Swan Lake Trail

During our recent visit to Grand Teton National Park, we decided to do an easy hike. It started near our cabin, went along Jackson Lake (the big one) and through the woods on relatively level ground past a couple of smaller bodies of water.

Colter Bay in Jackson Lake

Have I said before that Grand Teton National Park is one of my favorite places on Earth?

As you can see from the pics, we got pretty lucky with the weather. Mornings were cool, but the days warmed-up nicely.

Heron Pond

After leaving the shore of Jackson Lake, we wound through the woods to the much-smaller Heron Pond. Heron Pond is only separated from Jackson Lake at one point by a narrow strip of land. If you look at the center of the image above, the lake in the foreground is Heron Pond while the water in the background (in front of the mountain) is Half Moon Bay in Jackson Lake. This MAP will give you a better idea as to the scale of this place.

My companions laughed at me when I was shooting the image above. In order to capture those flowers in the foreground of my shot, I had to get down on my hands and knees with my butt up in the air and face almost on the ground. Sure, I looked stupid. (Annelies took a picture to prove it!) But I got a great shot, right?

After a bit, we continued on to Swan Lake (pictured below).

Reflections at Swan Lake

Even though you can’t see the Teton Range (mountains) in this shot, I like it for the cool cloud reflection.

I captured another version of the same scene in the image below.

Swan Lake Reflections

I like the second shot better. I like how much depth it has thanks to the grass in the foreground.

Hubby isn’t a fan of images shot in the portrait orientation used for the second image. He prefers the wider, landscape view.

Which one do you like better?

Perfectly Positioned Log

The stunning view of Swan Lake captured in those images is what we saw from this log. I sat there for a while, too, which is why there’s a gap between Hubby and Annelies. But I just couldn’t sit still with those very cool cloud reflections just waiting to be captured.

Finishing the Hike

Our men were great sports about letting us take pictures to our hearts’ content. After a few more shots and some leisurely poking around, we finished our hike.

7 Replies to “Swan Lake Trail”

  1. I’m with the hubs on this one – though both are beautiful – i like landscape too. Is that some sort of personality statement, you think?

    Either way – looks like heaven on Earth 🙂

  2. I’m with Dad and Fuzzy on preferring landscape shots.

    Also: I MUST see Annelies’s pic of you looking stupid! 🙂

  3. Hmmm… personality statement? Could be. Shannon seems to prefer the wider shot, too. Grand Teton really is a pretty place.

    Shannon, I am sure Annelies would be more than happy to share that image with you. 🙂

  4. I too prefer the landscape shot. I wish I could post that picture of you here – maybe I need to go through Facebook. 🙂

    Still playing catch-up – will look at the remaining trip stories later this week. I miss you guys!!!!!!

  5. And I do believe I have a really beautiful picture of you holding up a delicious bottle of Moose Drool! 😉

  6. That’s it — next big trip I take, I’m hiring you as a consultant to plot the best route and find the best sights. I probably can’t get you to take the trip-photos, so mine will pale next to yours. You are so good at this.

  7. Thanks, Ralph! I have many years of practice with vacation planning. As for the pics, I appreciate the compliment. It’s hard to take bad pictures when you have such amazing places as subjects. The challenge for me is capturing it the way I see it so I’ll have the beauty in the images when I get home. I am glad you enjoyed them.

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