Mount Moran from Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

12,605-foot Mount Moran dominates the skyline over Oxbow Bend in this photograph from the banks of the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. Aspen trees surrounding Oxbow Bend take on brilliant hues during late September as the first snows of winter dust the peaks. With its headwaters on the Yellowstone Plateau just to the north of Grand Teton Park, the Snake River pauses here in the nearly-abandoned meander of Oxbow Bend before it continues its long journey to its confluence with the Columbia and finally to the Pacific Ocean west of Portland, Oregon. On these early autumn mornings as moose wade in the shallows, flocks of pelicans and Canada geese gather before making their own long journey south for the winter.