20060918 - Grand Teton

On Wednesday (09/13) we drove from Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park. Once again traffic was moving against us away from Grand Teton toward Yellowstone. It was a very short drive. Bob & Connie are traveling in their fifth wheel with us. We are all staying at Coulter Bay RV Park.

On Thursday (09/14) we all took a boat tour of Jackson Lake narrated by a man who had lived in the area for most of his life as well as having been a Park Ranger. He was very interesting, told stories of his time as one of the local rangers. One of his stories was about a time when he and his partner were trying to remove a mother bear and her cub. They darted her but instead of staying on land, she headed into the lake. Since they did not want to have killed her and her cub (by drowning), both of the rangers dove into the water and together were holding her head above water; not able to move her and not knowing what they were going to do as she woke up. Finally, they got a fishing boat to come over and managed to get the bear into the boat. From there they took her to land (followed by her cub) and finished what they had started. After it was all over the fisherman received a copy of their official report to share with his friends as his reward. (He did not think anyone would actually believe his story.) Another thing he told us was that the trees we were seeing in groups as bright gold were actually single trees with many trunks. The first tree sends out shoots which become new trunks but are still a part of the original tree. Then when one part of the tree changes color the entire tree changes color. Some of these tree groups are very large.



These are photos of the mountains around the Lake.

On Friday (09/15) we drove to Jackson Hole. Bob needed to have a blood test and we wanted to see the town. Jackson Hole is a very nice tourist town with some very expensive shops. It also has a square with antler arcs at all 4 corners.





On Saturday (09/16) we drove to Jenny Lake. We were going to take a ferry across the lake and then take a hike but every day we have been in the Grand Tetons it has gotten colder and today it is actually snowing



The trip across the lake was in an open boat and did not look at all comfortable.



As you can see it was a grey, cold day with new snow.

On Sunday (09/17) it was a nice day so we all decided to leave the area before there was any more snow. Bob & Connie are heading toward Colorado and we are heading toward Salt Lake City.