As a fringe benefit, all GTLC (Grand Teton Lodge Company) employees are given a $15 gift certificate that can be used at specific dining establishments within the Park. We had heard a lot of good things about the dining room at the Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis Club so we tried it for lunch on one of our recent days off. We choose to be seated on the outdoor patio since it had warmed up to the low 70's.
Here is the view from the outdoor patio across the practice putting green and the driving range to the Teton Mountains. This view shows the lushness of the golf course while hiding the ruggedness of the mountains themselves.
The meal was excellent and the service was good but the view was priceless. Overall it was a nice outing prior to going into the town of Jackson for our weekly visit for groceries.
Last Monday we took a trip to Yellowstone Park with our co-worker friends Dick and Sheri. They both know the area extremely well and wanted to show us the sites often missed by tourists. Our first stop was at the Yellowstone Hotel which borders Yellowstone Lake for breakfast. This is an historic building dating back to the early 1900's but is very similar in design to the Yacht and Beach Club at Walt Disney World. There were old photos in the lobby of guests arriving by stagecoach and some of the early versions of the automobile.
We next stopped at Lower Yellowstone Falls where the temperature was a balmy 39 degrees (Dick's car has an outside temperature gauge) about 11:45 a.m. A front came through the night before, giving us our first hint of fall. yet the date was August 23rd! If you look closely at the rock sides of this canyon, you can see where this park gets it's name. Along our drive we saw many bison as well as some deer and antelope. We also saw two bears but they were too far away to get a picture.
We get lots of questions from guests while working in the Jenny Lake Store. Other than Where are the restrooms?, the next most asked question is Where do you go to get the boat to cross the lake? Before we left Grand Teton National Park for the year, it was time for us to experience being a tourist again, hiking the trail at Jenny Lake. We have hiked this trail many times before, but it is one of those traditional "must do" activities while in the Tetons.
On a day off last week, we boarded our shuttle boat for the 5-minute ride across Jenny Lake. Here is a view of the Grand Teton peak from the boat dock.
The lake was very calm in the early morning as we crossed the lake. Here is a picture of one of the three boats in operation this morning as it passes us heading back to the main dock.
This photo was taken as we approached the dock at the other side of the lake. Again, notice how calm the water is. The wooden railed fences line the first 150 yards of the trail up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. You can get an idea of the steepness of our hike by looking at the fence line rise from right to left.
As we began our climb up to Inspiration Point, we passed yet another stream of snow melt coming down the mountain. We never get tired of viewing this crystal clear water rushing down the mountain side. The dead tree trunks over the stream is another example of how the National Park Service lets fallen trees alone so mother nature can take its course for the tree to eventually rot and feed the soil with nutrients.
We reached Inspiration Point after a moderate one mile climb, including about six switchbacks, parts of the trail where the trail turns 180 degrees. The view of Jenny Lake speaks for itself. The view down to the lake shows just how rugged this part of the mountain is. Also, if you look closely, you can see another shuttle boat heading back to the main dock at the top of the picture.
The view up to the top of Mt. Owen (mountain to the north of the Grand) is impressive as well. You can see several small glaciers which still are covered with snow. At 11,000 ft. plus in elevation, the temperatures are much colder causing the snow and ice to melt very little.
From Inspiration Point we hiked down to Hidden Falls and back into the woods from the main trail. While you can hear the falls, it is not visible until you are right in front of it because of the denseness of the woods. It was this water from the falls that formed the stream shown earlier.
We continued our hike down towards the lake and then took the trail around the west side of Jenny Lake. We were extremely cautious as there have been bears sited along this route. This day the only wildlife we encountered were small chipmunks and a squirrel or two.
We did see several areas where there were huge rock slides or avalanches many years ago. This was evidenced by "rock meadows" containing new tree growth with trees less than four or five feet tall. We also saw several areas where there was a lot of berries including raspberries and huckleberries. This is probably the reason for the bear activity since one of a bear's favorite foods is huckleberries.
We took this picture of the Tetons from the south shore of Jenny Lake near the main boat dock. The picture is similar to one we took at Phelps Lake showing the contrast of the wooded mountain next to a very rocky mountain with few trees.
