Thursday 6/23

Raven, a photo by Olivia Linkel on Flickr.

Today we headed into Grand Teton National Park. I was up at 5:30, my eyes just seem to pop open at that time. I showered and we left the campground around 6:45. We drove 11 miles into Jackson and stopped at the grocery store to pick up some fresh fruit and things that we would need in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. I went in and got what we needed and came out to find the kids beginning to wake up. We had rain the night before and there were still some lingering showers but we could see blue sky coming. We also stopped to post my Wednesday blog entry at the McDonald’s . Damn BLOG!! We rode past the national elk refuge but saw no elk. We had been told to take the Gros Ventres road for our best chance to see moose but we decided not to do it (a mistake?).
I had originally hoped to be at the Jenny Lake visitor center to take the 8:30 boat but after our stops, we didn’t get on the boat until 10:00. This boat ride takes 4 miles round trip off the hike to Inspiration Point and we definitely took advantage of it. While I am sure the lakeside trail was nice, we didn’t think the kids would enjoy it. Unfortunately for us, the trail to Inspiration Point was partially closed. You could hike as far as Hidden Falls, which was a great, cold and misty, rushing waterfall that was spectacular because of the heavy snowmelt. But the bridge across had been taken out by a tree or something coming down the water and the extra half mile was closed to us. We could have hiked along the horse trail but it was partially snow covered and very muddy. Even the last 100 – 150 yards to Hidden Falls was snow covered. The kids used my hiking sticks and had fun playing with the snow and so all we did was the mile roundtrip.
After our boat ride back across Jenny Lake, we had a nice lunch in the camper and then continued up the road. We stopped at almost every turnout to marvel at the mountains. We stopped at the Jackson Lake Dam river access and played on the rocks. We also made terrible jokes using the word dam. You know, “where is the dam t-shirt shop”, “I need to stop at the dam bathroom”, “where is the dam snack bar”, etc to the point where Luke said “I wish you would dam stop”. It’s a joke that Luke got out of the Percy Jackson books and we had way too much fun using it.
After the dam, we drove out the eastern road through the Tetons to look for animals. The only thing we saw were bison at a place called Elk Ranch Flats. Most people would think we would see elk there but they would be wrong. We came back up the eastern road and headed to Colter Bay Village to check into our RV spot and finish the kids junior ranger badges. Cell service was spotty in this area but we finally hooked up with Pam and Riley. They checked into their cabin and then we headed over to the Jackson Lake Lodge for dinner. I had Coq Au Vin and Scott and Pam each had steaks. I think they enjoyed theirs more than I did but the atmosphere was really good and the company even better. We looked at the flats off the back porch of the lodge and there were some elk off in the distance but none close enough to say we had actually seen them. There was also a moose, we were told, but again, we could not see it. I knew I should have bought that $1200 camera lens.
Riley ended up staying with us in the camper and all of the kids were very excited to have new people on our trip. As we were going to sleep, Scott heard something at the camper door and we both got an adrenaline rush – is it a bear??? Scott turned on the outside light but saw nothing through the window and said he sure as hell wasn’t opening the door. We both had a little trouble going to sleep after that. It was an exciting day and the start of a different adventure with Pam and Riley in Yellowstone.