JULY 21, 2015 Tetons and Yellowstone

Tuesday, July 21

Tetons and Yellowstone

Sun hitting the Tetons was our wake up call from our campsite – beautiful with low clouds in front.  A brisk 37 degrees as we hit the road at 6:10.  

 Nice view of this old homestead in the morning light.

 A few bison wondered onto the road not far from our campsite!

Then we hit the main road, south a bit to the drive to Jenny Lake.  Lots of low fog in the mountains.  Stopped to take in the Cathedral group of mountains, from left to, right, Teewinot, Grand Teton, and Mt. Owen.

Jenny Lake Overlook.  The lake was named for the Shoshone wife of an early trapper.  It is more than 250 feet deep. 

Next stop Mt. Moran where we could see only the antlers of a herd of elk bedded down in the tall grass. 

We next turned off on to the road to Signal mountain.  Saw a couple of elk there and continued to the summit for some awesome views. 

There were quite a few of these birds – grouse or ptarmagin, not sure which.  The momma was very laid back and the little ones danced and played.  These two were in a mock fight, taking turns stretching tall and pecking at the other.

There are several lodges within the park and we stopped by Coulter Bay Lodge where they had showers and a laundromat for campers.  Hurray! Beautiful clean facilities, thanks to Graham, who had just finished cleaning them.  Greg talked with him a bit afterwards and got some suggestions and a map.

Coulter Bay Marina on Jackson Lake

Drove down to Morman row and got this shot of a homesteaders barn. There are a few homesteads along this one road and since the 24^th is some sort of Morman holiday, we were told there would be crowds of them at the two parks.

Heading back up hwy 191 we stopped at the Snake River Overlook for a pretty view of one of Ansel Adams famous shots. (Think black and white, more snow and trees without leaves.)

Saw several white pelicans - so THIS is where they go when they leave the Texas coast!

The Cunningham Cabin was next. J. Pierce Cunningham settled here in 1890.  He and many other ranchers sold their land to John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s Snake River Company, who in turn donated 33,000 acres to expand the Teton National Park.

The cabin wasn't much, but what a view!

A herd of buffalo created a bit of a traffic jam but Greg was able to get off the road for a few quick shots.

We took a side road to Two Ocean Lakes where we had a picnic lunch near yet another beautiful blue lake.

Then it was time to find a campsite for tonight, so we headed to Grassy Lake Road along which, we had read, there were 14 free sites in several groupings.  It is very close to the border between the two parks. The first few sites at #1 were already taken but we found a nice spot at #2 which had 2 sites close to the Snake River.  We set up our screened-in room without too much of a problem, during which operation the local ranger came by and chatted. (He is a transplanted Texan from Dallas.) 

We left the site and drove up into Yellowstone to get a map and park newspaper and  visit the first Visitor Center at Grant Village.   Road construction made it slow going. The ranger there answered some questions and made a few suggestions, one of which is to visit nearby West Thumb Geyser Basin which, he said,  usually isn’t too busy.  Ha!  They also had a nice exhibit about fires and firefighting.

Yellowstone is filled with geothermal activity from Old Faithful and other geysers to mudpots to paintpots and pools.  West Thumb has mostly gurgling pools of varying size, most of them steaming.  This one is called Black Pool because it used to be black, but changes in temperature changed the microbes living in it and – voila – it is beautiful blue.

The one below is called Fisherman’s  Pot and is at the edge of the lake. The story is that the early trappers said they could reel in a fish in the lake, turn and lower it into this pot and have it cooked! 

 This lovely elk was eating dinner by the boardwalk and seemed unconcerned with her audience!

There were several busloads of people but at least they all stayed together and were easy to avoid!

 When we got back to our campsite we discovered we were sharing our site with two women in a small tent, an aunt from New Jersey and her niece from New Zealand who are traveling coast to coast. No problem since it was a very large site.  All of the other campsites on the road were filled and we had several more people come by looking for a spot.  Glad we “reserved” ours!

Snake river.

view from inside our screened room.

wildflowers among the rocks by the river

We took a walk along the Snake River, just a few yards away. Greg started a fire, but it was kind of buggy so we didn’t stay outside long as darkness fell. This is one of only two spots where we've found lots of skeeters.
 Early to bed, early to rise…. That’s the plan for tomorrow and Yellowstone.