Grand Tetons Day 2

Today started with an Elk sighting on our way to our hike.  There were 2 of them and they they were both huge!  After a sandhill crane sighting (I wasn't able to get a picture) we started our hike to Bradley and Taggart Lakes with about 500 of our closest tourist friends (this is one of the prettiest trails I have ever hiked and it was also one of the busiest).

Bradley Lake

Taggart Lake

During the hike we had lots of mountain views.  There were also lots of huge granite boulders that scattered the landscape.

From there we headed north for some paddleboarding on String Lake.  Unfortunately we realized when we arrived that we needed a boat inspection and a permit before we could put our paddleboard into the water.  So we took some pictures and headed to Jenny Lake.  The color of Jenny Lake was amazing-it was light blue on the edges and deep blue in the middle.  We had planned on taking a boat shuttle to inspiration point and doing a short hike but we decided to save that for next time because we were sick of dealing with tourists and there was a big crowd with the same plan.

On our way back to camp we passed one of my favorite views of the week-the three Tetons.  Grand Teton is 13,770 feet, Middle Teton is 12,804 feet, and South Teton is 12,504 feet.  Early French trappers used the name Les Trois Tetons, meaning ”the three breasts.”

We have had an amazing time in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons but I am ready to leave the hustle and bustle of the National Park System. There are so many rules and so many tourists!!

Gros Ventre Campground

We traveled yesterday from the north end of the park to the south end.  We set up camp at Gros Ventre Campground.  This is the weirdest campground I have ever stayed in.  It only had electric hook ups-no water.  They also have chosen to stop using some camp sites but they haven't done anything to them-they are just overgrown and the picnic tables and driveways are falling apart.  There are also a few loops of permanent residents.  But even though it is weird we saw some very cool wildlife.  Both mornings we were there we saw several moose.  They were so huge!!  They would just walk thru the campground snacking on the willow tree leaves. The seemed very comfortable with all the RVs and people taking their pictures.  Random moose facts, males can weigh up to 1400 pounds and live for 20 years.

One evening we decided to go try to find some bears heading down to the river-we did not see any bears but we see a hawk

And an owl.

Next we will go explore the Jenny Lake area.

Grand Tetons Day 1

The Grand Tetons are so amazing.  The road through the National Park is really nice with lots of turnouts with views of the mountains at every angle.  We started our trip at the north side of the park at Colter Bay.  Our first day started with a breakfast cruise on Jackson Lake-it was sunny but a only 40ish degrees-we were both wearing a lot of layers!!  The boat took us out to Elk Island for breakfast-it was about a 45 minute trip.  This was our view at breakfast-it was amazing!! 

The main entreé was trout and grits.  For some reason the smell of fish at breakfast was not very appetizing so I had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage.  They also had cowboy coffee which was very good-I am becoming a big fan of cowboy coffee on this trip.

After the cruise we decided to go on a hike to Swan Lake and Heron Lake.  It was a nice hike with the Tetons towering in the background.  We were hoping to see some bears but no luck!!

Swan Lake

Heron Pond

Jackson Lake

After a beautiful hike we decided to take some wine and snacks and go check out Jackson Lake Lodge.  Wow that place has one of the best views I have ever seen-so good that we accidently drank the entire bottle of Chardonnay!! 

After walking around the lodge grounds and thru the lobby we headed back to camp.  It was another great day.

Yellowstone Part 2-More Thermal Features, a Wagon Ride, and a Really Big Steak!!

We started our day at Mammoth Hot Spings. This stop has 2 main areas-the lower terrace and the upper terrace. Both areas have very similar features but I preferred the lower area because you could get a little closer to the terraces.  Limestone is found in the ground at this location.  Hot water is mixed with dissolved CO2.  This makes a solution of weak carbonic acid.  As this solution rises thru the rock, it dissolves the calcium carbonate, the primary compound in limestone.  At the surface, the calcium carbonate is deposited in the form of travertine, the rock that forms the terraces.  They are beautiful-especially with the mountains in the background.

From there we traveled along the northern road toward the Roosevelt Lodge and the Lamar Valley.  It was a beautiful drive.  We saw some pronghorns - which are the fastest land mammals on the continent.  They can run 35 mph for 4 miles!

We also saw a lot of bison-they were everywhere in huge herds.  The males can weigh over 2000 lbs, run 40mph, and jump over 9 feet!!

Last we decided to do a wagon ride to Yancy's Hole for a cowboy cookout.  We started with a pretty wagon ride thru the Roosevelt Valley.

The horses who were pulling our wagon were super huge!! They were named Poncho and Lefty.  Interesting fact about horse pulling teams-they were trained to pull together when they were colts and they pull together for life.  They let me drive the team-it is much harder than it looks.  You have to control the speed and     constantly give them feedback to keep them on the road.  I was NOT very good-we kept going to fast and leaving the road!!  The horses were both super sweet and loved getting attention.

The cowboy cookout was yummy and the steaks were huge New Yorks.  I ate a lot!!  After some silly cowboy stories we headed back to Roosevelt Lodge in our wagon-I left the driving to the professionals this time.  It was a fun day.

Yellowstone -- Canyon Day

For our third full day in Yellowstone we decided to start close to our campground and check out the canyon. They've named it the Grand Canyon Of Yellowstone. It was a cool day so we decided to tack on a 5ish mile hike to a couple of lakes as well. 

We opted for the South Rim of the canyon so we could do the Uncle Tom's Trail. What a great decision it was. Uncle Toms drops about half of the way down the canyon via some paved paths and over 300 steps to an amazing view of the  308 ft lower falls. 

Prior to that we checked out 109 ft upper falls. 

