Last month I spent a week taking on a new-to-me route in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, an area that has captivated my repeat attention for nearly a decade. These mountains are in a remote part of the state, with no roads cutting through them which makes for difficult access and long hikes to reach the best scenery. I started making a regular habit of visiting these towering granite spires nearly ten years ago, but the last few summers were taken up with epic trips to Alaska and the Yukon so it was exciting to return again this year. After developing the film from this recent adventure, I realized that I hadn’t really published many of the past images from this place that is so close to my heart. It’s time to share some favorites from the many trips over the years.
“Pronghorn Glow” - Pronghorn Peak glows in morning twilight over a boulder-filled meadow of golden grasses. August 2025. Ektar 100 4x5, 75mm lens, 20 seconds at f22, 1 stop soft GND filter.
The Winds are always a challenging landscape. After pouring over topo maps and deciding on a route - along with some alternates if a particular spot becomes too difficult to reach - you have to actually make the long slog of a hike with a week’s worth of food and gear on your back. I’ve never known a mountain range to provide such stunning scenery, yet also require such intense physical and mental stamina. Some portions of the range have rather straightforward trails, but many others involve extensive off-trail travel and route finding. I’ve taken trips that involve both styles of travel, but I will absolutely admit that pushing too hard significantly reduces my ability to focus on creating images.
“Gannett Glacier” - The massive Gannett Glacier seen below the peak with the same name. Boulders fall of the peaks and onto the slowly moving sheet of ice. August 2021. Ektar 100 6x7, 75mm lens, 1/60th at f16, no filters.
This recent trip was perhaps my most photographically successful, mostly because we (Jason Hatfield and I) decided to get the long 19 mile hike out of the way in a single day so that we could just focus on photography for the remainder of the week. On all the other days, we just moved camp a few miles so we could get a different view at sunrise and sunset. We were actually able to rest and enjoy some downtime each day, scouting out different compositions so that we were ready for any potential good light. As a result, many of the images from this post will be from this most recent journey.
This time also had some of the best sunrise and sunset light I’ve had. It’s not uncommon to get thunderstorms or excessive cloud cover around sunset, and some of my trips have been completely cloud-free which doesn’t usually make for the most interesting photography. Another consistent photographic challenge has been wildfire smoke, especially in recent years as the west seems to ignite with wildfires more dramatically. This trip was cut a day short due to a nearby fire in the range that rained down smoke and ash once the winds and thunderstorms shifted our way. Once the smoke arrived it was hard to see any details in the peaks and the air was just plain unhealthy to breathe.
“Lee Lake Dawn” - Sunrise relfections over a lake in the Middle Fork Valley. August 2025. Ektar 100 4x5, 75mm lens, 2 seconds at f22, 1 stop soft GND filter.
In previous years I’ve ventured into this range solo or with friends, on trips ranging from just a couple of nights to over a week. I’ve even used a variety of cameras from medium format to 4x5” sheet film, trying different ways to cut down on weight and bulk in my backpack. In 2021 we attempted the High Route, an unofficial ambitious off-trail expedition that mostly consisted of car-sized boulders, glaciers, and high passes. The 100 mile traverse meant that we needed to be up and moving before dawn every day and didn’t start looking for a place to camp until sunset. While the rugged mountain views were unlike anything I’ve seen before, the rushed pace and strenuous days made photography nearly impossible. Even with a medium format 6x7cm camera, I just didn’t have the time that I needed to create photos. Still, there were a few images that turned out well from that trip so I’m excited to finally share them online here.
Backpack weight is one the main drags on these remote backcountry adventures. My first trip was just a few nights where I tried using a small 6x6cm rangefinder to save weight, and on other trips I’ve taken a wooden 4x5 with just one lens (75mm wide angle since the mountains are so close and tall). After all this experimenting I’ve found that the image size sacrifice of medium format generally doesn’t pan out for my personal taste and workflow, so I typically head into the mountains with my 4x5 camera, three lenses for additional compositions, and a mix of Ektar and E100 sheets.
“Iceberg Lake” - Icebergs make their way across an alpine lake below the Sourdough Glacier. August 2020. Portra 160 4x5, 75mm lens, 6 seconds at f32, 1 stop soft GND filter.
Putting all of these images into one blog post also shows how I’ve grown over the last decade and honed my craft. Although it’s a series of images I only work on about once per year, the compositions, film choices, and exposures are all a result of experience gained through my other photographic endeavors. I now favor the more natural colors of Kodak Ektachrome (E100) over the wildly saturated Fuji slides like Velvia. I typically like to also bring some Ektar as a negative film for those high-contrast mountain scenes. These two Kodak films have become my go-to backpacking choices. Make sure to check out the captions if you’re interested in the year I took each image and what type of film was used.
I won’t go into the specific details of routes for the Wind River Range, as anyone who ventures into such a rugged landscape should be able to plan their own adventure and understand the risks of wilderness travel. The High Route pushed me to my physical limits, but it’s certainly possible to plan easier itineraries. Part of the fun of backpacking is coming up with unique routes and goals, all while understanding personal limitations. From what I hear there are over a thousand named lakes just in this one mountain range, many of them with truly stunning views. Since the land around the mountains is completely undeveloped, it often takes two days of hiking just to reach the core of the range to see the towering cliffs of granite. There is one valley in particular that I really want to see again, but I still have memories of how hard it was to access at 30 miles from the nearest trailhead. Some locations see huge visitation, such as the famous Cirque of the Towers, but many others hardly see any human traffic at all.
“Granite Flow” - Water flows over a slab of granite in the Cirque of the Towers, from my first trip into this stunning wilderness. August 2016. Velvia 50 6x6, 50mm lens - 2 seconds at f11, 2 stop soft GND filter.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this selection of images from several backpacking trips into the Winds. It’s wonderful to finally get some of these up online, and I would love to hear if you have any favorites. Leave a comment and let me know! Of course, all of these are available as high quality prints if you’d like a piece of this majestic landscape on your wall. Send me an email if you’re interested. With too many images to share individually, I’m just going to add the rest to a gallery that you can click through below.
