Jackson, the Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone

On Sunday morning, we packed up the cats and headed north, driving through Loveland, Fort Collins, and Laramie.   We noticed many herds of pronghorn antelope.  We found out later that they were in their fall migration; they winter near Rock Springs.  We drove north from Rock Springs, stopping at the Highline Trail RV park in Boulder Wyoming, having driven from Boulder to Boulder.   At the RV park, we met the new owners, a couple from Arizona who grew up on ranches, and who did not want to live in a city.   We learned that they had a 28 day growing season, and admired a small greenhouse.  We were told to watch for moose, especially the one that lives in town, but did not see any.

On Monday, we started the day in good weather, and continued to Jackson, and then to Signal Mountain Campground, in Grand Teton National Park.   We drove back  to Jackson by looping north, passing the Snake River, and coming into intermittent rain.   In Jackson, Sandi stopped at the knitting shop, and then took a conference call.   Richard walked around town, and enjoyed happy hour.  We had dinner in Gather Restaurant, a local favorite, and definitely upscale.   We drove back to the campground in the dusk, seeing some elk along the way.   It rained all night and into the next day.

Tuesday we declared a rain day, and decided to enjoy the local museums and galleries.  We started at the Grand Teton NP visitor center, checked out Gross Ventre campground for future reference, and then continued on to town.  We had good Lebanese food at Figs restaurant, in an upscale hotel owned by a Lebanese family.  We wandered in the rain and sleet, visiting various art galleries.  We were told that they had one week of fall, but now it was winter.  We stopped at the excellent National Museum of Wildlife art, and then continued back to camp.    Between the weather and the trees, our solar panels are not helping us.  We noticed that some people moved out of the campground, probably fed up with the weather.  We had on again, off again, rain, sleet and snow.  The mountains were white with snow.  At one point we were in the sun, but being snowed on.

Wednesday, we decided to hike around Jenny Lake.  We started at String Lake, walked along the west side of the lake, and then took a boat ride across the lake.  We walked back along the east side of the lake.  There were nice fall colors.  The wind was sharp at times.  We got to watch a group of deer browsing just a few feet away.  A nice hike.

We had signed up for the wildlife caravan, in which we joined a guide and twelve other cars, driving to look for wildlife.   We got to see a huge bull moose from 200 feet or so away.  We stopped briefly to look at Pronghorn Antelope, which are not really antelope, and the fastest land animal in North America.   We continued to a wetland near the river, where we did not see any impressive wildlife, but we got to hear the elk bugle.  We continued to another stop, where we saw a herd of elk at a distance.  Our last stop was more or less in the dark, listening to elk bugle.  We were all scared that a car would hit the herd of elk crossing the highway, but no animals were hurt in making this blog.   Our guide was Grace, a young lady from Indiana; whose job was funded by a foundation.  She aspires to a regular ranger job.   Many of these jobs are seasonal.  The wildlife caravan was one of the more memorable parts of the trip.

On the day that we were going to Yellowstone, it snowed.  We heard that some roads might be closed.  We drove north, stopping at West Thumb Geyser basin and Old Faithful, and continued to West Yellowstone.   Our battery charger had failed, so we needed to stop and buy a replacement, and charge up our batteries.  We visited a grizzly education center in West Yellowstone, where we got to watch grizzlies eat.  After two nights in West Yellowstone, we proceeded to Gardiner Montana.   We went through Bozeman, since some roads were closed.

We had signed up for a class from Yellowstone Forever, "Three days in the life of wolves."   The class exceeded our expectations.  Our guide, Brad, was excellent, and we saw more wolves than we would have thought possible.   The snow had forced the animals down, where we could see them.  We got up very early each morning, and got on the bus, aiming to be where we could see wolves by dawn.