Color photo. Three Common Merganser ducks, swimming from left to right. One is slightly ahead of the other two. They are have reddish heads, orange bills, with grey and white bodies. The water is softly rippled, reflecting the green of unseen trees.

Wrapping up the end of day two in Grand Teton National Park.

After being awed by the ghosts of the Tetons, I pulled my jaw up off the ground and hopped back in the Jeep. I figured that I’d finish the day where it started, in the Oxbow Bend area. I’d noticed in the morning that there was a road going around to the the other side of the Bend, a place the map labeled “Cattleman’s Bridge Site”. There was no signage off the main road for it, but it looked promising.  So after grabbing a last shot of Mount Moran for the day, down I went.

It was a good choice, and I found others with the same idea. Two people were already there, cameras at the ready, and some other folks were taking in the sights with binoculars. A group of kayakers paddled slowly by as I picked a spot on the banks of the river and started shooting. I saw Common Mergansers, a heron ungainly perched at the top of a tree and, just as the light faded, a Bald Eagle.

All in all it was a peaceful end to a great day.

With the light gone I drove back to camp, had dinner, and crawled into my tent to sleep. There was one more full day ahead of me before I started home, and I was going to make the most of it. In Yellowstone.

Gear: Nikon Z 7II, Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3

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Color photo. Mount Moran, in Grand Teton National Park, dark against a dark sky full of clouds. To the left of the peak, leading away from it off frame, is a thin break in the clouds. Bright golden sunlight illuminates this break, and sunrays project down and to the left through it.
Color photo. Three Common Merganser ducks, swimming from left to right. One is slightly ahead of the other two. They are have reddish heads, orange bills, with grey and white bodies. The water is softly rippled, reflecting the green of unseen trees.
Color photo. A line of pine trees goes along the bottom half of the photo. In the middle, perched at the top of one of the trees, is a heron, seen only in silhouette. Beyond and above, the light blue sky is full of clouds. The cloud bottoms are dark, and their upper left surfaces are pinkish in the sunset light.
Color photo. A Bald Eagle, perched in a pine tree. We see it from the side, and it is facing to the right.