Vance's Journal

September 22, 2000 

How can summer be over already?!!   I intended writing.  I started to do so many times over the past three months, I didn’t. 

To look out my window at the hummingbird feeders with little tufts of snow sitting on them and icicles clinging from the perches where just recently hummingbirds perched seems impossible.  Wasn’t it only last week that temperatures reached the ridiculous 90’s!  Is the weather this unpredictable everywhere?  

Summer in Jackson Hole is always frenetic…lots of sun, flowers, birds and other wonderful creatures to marvel at.  This one was hot and dry, hotter and drier than any I can recall except for the summer of 1988 when the fires roared through Yellowstone.  There were fires all around us at different times throughout the summer making many of our days filled with the sight-smell sensation of smoke.  To awaken in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke is not a pleasant experience. 

I had planned to hike and photograph my way through summer .  I hiked once in the Wind River Mountains and strolled along the Snake River a couple of times.  I was able to photograph a couple of days in June.

You know, the best laid plans…! 

I did have some quality time with my daughter and granddaughter when they visited in June.  There were also surprise visits from several people I hadn’t seen in years.  A Park Service Reunion in July rekindled many fond memories of my Naturalist days in Grand Teton National Park.  I never did get to do the gardening I had planned.  

Now here it is the first day of autumn and, yes, the snow is a startling reminder that winter will not be far behind!  The autumn colors this year have been unusually brilliant and I did take the time to get out and photograph them (see my new autumn images on the Autumn Page).  There is something about the sights, sounds, and smells of autumn that make it a special time for me. 

Have you ever heard an Elk bugle?  It is an incredible sound of autumn in the Rocky Mountains!  I absolutely love witnessing the drama of the annual rituals of autumn in Grand Teton and Yellowstone! 

This time of pause and preparation for our longest season of the year is one I treasure.  In another week or two I will need to turn my thoughts to preparing for the busy Christmas season.  When one is in the business of making cards and photographs for a living, you know that one of your busiest times will be just around the corner so it is good to pause, reflect, and get a sense of where you’ve been and where you are going from here.  

And so I spend as much time as I can outdoors, my camera and binoculars close by.  As Aspen and Cottonwood trees explode in a tapestry of color, I find my sense of who I was, who I am, and who I hope to become melting into the sights, sounds, smells and colors of the season unfolding around me.  I bond with something in nature, I bond with everything in nature!  This is where I feel most alive and completely at home.  The beauty and peace I find can be shared with people like you through my photographic images.  There are people who tell me I have a gift…if this is true I am eternally grateful I can share my gift with all of you!

Previous Journal Entries

June 3, 2000
April 28, 2000