Last month Becca and I drove out to the Tetons to visit her parents. While climbing the Exum was the highlight of the trip, we still made lots of other stops that don’t quite warrant their own post, but I still wanted to share some photos. After leaving the Tetons, we made a quick stop in Ten Sleep to do some climbing, then Becca flew home and I drove back to Seattle by way of the Beartooth Highway, a beautiful scenic road that traverses the namesake Beartooth mountains on the border between Wyoming and Montana, just east of Yellowstone. I’d always wanted to visit this region, and would love to come back with more time to do some more exploring!
Here are some photos - let me know which are your favorite!
Becca and I drove through this thunderstorm outside of Anaconda, Montana, right at sunset. We drove through a few minutes of heavy rain, then once we were out the far side, we looked back to see this towering cumulonimbus cloud.
We went for a very nice day hike by Teton Pass. Taylor Mountain in the distance.
I snuck out for sunrise one morning, and enjoyed this view of early morning alpenglow on Teewinot and the Grand from the String Lake outlet.
Here’s Mount Moran before sunrise, with String Lake in the foreground.
I hurried up the hill to Laurel Lake just in time to catch the first light on Teewinot. Jenny Lake below.
I was mesmerized by these swirling fog patterns on the surface of String Lake, as seen from above.
Our last night in Jackson we watched a stunning sunset.
Before driving to Ten Sleep I once again snuck out to catch the sunrise, this time from a hill above Spread Creek.
The meadows along the creek looked great in their fall colors.
And of course, the morning light on the Tetons in all their glory was quite special.
It was interesting to watch the landscape change as we headed east. We took a quick break outside of Dubois, where I enjoyed the contrast of these green cottonwoods against the red sandstone along the bank of the Wind River.
After dropping Becca off at the airport I hurried up to Beartooth Pass, where I spent a frigid night camping near Twin Lakes. It snowed a little bit overnight, but in the morning I was treated to some dramatic light before dawn. Here we’re looking across the state line into Montana, at Spirit Mountain and Mount Rearguard, with Silver Run Peak between them in the clouds.
Looking down at Twin Lakes from the highway just after sunrise, with the Beartooths in the sun to the northwest.
The fresh dusting of snow on the high plateau made for nice contrast in the morning light.
I stopped briefly by Beartooth Falls as I headed down towards the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River (not to be confused with the Clark Fork of the Columbia, on the other side of the Continental Divide, which I drove along later that day!)
After driving through Yellowstone, I stopped by Mammoth Hot Springs to enjoy the views of the Travertine formations
Beautiful!
After saying hi to friends in Missoula, I drove up to Lolo Pass, along the way snapping some pictures of the vegetation growing back after the 2017 Lolo Peak fire.
I stopped at Snowshoe Falls along the West Fork of Lolo Creek… very hidden, but gorgeous!
Finally, I drove back across Washington along US Route 2, stopping to peek into this abandoned house outside of Hartline.