Monday, July 3, 2017

Ridiculous Road Trip #1, Part 26 - Grand Tetons

Back to Part 25

June 21
Just thirty-five miles south of our campground in Yellowstone, was Grand Teton National Park. It took a little convincing, since we'd been logging long miles for the past week, but I managed to lure Doug into yet another side trip. We still hadn't seen any moose in the park, and the south edge of Yellowstone, as well as the Grand Tetons had been advertised as places that moose might be seen. So we headed to Grand Tetons.




One of the bemusing things that we had noticed so far on this trip, was the huge variation in people-skills by interpretative staff at the various visitor centers that we had been to. Foolishly, I assumed people who staff visitor center desks to be friendly, or at least knowledgeable. This was not universally true. I'd say that we were averaging 50% for good "interpreters". However, at Grand Teton National Park, we had found a good one. This ranger obviously LOVED his job and loved making people excited to visit. He waxed poetic about how this park was about perspective--how the mountains themselves can look drastically different as you move from one end of the range to the other. The ranger also had great suggestions for where we should hike and where we might have the best chance at sighting moose.



We took his advice and headed to Jenny Lake for a hike. We started out at the String Lake trail head, then along the shore of Jenny Lake, up to Hidden Falls, up to Lower Inspiration Point, then we headed back out.


















We'd hiked about 4.5 miles, and I was happy to be just about done. Doug, however, couldn't pass up the fork to higher Inspiration Point. He made the 1.89 uphill hike by himself. And he was rewarded with marmots.




And MOOSE!




After the hike, we continued south to the end of the park and turned around in Moose, WY. And Doug posed with his moosey friend.


As we headed back north, we paused to take in the full glory of the Grand Tetons.




And then we got see the bison and pronghorns of this National Park.





Then we headed back to camp in Yellowstone.

June 22
For our last full day at Yellowstone, we decided to have a relaxing morning, then hike late in the afternoon, hoping to see a different variety of wildlife just before dusk. We opted for the trail to Lake Shoshone again, with the hope the creaky spooky trail would be less ominous in the sunny glory of the day.

It was way less ominous without the wind and rain, and without the creaking and crashing of trees, we felt way more confident in our ability to look out for bears without all the extra noise.











And although it seemed like a great place to see moose, we sadly saw none. But it was still a lovely hike. Then we crossed the Continental Divide one last time, and headed back to camp.


Up next, Part 27

No comments: