Grand Tetons, Teton Village and Jackson

Wednesday the 26th

A beautiful day dawns and everyone is up early. Today we set out to explore the Grand Tetons National Park. Leaving the kids at home we drove out of camp headed for Jackson and US-22 West to Wilson.

Turns out Wilson is a small residential community with nothing to see. So we back tracked about a mile and headed north on the road to Teton Village at the base of the Grand Tetons.

There were lots of cars but they were all employees working to get the area ready for the spring and summer season. The lifts were shut down and only a few businesses were open. We did stop at one shop so Don could buy some gloves and a hat for the cold weather.

Since there wasn't anything going on in the village and the Gondola ride to the top of the ski area doesn't open until the 29th, we headed out of the parking lot and followed a small back country road along the base of the mountains.

One thing that makes these mountains so spectacular, beyond their ruggedness, is that they seem to rise right up out of the valley with no intervening hills. It's almost like you drive across a flat valley pointed at the mountains, then you tilt the nose of your car up 65 degrees to climb the mountain.

This was a really nice drive and we made several stops to take wildlife photos. At one stop there was a mother owl and fledgling sitting in two separate trees about 15 feet apart.

At a bridge crossing the river was a young moose grazing among the new grasses and shedding his winter coat. We also spotted a roosting bald eagle and a black bear trying to cross the road. Back on the main road we headed towards Jackson passing several herds of elk and bison.

Arriving in Jackson we parked in the main square and spent a couple of hours walking around town exploring the shops then returned to the KOA.

With the kids walked and fed we did hamburgers on the BBQ for dinner with chocolate chip cookies for desert. Since we'd have a relatively early start in the morning we decided to call it a night!

To see all our photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski