For more than four decades, the Teton Valley Balloon Rally has been a favorite Independence Day tradition in Driggs, Idaho. This year the event celebrated its 45th anniversary with more than 25 balloons launching each morning over the four-day holiday weekend.

How it Began – and Evolved

Back in 1981, when Driggs was a sleepy little town with a population of 700, the Chamber of Commerce wanted to do something to entice tourists who were visiting Jackson and the national park to head over the pass and check out the west side. Their idea – the Balloon Rally – hit the mark and quickly became a signature summer event.

By 2012, Driggs – though still a small town – had grown significantly, and tourists had discovered it. (Though the Teton Valley is still known as the “Quiet Side” of the mountains, it’s not nearly as quiet as it once was.) The powers-that-be decided the festival was no longer necessary to promote the valley and decided to cancel it.

Fortunately, some local volunteers came to the rescue. With very little funding initially, they held a small rally that first summer on their own. The balloons continued to fly for the next two years as well. In 2015 a nonprofit organization was formed (Teton Valley Balloon Rally, Inc.), committed to keeping the festival – and the magic of ballooning – alive and thriving in Driggs.

Compared to massive events like Albuquerque, the rally in Driggs is small. Still, Teton Valley boasts a few dozen colorful balloons, and I challenge you to find a more spectacular backdrop than the Teton peaks. There’s another mountain range on the other side of the valley – the Big Holes – making the entire setting incredibly dramatic.

The Magic Behind the Lens
Simply witnessing the event is fun but photographing it is even more enjoyable. It’ll require an early morning start, since that’s the most conducive time of day to fly: the air is cooler and the wind more stable.

Pre-Flight and the Pibal
At Driggs, the gates technically open at 5:30am, but I’m usually there by 5:15 and they always let me in. The pilots meet for a briefing, at which a pibal – a small helium-filled balloon – is released so they can see how the winds aloft are behaving at different altitudes.

You should keep an eye on that pibal, too. Knowing the direction of the wind will help you decide where to position yourself and enable you to predict when balloons will come into your field of vision as they’re launching.

Try to get close enough to listen to the pilot’s meeting. There’s a good chance some of the information being conveyed about conditions will be useful from a photographic perspective, too.

Assuming it’s deemed safe to fly, one balloon at the Teton Valley event is designated to carry the American flag; it launches first while all the others wait.

The Cold Inflation Flurry
After that, it’s a flurry of activity. Powerful inflator fans are switched on and begin to fill the vibrantly colorful balloon envelopes with cold air. Scenes on the field shift rapidly.

Once an envelope is round and full of air, the pilot fires the propane burner to heat the air, which will lift the balloon upright. On the opposite side from the basket, the crown line person (or people) holds a tether which is connected to the top of the balloon envelope. His or her job is to prevent the balloon from swaying while it’s inflating, and to make sure it rises to the upright position slowly.

Other crew members peek inside the flaps near the crown while it’s being inflated to check the control lines and inspect the interior.

In short, there’s a lot of simultaneous activity going on. It’s interesting to record the entire process, but you’ve got to be ready to move quickly. Be aware of the angle of the sun, which by now will have cleared the eastern horizon: high contrast, deep shadows and potential lens flare can present challenges.

At Driggs, spectators are allowed to roam the field – meaning you can get very close to the action. Therefore, a 24-70mm zoom is a good option to capture the inflation process. Select a handful of balloons on which to focus. They’re spread out over a large area. Spending too much time running from one end of the field to the other will cause you to miss too much of the action.

To illustrate scale, consider including people in some of your compositions.

(Note: a balloon festival is a good time to use two bodies if you have them. That way you can quickly switch between focal lengths without losing precious time swapping lenses.)

Taking Flight
As the balloons are leaving the ground, I switch to my 100-400mm lens to shoot tight on the baskets as they’re rising. I also try to position myself so I can include other colorful balloons still on the ground in the composition.

The balloons rise quickly so there isn’t much time in which to work. Again, focusing on just a few teams and their equipment is helpful.

If there are clouds in the sky, switching back to a wider zoom will enable you to capture interesting groupings of balloons in flight. When it’s a bald blue sky, I stay zoomed in tight to fill the frame with the bold, graphic colors of the balloon fabric instead of empty negative space.

The 2026 Rally in Review

The Teton Valley Balloon Rally is an event that’s been kept alive by sheer local passion, set against the most dramatic backdrop in the West.

Photographing an event like this is a lesson in moving quickly. From the quiet release of the pibal to the roar of twenty-five inflator fans simultaneously bringing all that beautiful fabric to life, it’s a magical sensory experience. The key is to pick your subjects, anticipate, and let the valley provide an assist with your compositions.

Here is a glimpse at some of what I saw through my lens last weekend.