Teton First Light. Mount Washburn, Yellowstone NP, 2013
If you are looking for a nice high point in Jellystone Park from which to make beautiful images, look no farther than the 10,243-foot summit of Mt. Washburn just north of the Canyon Village area. This is a great place for sunrise or sunset photo ops, and was on my list for this particular trip.
You have two route options by which to hike your hefty hiney up there: 1) the trail from Dunraven Pass, a 1400′ altitude gain and three miles on a very scenic and well-maintained trail, and 2) the two and one-half mile, 1500′ altitude gain, lookout tower access road from the Chittenden parking area.
Being unfamiliar with the peak, being alone, and walking in the moonlit semi-darkness of early morning, I opted for #2–the wide dirt road option. The better to spot Yogi before he could spot me, or so I reasoned.
Some caveats:
–Bring bear spray and wear a tinkle bell (or sing loud, bawdy, fighter-pilot songs) as bears frequent this area–not only Yogi, but even GRIZ him/herself.
–Bring a headlamp for the trip up or down, depending on whether you are doing this for sunrise or sunset photography.
–Be prepared for any kind of weather–have the right clothes with you.
–Avoid the summer, mid-day and afternoon thunder bumpers and lightning storms.
–Consider an off-season ascent to avoid huge crowds of other hikers.
Something I did not know until I arrived at the Park Service lookout tower on the summit was that there is actually a nice, out-of-the-wind, warm, tourist viewing shelter built into the base of the structure. Inside, you will find benches, a viewing telescope, and posters labeling all of the distant geographic features. (You can see it in the image below–it is that part that bulges out left on the base of the tower.) They even have men’s and women’s restrooms, labeled as such, with toilet paper and hand sanitizer! So, when you get up to the top, there is a place to both get out of the elements and kill those germs on your hands–quite a surprise (from 7a.m. to sunset, anyway).
The view has to be one of the best in all of the Park. On my particular morning, I watched as the dawn light painted the summit of the Grand Teton gold, some 50+ miles to the south. Mist filled the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and various and assorted hot spots were sending vapor clouds up in small plumes above the forested caldera spread out below (the above image). As a photographer, I had hoped for some nice horse-tail cirrus clouds in that big, blue, empty, morning sky, but you can’t always have everything. (Heck, two days before, there had been a blizzard on the mountain, so best to be thankful.)
And then there was that guy in the lookout tower–how do I get HIS job!!!???
Summit Lookout Tower. Mount Washburn, Yellowstone NP, 2013
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