Chipmunks & Squirrels in the Tetons

Chipmunks

The ranges of yellow-pine, least, and Uinta chipmunks overlap in this area. I suspect most of these are yellow-pine chipmunks but I don’t know for sure.

A chipmunk eats seeds while eating on a log along the shore of Colter Bay on the Lakeshore Trail in Grand Teton National Park

It's Not an Addiction, I Can Stop Anytime I Want!

It will not surprise regular visitors to know that on my very first hiking trip to the Tetons, on my very first trail, smack dab in some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States, I started taking pictures of chipmunks right away. This was one of several chipmunks eating seeds on the rocky shore of Colter Bay.

A chipmunk eats 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.

A chipmunk stands upright 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.

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 downed log at Grand Teton National Park

Chipmunk grooming its tail on a downed log 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 should come as a no 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.

A chipmunk sits on a rock at Grand Teton National Park

A chipmunk eats seeds on a rock at Grand Teton National Park

Red Squirrels

A red squirrel looks out from a downed tree at Grand Teton National Park

Boomers

Red squirrels are known as boomers in some areas, a name I love although I don’t know its origin — these little chatterboxes certainly aren't quiet, but boomy isn't quite how I’d describe their shrill alarm calls.

	World's 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.
	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 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.

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