Fall is always a glorious time in Grand Teton National Park, as the aspen turn their brilliant golden, for just a few days, and the warmth of summer gives way to the growing chill of approaching winter.
One of the most haunting calls of the wild, a male elk bugles in the cold dawn, coralllng his harem of cows during the autumn rut. It is a sound that you never forget, echoing off the surrounding hillsides and across this frosted meadow.
A brilliant canopy of golden hued aspen stretch to the heavens above. Standing beneath these trees gives the sense of what it must be like to kneel below the Sistine Chapel.
A grove of golden aspen ignite in the brilliant light of a warm afternoon sun.
Into the high blue sky above, a grove of aspen, with their finest golden coat ablaze, stretches higher and higher, creating a golden canopy above, that sways with the breeze, leaves quaking and rattling.
In the final days of September, the aspen of Grand Teton National Park change from green to brilliant yellows and golds, where, for just a few days, they glow in the sun, before giving way to life's journey, falling to the rich soils below.
A large and beautiful Grizzly mom, known locally as Felicia, leads her two cubs across the willows and stream beds where they have been hunting this autumn afternoon.
A grizzly makes her way across an opening in the willows with her two cubs not far behind.
A young bull moose ambles through the willows and golden cottonwoods. He is not ready to challenge the large males that also call this area home but his time will come.
A bald eagle soars, ever higher, above the meandering waters of this curve in the Snake River at Oxbow Bend.
As the waters grow still below the golden aspen at Oxbow Bend, a group of Canadian Geese paddle into the rich and shallow waters where they will dive for food.
A late autumn sun sets to the west, shining through the golden forests that can be found in Grand Teton National Park.