This place left me wanting more time while not having enough of it. The rich golden yellow tones of early autumn with the deep greens of the pines created beautiful contrast to the orange first light on the mountains.
Its not hard to understand why this place is so popular and so steeped in the historical movement to preserve public lands. The tectonic shift of the mountains up and the valley down has created that special hole in the middle of Wyoming. Who can’t imagine people 150 years ago trodding across the empty landscape - in size not beauty - of the great plains up into the mountains only to come across this amazing valley rife with rivers, sagebrush, pine and aspen groves, and glacial moraines all in the shadow of the dramatic peaks.