West Trip 2012: Day 14

Grand Teton National Park

Weather: Day 60 Night 30’s, sunny but very smoky and hazy

Today we got an early start to try to see some wildlife on the park entrance road. We actually did not see anything! However, we did explore some little known places (or at least less frequented) in the hopes of seeing something different and we were rewarded with lots of beauty!

The guidebook that I have been using to help us navigate the National Parks is Frommer’s Guide to the National Parks. It talks about a few “secret” or unmarked roads in Grand Teton Park that lead to some secluded areas. The first we took was a dirt road a few miles long that led to Spalding Bay, off of Jackson Lake. We went down to the shore of the lake and were the only ones there. As we were leaving a mother mule deer and her two babies walked down to the parking area and stood quite still while we took some pictures of them. These deer are so much larger than the whitetail deer we have at home, and their ears are so large and hairy-they stand straight up and rotate like radar! Further down the road we saw 4 bucks (mule deer also) in a field and 2 of them were sparring with each other-full racks. It was really neat and I think pretty unusual to see them do that in the wild.

We took another dirt road that led down to the Snake River. It took us several miles through fields and fields of sagebrush. It was very rocky and we probably were able to creep and bump along at maximum 5 mph-so you can imagine how long it took to go a mile or so. The reward was great, as we parked and hiked a short distance to the river bank. It was completely secluded, quiet and peaceful! We did not see any wildlife except a few pronghorn antelope in the distance on this drive, but the river location was great.

We also took a drive up to the summit of Signal Mountain, from where you are supposed to be able to get 360 degree views of the entire area ( 7,770 ft. elev.). However the smoke from the wildfires today was so bad that almost all views were obstructed by it. We could see a little bit, but you could barely see the peak of Grand Teton peeking up through the smoke and haze. We were so thankful that yesterday we did our hike and the air was clear enough to have great views!

I think I was suffering from a little bit of altitude sickness, with a headache, so we headed back to the campsite for a little time of rest for everyone.

After a little rest, Dennis and Eric went out for a bike ride. This area has lots of paved multi-use access trails (like greenways) for bikers, runners, etc. They left the campsite and took the greenway down to the Snake River where they rode about 5 miles round trip. Along the river they saw a really inviting swimming hole-if it had not been so cold they probably would have gone for a swim! One of the things they noticed was that so many people had dogs on the trail and none of them were leashed-yet the dogs were totally behaved and never chased their bikes or ran off! After they left the trail along the Snake River, they rode down to the town of Wilson (pop. 200) and took some back roads and crossed a creek. This is where they saw a large moose in the middle of the creek getting a drink! A lady on the bridge was watching for her kids floating down the river on inner tubes and she was trying to warn them to get out of the water to avoid the moose! Talk about river hazards! They took the greenway as far as it would go (up to a nice subdivision), and then rode back. The entire ride was about 15 miles. They were very happy to have gotten to get some use out of their bikes!

Today marks two weeks that we have been on our trip, and it is hard to believe we are not even halfway into it yet! We feel so far away from home and yet there is so much more to see. The kids are just starting to express a little bit of missing home at times-mostly they miss the cats and dog! We heard from my parents that yesterday was the first time that the dog acted like she missed us!