On this morning, we saw 2 moose as we were leaving our campsite at about 7 am. These moose were about 20 yards from the back of our RV. As you can see, the bull moose had quite a rack.
The cow moose has a mouthful of sagebrush.
We do not get tired of seeing the wildlife up close and personal. However, we won't get any closer, as we understand that moose can be very dangerous when confronted by humans. And we respect that this is their habitat that we humans are just lucky enough to be sharing.
Last Monday evening we finally got to go on the dinner cruise on Jackson Lake from the Colter Bay Marina. The weather was "iffy" but the boat captain said let's cruise to Elk Island for steak and trout. Our co-worker friends, Dick and Sheri, from Rock Springs, Wyoming, joined us for the cruise.
The clouds parted and there appeared to be blue sky behind Mt. Moran as we cruised to Elk Island. About halfway along our 20 minute ride, rain drops begin falling on the roof of the boat. The rain was letting up as the boat docked on the island, so we were hopeful for a good picnic dinner.
However, our nice picnic was not to be. About halfway through our dinner, we were treated to not only heavy rain but HAIL. Boy, was the weatherman wrong on this one! All we could do was laugh as we tried to finish our meal in the midst of hailstones, hoping that the downpour would finally stop.
Do I look like I am enjoying this weather ?!? Here I am waiting under a tree for dessert, an apple or peach cobbler which employees were trying to cook on an open stove while being drowned by the pouring rain..
When the rain did not let up, we went back to the boat with the promise that cobbler would be served on the boat. About 10 minutes later, we got the word from the boat captain that the rain had prevented the cobbler from getting warm, so dessert to end the picnic was not possible. Nevertheless, we were all smiles as we waited for Capt. Jim to take us back to Colter Bay Marina. One of the other passengers took this picture of us on the stern of the boat with Mt. Moran partially hidden by my big head.
And yes, the reason it is called Elk Island. Here is a picture of a bull elk coming down to the shore for a drink as dusk settles in. Look at those antlers!
On our 2nd day off last week we took a short 3-mile hike to the land where the Geraldine Lucas Homestead once stood. This was the first hike we have taken that didn't have some "ups and downs" enroute. Usually we hike along rocky paths that challenge arthritic knees and ankles. This hike was over flat land on a mostly narrow dirt path which was muddy in spots from a rain storm the previous evening.
Geraldine Lucas was a feisty, independent pioneer woman who began her homestead on Cottonwood Creek in 1913. She filed a homestead claim for her 160 acre parcel in 1918 and lived alone there. Later in 1924 at the age of 58, she became the first Jackson Hole woman to reach the peak of The Grand (the local name for Grand Teton Peak, of which these mountains are named).
Most of the hike was along Cottonwood Creek which is mainly fed by snow melt from The Grand. The sounds of the running water added to the stillness of the morning.
Once we crossed this log bridge, the path wandered away from the creek through areas of spruce trees, so the Christmas tree lot smell was with us again.
This picture was taken in a meadow about a quarter mile before we reached the place where Lucas' homestead once stood. The Grand is the peak in the center and is flanked by Mt. Teewinot on the left and Mt. Moran on the right. We would think these views of the Tetons were the primary inspiration for Lucas to homestead this area. Notice all the spruce trees in the background. The dead trees are the result of an infestation of pine bark beetles that is plaguing the western U. S. mountains.
This picture shows just how clear the water in Cottonwood Creek really is. This photo was taken from the path towards the edge of the creek. The water is about a foot deep and appears almost invisible.
This other view from the bridge to the parking area shows rapids along the left side of the creek and a small rock bar on the right. Even with a depth between 2 and 3 feet deep, the water remains crystal clear.
On Friday of last week, we met two other couples we work with for dinner in Teton Village, the ski resort about 10 miles west of Jackson. Ron and Karen Royer are our bosses and are from Southern California. They have the campsite next to us at the Gros Ventre Campground. Dick and Sheri DeBernardi are from Rock Springs, Wyoming, a town about 175 miles south of Jackson. Dick and Sheri are the couple who took us on the boat tour of Jackson Lake a few weeks ago.
