Chipmunks & Squirrels in the Tetons

Chipmunks

The ranges of yellow-pine, least, and Uinta chipmunks overlaps in this area. Yellow-pines are supposed to have richer colors than least chipmunks, and have different coloration in the tails, so although I suspect many of these are yellow-pines.

Chipmunk eating seeds at Grand Teton National Park

Want Some?

A generous chipmunk offers me a seed pod in the fall of 2005. Taken on the trail to Death Canyon, one of my favorite hikes in the park. One of my (many) favorite pictures taken on this trip, my first to the Tetons.

Chipmunk standing tall to get at seeds on a rocky beach at Grand Teton National Park

Good Standing

The Lakeshore Trail was the first trail I hiked in the Tetons, a gentle loop that includes some of the shores of Colter Bay. There were a few small grasses that had poked up through the colorful rocks that line the shore, and a couple of chipmunks were availing themselves of the seeds. Standing up on its tiptoes to get the higher seeds, you get a nice view of how long and slender chipmunks really are.

Chipmunk on a downed log at Grand Teton National Park

Chipmunk grooming its tail on a downed log at Grand Teton National Park

He's Not Heavy (But This Lens Is)

These are some of my earliest pictures with my Canon 500mm lens. I ordered the lens shortly before a trip to Wyoming, so I was learning to use it on the fly. I took it on a short hike up to Taggart Lake in the Tetons, and on the way back down came across this little chipmunk. I was still getting used to the heavy lens, so I didn't take it hiking anymore that trip.

Chipmunk on a rock at Grand Teton National Park

Hard To Say Goodbye

I grew up in the eastern part of the United States. In the deciduous forests there, eastern gray squirrels and eastern chipmunks are your frequent hiking partners. While the Northwest has many things to offer, one thing I miss is the squirrels and chipmunks. Not that we don’t have them here, just not in the numbers I’d prefer.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that even in parks as magnificent as the Tetons and Yellowstone, I'll photograph just about every squirrel and chipmunk I come across — which is why no one likes to hike with me. And God help you if I see a newt. The chipmunks in this part of Wyoming are the yellow-pine chipmunk, the Uinta chipmunk, and the least chipmunk, similar but different species to the eastern chipmunks of my youth and the Townsend’s chipmunks of my not-quite-so-youth.

Red Squirrels

Red squirrel on a downed tree at Grand Teton National Park

Red squirrel on a tree branch at Yellowstone National Park

Posers

While their tame cousins in city parks may sit and pose, the wild ones are far more elusive. Despite seeing and hearing them frequently in my hikes in Yellowstone and the Tetons, I’ve only managed a few pictures that I really like.

Red squirrel sending out an alarm call from a tree branch at Grand Teton National Park

The Trees Have Eyes

Hike the forested trails of the Tetons and know this: you are being watched. And you will know it — a network of red squirrels will follow your every move, and they aren’t shy about sending out their alarm cry to alert the rest of the forest to your presence.

Red squirrel squatting on a tree branch at Grand Teton National Park

Smallest Sumo

The world's smallest sumo wrestler squats and studies my stance. Don't let his small size fool you, you're thinking you can take him easily and the next thing you know BOOM! you're flat on your back or out of the ring. It's not the size of the squirrel in the fight, it's the size of the fight in ... oh never mind.