Fall Photography in the National Parks - Day 3

September 14th, 2025

The day started early as usual. The weather was great, so I drove off from the campground while it was still dark.
I stopped on the way to take a couple of pictures of the beautiful landscape that never fails to impress me.

The view from the gravel road that goes to Bear Creek Campground in Montana

While driving on the gravel road, I spotted something moving on the horizon, and to my incredible surprise, it was three grizzly bears: a mom with two cubs.
She seems a bit stressed out, so I stopped the rig and let her get accustomed to my presence.
For a while, they walked freely in the forest and eventually got into a farmer’s field, from where they got kicked out, and then went back to the trees, where I was parked.
At this point, the sun was emerging out behind the mountains, the light was not great, and it was still dark, so the shots I got weren’t great.
It was, anyway, so lovely to see the trio looking for food and the little cubs jumping around. They were really following and imitating the mom closely.

Eventually, the three climbed a tree and decided to take a nap.
I would have normally stayed there the whole day to secure some good pictures and video, but I still had not reached Grand Teton, and so I decided to keep driving.

Still on the gravel road, but closer to the highway, a herd of pronghorns were roaming in the fields at a long distance. I took some shots and a short video, spent some time looking at them elegantly trotting around, and then kept going.

After much driving, I stopped in West Yellowstone to get something to eat. I went to the “Old Town Cafe” and they sat me down. But after 15 minutes, I still didn’t have any water or the menu in my hand, so I left.
I don’t like tourist places; they are always busy and messy, and West Yellowstone is no different.

I stopped at the gas station to fill up the windshield washer fluid and the gas, and not far from there, found another restaurant, “The Last Chance Bar and Grill”, with a nice view of the river, so I stopped there.
To my surprise, they did not serve breakfast, since it was past 11 AM (the website did not mention that). So I had a bison burger instead.
I don’t eat any vegetables or fruit anymore, and try hard to stay away from fries and deep-fried food, but the burger was excellent.

The awesome bison burger at "The Last Chance Bar and Grill" restaurant

With a full stomach and well satisfied by the lunch, I drove all the way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
I had never been there before, but once again, it gave me the impression of a very touristy place. It is very cool and definitely worth a visit, but there are too many people for my taste.
I stopped at the visitor center, where I asked for information about campgrounds.
All the Grand Teton National Park campgrounds are reservation-only. This means you have to book months ahead.
I find this very wrong. There should always be at least 25% of spots available for first-come, first-served.
They do have National Forest campgrounds to accommodate all kinds of rigs and pockets right outside of the park, so I feel it works out well anyway.

The visitor center in Jackson Hole

Right now, I am at the Atherton Creek Campground, on Lower Slide Lake, and it is very peaceful and pleasant.

The campground stall in Atherton Creek campground

I got here last night, at about 7 PM. As I was going to my camp stall, I spotted something moving in the trees.
It was a red fox. She wasn’t bothered by the fact that I saw her, she looked at me like saying “And now? What?”, took a poop and left.
I managed to get a few shots of her, though I had limited visibility.
I love how wildlife here is literally everywhere.

It is now 7.20 AM. It rained all night and still is. Supposedly, the weather will improve later in the day. It is also getting colder.
I had initially planned to hike a trail behind the campground in the morning, but there was no point with such weather.
I am not bothered by it, actually; it gives me some time to catch up on my picture development and social media posts.
It always seems pretty challenging to find the time to do everything, but I can only try my best.