Landscape 1: Trees

[In between animal posts, I’m slipping in the occasional post to show you the stunning landscape of the Greater Yellowstone area (which also encompasses the Grand Teton National Park)].

The weather during my trip was mainly cloudy and sullen, with intermittent rain, and one day of snow. The mountains could only be glimpsed, and the dramatic vistas rarely got the kind of lighting they deserved. But its beauty still comes through. The cottonwoods and the aspens turn the most astonishing colors in the fall, and although some were bare by the time I arrived there were enough left to show flashes of brilliance in the otherwise sombre landscape:

Sometimes there were long golden borders between the evergreens and the meadows:

In the moister areas, the low-growing bushy willows were purple and orange in the foreground:

creating a tapestry of autumnal carpets:

Even where all seemed dead and gone, leaving this bleak aftermath from a catastrophic fire some years ago:

a closer look shows brave new trees returning:

And a few wildflowers hung on, a promise of new life when spring returns.