Oxbow Bend with Mount Moran reflection
— — the morning the river held the mountain still.
Not only on a wall.
“A slow cut-off bend of the Snake River, a mile east of Jackson Lake Junction, that lies flat enough at dawn to give Mount Moran back whole — the dark band of the Black Dike running down its face, Skillet Glacier in the cirque, all 12,605 feet of it doubled in the water. Cottonwoods on the near bank, willow flats below, a moose now and then in the shallows. The light goes first to the summit, then down the face, then into the river. The wind comes up around eight and the mirror breaks. from the studio
Oxbow Bend with Mount Moran reflection, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Oxbow Bend is a cut-off meander of the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park, about a mile east of Jackson Lake Junction along US-89/191/287. The pull-off sits at roughly 6,800 feet of elevation, with the broad still water of the bend opening west toward the Teton Range. The signature mountain in the view is Mount Moran, at 12,605 feet, its summit about six miles west of the turnout. The river drops here into slower water before the next reach, and the calm surface is what gives the reflection.
Photographers come here before sunrise. The reflection works because the bend is wide, shallow, and protected by cottonwoods, and the air over the Snake usually holds still until mid-morning. First light hits the summit of Mount Moran, picks up the diabase Black Dike running down its east face, then walks down to the willow flats. By around 8 a.m. in summer the canyon wind comes up and the water breaks. The window in autumn — when the cottonwoods turn — is shorter, often only thirty to forty minutes.
The Oxbow Bend turnout is on the north side of US-89/191/287, 2.5 miles east of Jackson Lake Junction and about 18 miles north of Moose. Grand Teton National Park charges a vehicle entrance fee, and the park is open year-round, though the Teton Park Road inside the loop closes from November 1 to May 1. Moose, beaver, river otter, bald eagles, and white pelicans use the bend; rangers ask visitors to stay at least 25 yards from wildlife and 100 yards from bears.