscape page! Let me know if you’d like a print of something I did not include!
Rocky Mountain National Park
After photographing the wedding, we drove about an hour and a half outside of Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had the chance to have two nights there, and the first day we went up to our campsite (which was at about 8000 feet above sea level) and hiked into Emerald Lake (the top was around 10k feet - note the highest mountains in my local area are around 7k, and Coeur d’aline is at 2100 feet). It was an absolutely beautiful hike. Lots of snow, clear lake waters, and a great adventure. The next day we took the road over the pass which is the highest paved road in the United States (at least, that’s what the sign said) topping out at around 12,100 feet above sea level. The elevation tundra had no trees (not enough air) and was absolutely beautiful, although in a completely different way than the Tetons. Either way, Rocky Mountain National Park was absolutely beautiful.
Yellowstone National Park
The last two nights of our trip were spent in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is just different compared to the other National Parks, mainly because it isn’t about the mountains or landscape as much as it’s about the wildlife and geological features. According to the ranger, there are over 10,000 geological features in Yellowstone, over half of all such features in the world. That’s nuts. On top of all that, there might be more wildlife there than any other park I’ve been to, and my wife absolutely loved seeing them all. While there, we saw over 400 bison and 8 bears, just to name a couple. The place was simultaneously beautiful, unique, and otherworldly. This was the last of our trip, and ends with a couple sunrise photos. In the end, an absolutely awesome time with my wife and two amazing boys.
