...can good landscape photographs be made?
That was what I wondered back in mid-August, when the West was on fire. A long-planned trip to Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park was coinciding with the worst, most widespread Northwest wildfires in modern history.
Departing western Oregon for the long drive, I encountered smoke as soon as I crested the Cascade Mountains. It only became thicker as I progressed through the eastern side of the state, peaking between the burgs of Burns and Vale. In some places the oncoming cars seemed to suddenly appear out of dense fog.
Malheur River, eastern Oregon
Idaho was not much better -- smoky across the entire state. But I was hoping that the Tetons range on its eastern border would serve as a barrier that would inhibit the smoke from reaching Jackson Hole on the other side. As I climbed upwards on Highway 22 towards Teton Pass, the appearance of some blue sky overhead raised my hopes. But the view from the pass down into the valley dashed them again. Blue and clear above, but the valley below was almost obscured by smoke. It did not bode well for photographing the majestic Tetons from the valley floor.
View eastward from Teton Pass
And in fact the view of the Tetons from down there was almost completely obscured. So I passed them by and headed up the mountains on the eastern side of Jackson Hole, to Togwotee Lodge on Togwotee Pass, at an elevation of about 9000 feet.
My first "serious" photo was an attempt to make a little lemonade from a lot of lemons.
The thick smoke would get worse and persist for several days. But luckily, it would break before I had to leave. More on that later.
