I first heard about Grand Teton some 20 years ago. I saw e beutiful barn with an enchanting mountain backdrop. I started some research and found out that this was Grand Teton. Grand Teton National Park is a National Park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately 310,000 acres, the park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. It is only 10 miles (16km) south of Yellowstone National Park, to which it is connected by the National Park Service-managed John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Along with surrounding National Forests, these three protected areas constitute the almost 18,000,000-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the world's largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems. Last year I saw two moose bulls infront of a great mountain ridge. The picture was made by Aaron Whittemore. I met him in Alska and I asked him how I could manage to see moose with this backdrop and he told me: "Nedko, the place to be is Jacksone hole"... Now I had two targets: the beautiful Mormon barns and the moose. Well flying 12 hours for only two targets is somehow crazy so I included Yellowstone NP and Aspen in Colorado to my itinerary...
General:
Flights:
I booked my flights with Lufthansa from Munich MUC to Denver DEN. I payed for the return flight economy 800 EUR and was able to upgrate adhock to business for aditional 1000 EUR. You can't be sure if you can upgrate but this way you can safe 2000 EUR for business class return ticket... not too bad...
Accomodations:
I booked 4 days Old Faithful snow lodge, 5 days in Wyoming In of Jackson hole and 4 days in Limelight in Aspen, Colorado. All hotels are very easy to book over booking.com or expedia.com.
Best time to visit:
Any time would be great with the landscape looking different and the wildlife behaving different. I choose the first two weeks of October. You have stll the elk-rute and the moose rute running and the beautiful fall colors. If you go one or two weeks earlier the rut will be even better, but maybe the fall-colors will be not this brilliant. So you have to make a decision...
Car Hire:
I booked a NISAN-small-car from AVIS. I payed 600$ total for the two weeks, which is great deal. If I have to book again I would take the same offer again. You don't need AWD-car but I would pay more attention to the tires. My tires were fully worn and I realized this first in Yellowstone. If you ask to get a car with better tires you would get one as fully worn tires are safety issue.
Photography equipment:
I took two bodies NIKON D4S and NIKON D500 and my lenses Nikon 200-500mm (for wildlife closeup, on my D500 the 500mm are like 750mm FF equivalent) ; and NIKON 70-200 (for wildlife with the landscape as backdrop). and my NIKON 14-24mm f2,8 (for landscape photography) + GITZO-Tripod. My iPhone was my best camera for landscapes and movies... I missed my 24-70mm for landscapes infront of the Multon Barn. The best focal length there would be something like 40-60mm.
Clothes:
Very difficult matter. You have to be prepared in this time for -10°C to 20°C ... You will deffenitely need gloves and hut and windbraker.
Yellowstone NP: The biggest caldera in the world of a global-killer volcano. Our Earth is alive and there are only view places in the world where you can sense this very directly.
Coming now to the landscapes of Grand Teton. First of all the Mormon row, finaly this was the trigger for my journey:
Moose in Grand Teton:
