America's Wonderland - Grand Teton

The trip to Grand Teton National Park took longer than expected as they were doing construction on the one two-lane road between the two parks.  It started raining during the drive, but that didn’t dampen our reaction at discovering we were staying in a real log cabin!

Yes, those are actual log beams.

We arrived in Grand Teton with enough time to check out a museum with Native American artifacts at the Colter Bay visitor center before heading to dinner.  But we found something more exciting than headdresses and moccasins – a moose!  He (she?) was munching on a tasty-looking bush right in front of the visitor center.

As we were looking for something other than leaves, we went to dinner at Leek’s Marina.  It would have been a gorgeous view of the lake and Tetons, but the rain was really coming down.  The pizza was as good as we’d heard. 

After dinner the rain finally stopped, but the clouds lingered and kept the Tetons hidden from view.  We drove not too far down the road to a grassy plain and watched the elk grazing and locking antlers. 

The next morning we got up early and headed to Oxbow Bend, a great spot for taking pictures of the mountains as they reflect in the still water.  But the Tetons were still being shy, so we could barely see them peeking out between low layers of clouds.  We did hear coyotes or wolves howling in the distance.

We headed to the Jackson Lake Lodge where we ate breakfast (packed PB&J sandwiches) and watched out the huge windows to see if the clouds would clear. Unfortunately they didn’t, so we decided today would be the day we hiked on one of the Grand Teton mountains.  If we couldn’t see the beautiful view, might as well get an up-close look!

We drove down to Jenny Lake and took a boat across the water to the Hidden Falls trailhead at the base of Teewinot Mountain and Mt St John.  A spotted two perfect walking sticks laying by the boat dock and decided another pair of hikers must have left them behind.  After grabbing them, we walked the easy half mile to Hidden Falls.

It's very important to be bear aware.

Then the fun began with a very steep half mile hike up the side of the mountain (literally!) to Inspiration Point.

It was definitely a beautiful view of Jenny Lake and the area and well worth risking a tumble on some rough rocks.  (It’s really a safe trail, but the edge is most certainly daunting.)  The clouds finally cleared while we were hiking up and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Do you see A way up there?  (Hint: He's in blue.)

Being adventurous, we had already decided to continue the trail into Cascade Canyon.  Once again we left most of the other tourists behind and headed off on our own.  The trail to the Forks of Cascade Canyon is about 3.5 miles and a slow but steady climb.  There are many small waterfalls from the melting ice on the Tetons (hence the name of the canyon), and also many rocks of all sizes which have fallen down the mountains.  The canyon literally runs in-between some of the huge Tetons.

There was still a good amount of snow on the trail! We were happy to have our walking sticks to keep us from slipping and falling.

It’s hard to see it in this picture, but behind us is a waterfall coursing over some huge rocks.  It was at the end of the canyon trail.  We sat there to eat our lunch and enjoy the scenery. 

Two men we met up with at the Forks decided to try to press on along a backcountry trail.  However, they returned shortly after discovering there was a lot more snow and running water covering the trail.

Once we got back we drove down to the tiny town of Moose to refuel on some supplies – ice, water and bread.  The view on the way to Moose:

Moose has a few restaurants, one general store, and a very large tepee.  We split some mint chocolate chip ice cream; we felt we deserved it after 6.5 hours of hiking!

After our pit stop, we made our first venture out to Mormon Row.  This is an area of Grand Teton National Park where there are still some barns standing from when the Mormons settled there in the early 1900s.  Photographer K begged pleaded requested to return to the same location in the morning when the lighting would be better for pictures.  After some debate, we decided to return to Moose for dinner.  (It wasn’t far away.)  We ate at Dornan’s Pizza & Pasta Company, sharing a Greek pasta and Thai pasta.  Both were delicious!  The main reason we chose to backtrack to Moose was for the view.

On the drive home, we kept our eyes peeled for animals.  A coyote ran across the road right in front of us!  They’re super fast, and super shy, so we were lucky to even catch a glimpse of one.  We also spotted some antelope.  (It’s up for debate whether they are “antelope” or “pronghorn”, which apparently are not the same thing.)

We also spotted something A had been searching for – an elk with huge antlers!  We were there early in the season, so most of them were just starting to grow a pair, but this guy’s were quite impressive already. He’ll have all the ladies’ attention for sure!

This animal will also have all the ladies’ attention.

Then we found the Grand Teton equivalent of Mecca – some lucky (or unlucky, in their opinion probably) rancher’s backyard.  Hundreds of bison and elk were gathered here, mingling and eating.

On the way to our cabin we stopped once more at Oxbow Bend to see if the view had improved.  It was quite a sight.

Coming up next: The clouds part for some amazing views!