My plans and hopes were to photograph the wildlife and landscape of Jackson Hole, WY and take advantage of a wintery landscape. I intended to catch bull moose in the sage brush flats near the Gros Ventre Campground. Bear 399 and her 4 cubs were still out and feeding, so the hope was that we'd run across them as we drove up and down the Grand Teton National Park roads. First on my list though was catching the Grand Tetons with their winter blanket of snow.
Instead, the weather was a bit warmer than normal, actually reaching 42 degrees one afternoon. The snow was only knee to mid-thigh deep rather than waist deep. 399 and her COY were indeed feeding, but were inaccessible and unseen. The bull moose had already begun dropping their antlers, and the largest of the still antlered bulls were far away from the roads. The Grand Tetons were shrouded with clouds the entire time except for one morning when the light bounced off the peaks. I was at Oxbow Bend for that single morning, and this is the image I was able to capture when for a few minutes the clouds pulled away from the mountains.
I stood outside the truck and marveled at how noise dampening the snow is. We drove up Pacific Creek Road and my truck was the only vehicle up there that morning. The trees and willows were weighed down with snow, and in this northern part of the Park the snow cover was deep. I drove slowly with my window down and the truck's engine muffled by the snow. The tires made scarcely a sound at all as they rolled up the powdery road. The solitude was magical, all encompassing and silent.