SPRING HAS FINALLY COME TO THE TETONS

Spring has quickly come to Wyoming as evidenced by these flowers which are in full bloom.  The blue flowers are Lupines.  We erroneously called some other blue flowers Lupines in an earlier blog entry.   

And the yellow flower is called yellow arnica.

Both of these flowers can be found all over the valley floor as you drive the park road.  This is a very colorful sight, especially in contrast the rather neutral color of the scrub plants found in the meadows that the deer, elk and bison like to eat. 

Since the weather had warmed up considerably, we decided to try some of the tourist options offered by our employer, the Grand Teton Lodge Company.  On Tuesday we took the hour long drive up to Colter Bay which is the northern most area of Grand Teton National Park.  Along the way we were stopped by road construction and were treated to this great view of the Tetons with a reflection of the mountains in Jackson Lake.  More mountain pictures?  Are you tired of them yet?  We just can't get enough of the spectacular mountain views.

We took a 90-minute cruise called "Fire and Ice" from the Colter Bay marina.  The boat held about 40 passengers comfortably.  A National Park Ranger was onboard and talked about how the Teton Mountains were formed by earthquake faults millions of years ago.  Jackson Lake was once a glacier that has melted and formed a very large lake with a depth up to 450 feet deep.  We were able to get a close-up view of Mount Moran from  the boat.

When we passed several areas across the lake that were devastated by forest fires, the ranger discussed the fire control system used today.  Modern day practice of the Park Service is to let natural fires caused by lightning and other forces of nature burn themselves out unless the fire threatens structures or other sensitive areas of the park.  Once in a while, the Park Service will "set" a fire to thin small areas which are over-grown with trees or brush.

The marina has slips for about 60 boats and an additional 50 or so buoys to tie a boat up to in the bay that can be rented.  According to our captain, there is a 5-year wait for a buoy and a 15-year wait for a boat slip, at up to $2000 rental for the 3 month boating season.

On our 2nd day off this week we plan on taking a float trip down the Snake River.