Wild places

Every trip on the Snake was a thing of beauty and Ava caught much more of it with her camera than I could add to this blog.

These snaps show a little of how threatening the weather was and yet, how beautiful that made the mountains and the water.

This really is still a wilderness and we loved it.

Dangers

Ava loved this sign - and we had all these animals -plus mule deer - walk right out in front of our truck in one park or another.

Near the end of our Tetons trip we had two "western" experiences we hadn't expected: an earthquake and a forest fire. Hard to picture the quake but we were laying in bed, just awake, and the whole trailer shimmied. No wind, no vehicle passing by and I first said "wind" to Ava's query but then I thought "maybe quake" - which the newspaper confirmed two days later. Common, they said.

Common, also, some years but thankfully not this one, was forest fire. We did stop just two miles from our camp on the main road to watch them fight this small one started by lightning. When the ground cover fire reached one of the several dead pines they went up like a torch. We caught the helicopter bringing in, and dropping, water from the lake to help contain this fire - which they did with the help of several rains.

Last Float - last day in Grand Tetons

Our sturdy craft

Caught a Cutthroat Trout! One on each day I bought a license; don't ask what this beauty cost per inch!

We saw lots of birds but few animals (midday?) but did get this guy - too small to be an otter, probably a mink!

The last float was the shortest - because storms were before and behind and this one was going to get us! So we paddled and made it in under three hours and stayed dry until just as we landed. Well Done, Rivermen!

More Floating

Does this guy look "highly skilled", or what? He did get re-acquainted with an ancient skill: hitchhiking. To get back to Ava and the boat from Deadman's Bar takeout where I put the truck, I had to grab a paddle and a life jacket to look like a "fellow paddler" and get a ride back up-river almost 10 miles. It worked! 3x and usually within only a few minutes by the road.

Ava and I got some great views of the mountains and the woods from the seats in the boat - the floats lasted 3 to 5 hours, depending on how much we stopped. We always ate lunch and saw these tracks (my knife is 5 inches long) with lots of other animals'.

Snake River Floats

We had used our inflatable kayak at Glacier and Yellowstone but only in lakes - and we love to float rivers. Finally the Snake River in the Grand Tetons gave us what we had longe for. We checked out the three favorite legs and one was too slow, one too uncertain and one was just right - Pacific Creek Landing to Deadman's Bar.

you can see the Snake twists and turns and changes every season - there are many "braids" and some lead into deadfalls and "sweepers" are always a possibility. Earlier in the season even this middle leg might have been too much but in early August it was perfect - and a lot of commercial raft companys were using it, too.

Thier equipment made our little 'blow up boat' seem pretty small - but she handled well we were impressed. We got to do this run three times, on our own schedule, and paid for the purchase of the Sea Eagle with what we would have paid a rafting company to do that.

Huckleberries, Mountain Lass and Bull Moose

As we went up the trail near the creek we saw whole families picking berries and asked 'what are those?' "Huckleberries", they proclaimed and gave us a few to try - Sweet! They were everywhere so on the way down we picked a small bag full and the next morning had Huckleberry Pancakes, yum yum!

Had to include these pics of a favorite person overcoming her worst fears - sheer drops from narrow mountain ledges. Just moments before we had seen a whole group almost crawl past this point, mumbling to themselves barely able to put one foot in front of another. Fear is a funny (odd) thing and Ava was determined not to let in it deter her.

This was the reward. At Inspiration Point the trail goes back up the valley for miles and miles into the mountains and we had been told on the trail that there was a bull moose hanging around uspstream in the valley. We went looking and found it about a 1/4 mile in. He gave us lots of good looks as he was perfectly comfortable to sit and watch us. While there the weather worsened and we had to don our Frog Togs and leave lest the storm blow us off the mountain ledge on the way down. Didn't happen - it cleared off and we hiked down safely.

Jenny Lake hike

At the base of the mountains there are small lakes and we watched several groups load up for an overnight camp that you had to paddle into - no roads. Load up, indeed!

We chose to just take a passenger boat across and spend our time hiking up - to Hidden Waterfall. Its a beautiful area, and only gains about 15oo' on the trail past this creek crashing down. We are headed to Inspiration Point, near that promontory above.

amazing Tetons

Some of Ava's great pics of the Tetons - they look different in every weather and even every hour of the day.

This is the glacier on Mt Moran and you can see the glacial face with darker rock particles suspended in it. Other views and a bit of explanation on the sign, below. One curiousity that Ava and I remarked on - no matter where you are in this 50 mile long park you always seem to be looking at the same face of these mountains - and they are always what your eye moves to.

Gr Tetons - Coulter Bay camp

We had scouted earlier and found many '1st come' campsites we thought would be good; but when we needed two (for Thomases) this is what we got - and it was great! We thought we might "up-grade" but never chose to- the site was quiet, shaded, large and even had good neighbors we learnded to love. I am holding The Complete Sherlock Holmes - we enjoy reading aloud while one is cooking or cleaning.

We used the Lake Jackson Lodge lobby to connect to the internet and to view a vast willow flats for elk and moose; it also had a steady stream of tourists from everywhere to watch, and shops and restaurants. We never ate there but we did follow our Frommer guide book tip and ordered a Half Order of Signal Mountain Lodge's "Mountain of Nachos". (It was a three-Rolaid night:) Towards the end of the trip we dropped in to the Jenny Lake Lodge for an hour of classical guitar music at day's end. The lodges are nice if you aren't into camping and offer a real variety of accomodations.

Grand Tetons - first full day

We moved the short distance from Yellowstone Madison to Coulter Bay Campground in the Grand Tetons on Weds. 7/28. The Thomases joined us on their way back to OK. They only had one full day so we let them lead us on an 'overview' of this park. We stopped at the lodge on Jackson Lake and on the many overlooks looking at moose and elk habitat in the valley.

The view of the Tetons is everywhere and always breathtaking! Julie Thomas (Barrett's better half) took all the credit for putting us on our first moose. We let her since we probably would not have chosen to go down the gravel, then dirt road, that this moose called home.