We then took the South Tim trail down to Artist Point. This is where Thomas Moran and others have composed their visions of the canyon. 

The hike then climbed a bit more away from the Artist Viewpoint. We looped around away from the canyon passing 2 lakes along the way. Here are a few shots. 

Lily Lake

Ride the Hiawatha

We decided to go a few hours out of the way and check out the Route of the Hiawatha.  It is on the Idaho Montana border along I-90.  It is a 15 mile gravel trail that follows the abandoned Milwaukee Railroad grade between Taft, MT and Avery, ID.  The route includes 10 tunnels and seven steel trestles- the St Paul Pass tunnel was 1.7 miles long.  You drop over 1000 feet during those 15 miles and there is a nice shuttle at the bottom that takes you back up to the top-Chad and I had planned to ride back up but it was a very bumpy 15 miles and we are getting older.  

I learned during the first 10 minutes of this ride that I am a huge fan of light-it is extremely comforting.  During the first few minutes of the cold pitch black tunnel and was thinking I was on the brink of a panic attack-but after a few minutes and a higher setting on my bike light I started to feel less scared and more intrigued by the tunnel. It had a 1 foot trench on each side of the tunnel that was filled with water, these directed water from the middle to either Idaho or Montana. The walls of the tunnel were also very wet-even though they were concrete.  It looks pretty light in this picture but it was not!!

There was a lot of interesting railroad information along the way and being a history geek I had to stop at all the information signs.  Here is some of the information I found the most interesting.  This section of railroad was the most expensive ever built-it cost $75,000 per mile.  The 22 miles of track through the bitterroot mountains consisted of 21 bridges, 16 tunnels, and seven high trestles.  In 1917 the track was electrified through the Bitterroots, giving the company the longest electrified mainline in the world.  Companies came from all over the world to see the first electric trains.  The entire track section went thru the great fire of 1910 (or the big blow up) which burned over 3 million acres.  It is believed to be the largest, although not the deadliest, forest fire in U.S. history.   It is worth looking up if you are interested in random fire knowledge - Chad and I found it very interesting.

Here is one of the tressels.

Here is one of the tunnels.

It was a very fun experience and more of a history lesson which I enjoyed.  If I did it again I would go all the way to Avery ID (an extra 8 miles) and then ride back up to the shuttle buses.  I didn't realize until we got to the end of the paid ride that there was more to see.

Yellowstone Part 1 -- Thermal Features out the wazoo!

I'm Wow, the drive to Yellowstone from Coeur d'Alene was pretty rough.  It's easy to forget when you're mapping things out on the internet that travel times are based on cars that actually go the speed limit. Oops.  What was planned as a 8 hour day was actually 11.  We also lost an hour so that made it 12. Setting up in the dark isn't too bad for us though, but it was chilly.

The drive had a few highlights. Butte Montana's 90 ft statue called Our Lady of the Rockies looking down from the edge of a nearby mountain looked incredible even from a distance.  It is Montana's version of Christ the Redeemer. The Clark Fork River was winding along and under I90 for a long time.  It struck me as flowing the wrong direction, but I have yet to confirm this.  We crossed the continental divide for the first time on the trip.  We'd cross it several more times in and around Yellowstone.

We took our time on the first day getting out of camp.  We did not set an alarm and Faith made an awesome breakfast.  Being a weekday, we decided to make this day Old Faithful Day and avoid the weekend crowds.  If you've ever been to Yellowstone, you know that it is BIG.  The roads are arranged in a figure 8 with our campsite being located on the right side of the midsection.  Each junction is 16-25 miles apart and major attractions can be up to 50.

We started at Norris Geyser Basin.  This is an area about a 1/4th the size of the Old Faithful area, but actually is home to the largest Geyser in the Park called Steamboat Geyser.  Unfortunately, it is very unpredictable and we did not yet have our good geyser luck.

Next up was Gibbon Falls.  The photo speaks for itself.

After Gibbon we did a one-way road to Firehole Falls.

We continued making our way to Old Faithful and there are many poholes, springs, pools, and geysers along the way.  A couple of highlights were Grand Prismatic Spring.  One entertaining thing about these geyser basins is that they have built up boardwalks all over the place.  I'm certain there are more linear feet of boardwalks in Yellowstone than the rest of the world.  Well it was windy, and people wear hats.  Sometimes those people are so in awe of the beauty before them that they forget that hats and wind don't mix.  At Grand Prismatic, there were probably 10 hats that had been lost.  I was entertained.  I was going to say they were all Seahawks and SF Giants hats, but I realize that tragic hat loss can even happen to people with good taste.  A couple pictures from this area:

If you go to Yellowstone make sure you check out Fountain Paint Pot and Firehole lake drive.

Finally we made it to Old Faithful and our Geyser luck started.  Old Faithful was due to blow any minute so we high-tailed it to the viewing area.  She popped about 2 minutes after we arrived.  I now understand the big deal.  The area around Old Faithful has many more geysers and spings.  Several of them erupt pretty regularly.  We were luck enough to be there for the eruption of Castle, Sawmill, and Tardy Geysers.  Castle was the most impressive of the 3 and only erupts every 14 hours, shoots water up to 75 feet and then steams for around an hour.  We could have spent a lot more time hiking around the Old Faithful area, but now we have something to do next time.  Grand Geyser, Lion Geyser, and Beehive Geyser all seem like they'd be great to see.

On the 50+ mile drive back to the camp we crossed the continental divide 2 more times.  There are 2 lakes up there on either side.  One lake drains in to the Snake River which ultimately joins the Columbia, and the other drains to the Yellowstone River which heads east and north to the Missouri.  I found this really cool.