Friday, June 16^th, 2017

 

We left Yellowstone in the rain, with a quick stop at the general store at Fishing Bridge.   Destination – Grand Teton National Park.  The two parks are geographically close, but not connected. 

The park was created in 1929 but only protected the Teton range and the glacial lakes at its base.  In 1950, the park grew to its current size when John D Rockefeller, Jr donated land protecting the valley floor.

Grand Teton spans just over 310,000 acres, covering the Teton mountain range, glacial lakes and part of the Jackson Hole valley.  Compared to Yellowstone and Glacier, this is tiny! 

As you enter the park, you’re surrounded by stunning mountain scenery.  The Teton range is a 40-mile long, fault-block mountain range.  When the earth’s crust cracked along a fault millions of years ago, the Tetons rose into the sky with a dramatic covering of exposed crystalline rocks.  The park includes eight peaks over 12,000 feet, seven lakes along the base of the range and more than 100 alpine lakes in the backcountry.

Our site, at Colter Bay Village, is right on Jackson Lake.  Once we got settled, we went lakeside to be awed by the breathtaking view.  The rain had stopped, but seemed very iffy.  We explored the general store and laundry area.  We decided to reserve a trail ride for the next morning.  We found the marina, and took the lakeshore hike.  It was a little more than what we intended to do but it was great and the weather held.  Once back, we got ready for dinner – reservations at the Mural Room in the Jackson Lake Lodge, a little further up the road.

 

The Lodge was beautiful – at first sight I thought it too contemporary, but the interior belied this.  In fact, it’s been named a historical landmark.  The lounge area was a huge room with a huge beamed ceiling, and floor to ceiling windows, overlooking that spectacular view.  And then… the heavens opened and we were in a deluge.  The mountains were gone and all that remained were clouds. 

Dinner was delicious, however, with no mishaps.  We ran between the drops back to the RV and got home (site) just before the flood!  I don’t know how Len and Ed got the RV all hooked up in the dark, in the rain.  We were so exhausted, we could barely stay up…and we needed our beauty sleep since we were getting up early for the trail ride.  No stars – just rain!