Heading towards Teton Village, we were about 2 miles from our campground when we saw this coyote about 40 yards from the road. At first we thought it might be a gray wolf, but wolves travel in packs, and there were no other animals in sight. Not a great photo, but the coyote was over 50 yards away in the meadow.
On the way to Teton Village from town, we encountered a violent thunderstorm. This picture was taken from the road near Teton Village. We think this double rainbow has more vibrant colors than the one we photographed about a month ago.
Here we are at the Mangy Moose in Teton Village. Karen took this photo. Dick has his back to the camera, Sheri is sitting next to him and Ron is on Sheri's right. Great people, good coversation and a full stomach resulted in a fantastic evening.
We have moved around the table and had another guest take the 2nd picture. Karen is the lady in the blue dress at the end of the table.
Dinner was good so we will need to add the Mangy Moose to our list of restaurants to re-visit before our summer ends.
We were scheduled to take the dinner cruise on Jackson Lake on Monday evening. We had a strong afternoon thunderstorm complete with hail but we called the Colter Bay Marina and were told the cruise was still "on". On the way up to Colter Bay we were delayed by a herd of over 100 bison who decided it was time to cross the road and get a drink from the Gros Ventre River. Some of the bison noticed there was rain water in puddles on the road so they stopped to take an early drink before crossing the road to the river. Another bison traffic jam. When a big one stops on the road, like the bison on the left, no traffic moves.
We spent our first day off last week visiting some co-workers, Dick and Sheri, at Colter Bay in the afternoon and evening. They have a 24 ft. motorboat and were nice to offer us a custom tour. We cruised Jackson Lake for over 2 hours with them, enjoying the scenery up close and personal. Dick and Sheri live in Rock Springs, which is about 3 hours south of Jackson, and they have vacationed in GTNP and surrounding areas quite often. Sheri said she learned to water ski on Jackson Lake wearing a wet suit, as the water was about 50 degrees.
After touring the lake, we went to the Buffalo Cafe for dinner. The Buffalo Cafe is located just off the road from Moran to Dubois heading east from GTNP. The Buffalo Cafe is a small "hole-in-the-wall" place we would have never found on our own. We enjoyed our dinner on an enclosed porch with great views of Buffalo Creek, the horse training area in the meadow and mountains. After dinner we took a ride to other areas of the forest where they snowmobile in the winter time. Dick did say the temps can get down to minus 20 or more in these remote areas.
We regret there are no photos of this great day due to technical difficulties with the camera.
The weather was rainy during our 2nd day off so we spent the afternoon in town catching up with e-mail, writing the blog, and grocery shopping. You don't realize how much you miss high-speed internet until you have to do without. The Sprint Aircard works most of the time in the RV but sometimes very very very (3-"verys" for emphasis) slowly. Like the satellite dish, it is dependent on atmospheric conditions.
Early Sunday morning, we were leaving the small campsite area where our RV is situated to open the store. In front of us as we began to leave was this adult female moose. The light at 6:55 am was not very good so these pictures are a bit dark. You can see various RV's in the background which are located in one of the public camping loops near the campground entrance. We were able to get within about 30 yards of the moose. The moose was more interested in eating than posing for pictures.
Food was in the form of the tall grasses and shrubs that thrive between the campsites.
The brush the moose is munching on is several feet tall, the sage is about 15 inches high. The moose was about the size of a large horse.
As the moose continuted to eat, she began moving away. How can you tell the moose is a female? Remember, this is now August (antlers are shed in the spring) and this moose has no antlers.
As promised, here are the variety of flowers we saw while on our hike around Phelps Lake last week. First, the Indian paintbrush, the Wyoming state flower. How many of you know the state flower where you live?
Since we are not naturalists, botonists or biologists, we will not attempt to identify any of the remaining pictures. We will say that the variety of flowers along the trail around Phelps Lake was spectacular. The views were almost like having an artist's palette in front of us.
T
hese daisies are actually lavendar, but the lavendar doesn't show in the photo - who knows why?
I called these bluebells although the hue in the photo is not as rich as in real life.
These purple flowers were brighter in person as well.
These white bells that almost form a perfect geometric shape.
These yellow flowers looked like they were about to strike, similar to a poisonous snake.
Last but not least, the famous huckelberries, one of a bear's favorite foods.
