Teton, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain Front and Glacier
July 3 – July 16, 2010
This looks like it is going to be the year of the national parks! I’m pretty excited about that. We watched the Ken Burns’ PBS specials this past winter and it created a renewed interest in the national parks for us. Just an aside – the Ken Burn’s series was good, but they could have used some editing. They are chock full of all kinds of history and great photography, but each one is two hours long! We recorded them and then watched in smaller chunks.
On this trip we are visiting Teton, Yellowstone, the Rocky Mountain front and Glacier. We are starting in Teton and making our way north. In the second week we are going to hook up with a tour arranged through The Nature Conservancy. Most of that group is from San Diego and are people that we have hiked with on day trips in the San Diego area. It will be fun to be traveling with a group of friends we already know are good adventurers!
If you know us, you know good food and snacks are just as important on a trip as good hiking shoes! Throughout this journal I really goof on the necessity to make dinner reservations in advance in the national park. But when you know about that isn’t a big deal. And I have to say that most of the meals we had were just exceptional. I didn’t expect to find so many good choices. We are in the middle of meat country and we are pescatarian (vegetarians who eat fish). There were plenty of fish and vegetarian choices on most menus.
Grand Teton National Park – July 3
We flew into Jackson Hole airport. What an incredible location for an airport! The plane circles around the mountains and then flies down the canyon to the airport – mountains on both sides of the plane. You get an incredible overview of the southern end of the park before you even get there! Another bonus – the airport is so small you get your bags and your car quickly, and in no time you are on your way to adventure!
Our first stop was the Moose visitor center. I always like to start at the visitor center and talk to a ranger. If you’ve got limited time they can help you pick out the best hiking and advise you on crowds and traffic delays.
We are in bear country. Everyone tells you you are in bear country. If you forget it is posted on every surface! This reminder is important for both our protection and the protection of the bears. Bears only get into trouble when they figure out that we are a food source (not that we are food, but that we have food). All the trash cans in the park are bear proof. The whole area is surprisingly litter free.
The bears have just recently come out of hibernation and the mothers have cubs. You want to be careful hiking that you don’t surprise any bears or step in between a bear and her cub.
Right inside the southern entrance to the park we saw a group of elk grazing. There is a baby right in the center of the group – hiding in the grass.
It was late in the day so we decided to take our time and look for animals along the drive up to our hotel. We are staying in a cabin at Jackson Lake Lodge. We take the Teton Park Road. This route takes us past a lot of the sites and gives us a good sense of how far apart the hiking choices are (not very far).
We also want to be up at our hotel at the end of the day because the animal viewing from that location is supposed to be pretty good. We are close to both Oxbow Bend Turnout and Willow Flats Overlook. Both locations got big stars in all the guides as places to see animals grazing and hanging out.
Jackson Lake Lodge is really a nice place. The location is incredible and the building is positioned to take in as much of the view as possible.You have a front seat to the Teton mountain range. It is amazing how flat the valley is and how steep the mountains are. The boundary where the two meet is the Teton fault. The mountains are still moving up today.
The best view is from the back deck of the Jackson Lake Lodge. The bar offers service out here too! The animal and people viewing is excellent. Does life get any better than this? Not much!
One thing we found incredibly odd is that you need reservations for dinner. Not something I think about on a hiking trip. When I made the room reservations the girl tried to get me to make a reservation for dinner and I really didn’t believe that you could possible need reservations to eat dinner in the woods. Normally we have no idea when we are going to be back at the end of the day. And who wants an exact schedule on vacation? There are lots of dinning options, but if you want to eat in the nicer restaurant – make a reservation. We ended up with an excellent table outside on the deck with some takeout from the cafe. We had a great view of the mountains and Willow Flats. We saw elk, swallows, and goldfinch. The sun sets late this far north so it was still pretty comfortable outside until the sun started to drop behind the mountains. The temps this week where between 47 at night and low 70s during the day. Perfect for hiking and sleeping! Glad I looked that up before we left, because I was surprised it was going to be that cool in July.
Go forward to July 4