Grand Teton National Park

If you visit Yellowstone, don’t skip Grand Teton National Park. Short of time? Skip some of what you planned to see and do in Yellowstone. The Grand Tetons are magical and amazing in a way that’s hard to put words or pictures to.

From almost anywhere in the park, you see majestic mountains. There are grand vistas and rivers, waterfalls and lakes everywhere. And vast spaces full of bison and deer that you’ll encounter on your drive around the park.

I drew the mountains and the lakes over and over in an attempt to wrap my head around their scale and beauty. With unending vistas like I was encountering, I often sketched just a small part of what I saw and suggested a more expansive view. There’s just no way to capture the grandeur of it all in a 20 minute sketch. (which is my sweet spot for a ‘long’ sketch when traveling with my family: they’re always willing to hang around at a spot about that long for me. Unless there are mosquitoes.)

Phelps Lake, Grand Teton National Park

Here is another take on the Tetons, this one while standing in line to get on a ferry across Jenny Lake. Just a little bit of a hint of the lake in this one.

Jenny Lake

For even quicker sketches, I used a blank Midori notebook. The Midori has pretty thin paper. It is an absolute joy to let the pen fly over this smooth page. And it can handle a light wash of watercolor.

When I paused for a sketch of Hidden Falls mid-hike, I used just Inktense pencils and a fountain pen.

And another sketch in that same book from Inspiration Point at the top of that hike, looking down on Jenny Lake.

More sketches from Grand Teton National Park in my next post.

The first post in this series is here:
Off to the Grand Tetons