Greg Harlow

Greg Harlow grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a landscape that alone could have encouraged a love for nature as he spent his childhood playing in the woods and looking for wildlife. However, Greg would also point to his father as a main inspiration for his interest in wild lands and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in particular. His dad brought him on his first trip to Yellowstone National Park when he was when he was six years old, and it wouldn’t be the last as it became a tradition to go every summer until he was in high school. Every year they would drive around looking for wildlife and Greg would listen to his dad geek-out about the park. Another influence was at home, where the only magazine they had was National Geographic. Inevitably, one day little Greg announced that he wanted to be a photographer for the magazine, thinking it would be the coolest job ever. A story his dad still talks about to this day.

Now, he might have some different opinions – though he is still an avid photographer. This passion was initially sparked by National Geographic, but it was cemented in the very same park he now guides in. While driving through Grand Teton in July, he came upon a bison by Blacktail Pond turnout. Armed only with a super wide-angle lens, the cloud cover was perfect as the bison walked by his car. He still has that picture as it was his, “Oh my god, I want to keep doing this” moment. And keep doing it he has, and that’s exactly what got him onto Jackson Hole Wildlife Safari’s radar. Through the network that is the Jackson Hole wildlife photographer group, Greg met friend and future fellow guide, Peter Mangolds, mentioning that he wanted to guide. In his words, “There’s nothing I’d rather do than guide in the Tetons.” Within the week, Greg was interviewed and hired.

As a guide, he loves moments of “cool!” or “no way, I had no idea!”, mostly in the spirit of inspiring his guests to become more interested in the wildlife they’re seeing. After all, if they are more interested, they might care more about the lives the animals are living. At the end of the day, he hopes that some of his enthusiasm for the subject will latch onto his guests as, in his words, “what we teach are my favorite things to learn”.

On and off the job you can find him driving around Grand Teton National Park looking for wildlife and snapping pictures. The only question is, which vehicle is he driving, and how many people are coming along? According to Greg, this is one of his favorite things about guiding as it’s what he would be doing anyway. Being able to work in one of his favorite places in the world, seeing the animals every day, and being in the know about the goings-on is awesome. Also, as a bonus, the crew is filled with a good community of people with similar interests which makes them easy to talk to and to make friends.

Outside of guiding, and on an occasional day he isn’t out in the field taking pictures, you could potentially find him putting his Audio Engineering degree to use making some music. Greg can play guitar and piano, as well as work the production side of things. With the audio, video, and photography sides of his background, he one day hopes to create a wildlife film in some capacity. Whether that be as a director, producer, or “just the guy holding the camera”. Besides this, he played golf for the University of Utah and still enjoys playing from time to time.