Jackson Hole

A very different day today. We started off with a shorter post-breakfast search for wildlife, but everyone had gone into hiding. Nary an animal to be seen. The weather was pretty different as well--lots of clouds with peek-a-boo bursts of sun.









We stopped to visit the Laurence Rockefeller Preserve. It is closed for the season, but a pretty spot and a nice walk. (Other disappointing closures: the shuttle across Jenny Lake to some nice walk options and the very impressive aerial tram from Teton Village up to the peaks.)





We also visited the Park Visitor Center, an interesting stop.





We followed that with more scenic stops and then a visit to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.





A couple samples of the artwork in the museum. The second is a rather breathtaking Bateman called "Chief."









We traipsed through downtown Jackson, visiting lots of galleries. Last week was the Fall Arts Festival, so the galleries were rumored to be extra full of high-quality art. We did see some very nice things, including some of the artists whose work we had just seen in the wildlife art museum. Prices were pretty steep. They ranged from the low $000's to $300,000 and many in the $25,000 to $50,000 area. There was also a large original Chagall in one gallery, but you had to request the price (usually a reliable clue that the price is of the stratospheric sort). It was fun to see some very nice art, but nothing followed us home.

Jackson's main square and the famous antler arches at each corner of the square.







We finished off our afternoon by sitting out on our room's deck, soaking up the sun (mid-70's again), enjoying the views to the mountains, the sun hitting the small grove of aspens outside our door.

Just to round out our day, we saw a cow and a calf moose strolling in the deep dusk as we headed over to Teton Village for dinner. It's essentially a ski village and looked like a Christmas scene--a little early, so we assume this is its usual guise.






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Getting Our First Taste of the Tetons

There's a lot to see and do in Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. Our inn host, Sherrie, recommended a couple of loop drives to give us a good sense of where we are. She suggested we take every turnout and stop at every lookout. We made a good run at doing just that. Without taking Sherrie's guidance completely literally, we hopped in and out of the car untold times and covered a fair amount of the park. Here, too, the air quality was not great. Fires in neighboring states have left a lot of haze, and Jackson has some periodic issues with inversions that can trap the smoke.

We hit a lot of the usual sites, such as Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake. The scenery in this valley is truly awesome, haze or no. We were surprised at the crowds of people and lines of tour buses. But it's so spectacularly beautiful that we just tried to focus on what was in front of us and not worry about how many others were standing alongside us. This is where hikers have an advantage, but there were a lot of people on the trails as well. Not surprising given how beautiful the weather was today.

We also managed to see all the major wildlife groups. We started off our wildlife quest with a surprise sighting of a young black bear, loping past us as we drove just a few miles from our inn. A few miles further along, we saw a herd of elk running out of nowhere, across the road a ways ahead of us. All I got was a picture of the back side of a couple of them, but it was pretty exciting to see.

Other sightings today: pronghorn antelope, bison, and moose. Pretty cool! Seeing both a bear and some moose on our first day here won us some ooh's and ah's from our fellow inn guests as we basked in the late afternoon sun (and 74 degrees!), swapping tales of the wildlife sighted and the ones that eluded us.

























Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.


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On the Road Again

Wednesday morning, we set off to do some exploring in previously (Dinan) uncharted territory. We headed up the Columbia Gorge, expecting nice emerging fall colors and in-your-face beautiful views. It kept getting smokier and smokier. We wondered if the smoke from the fire in the Sisters area had made it this far. Just east of Hood River, we found the source of the smoke--a fresh new wildfire spreading up the steep hill, quite a crew of incident response folks, and a helicopter dropping a bucket of water. Quite startling. The smoke had drifted up the Gorge, and we never seemed to get out of the smokey air.






On we drove on I-84, enjoying the grand (if smokey) views and the Blue Mountains. We spent the night in Boise.






We set off bright and early Thursday morning. We made a sentimental stop in Gooding, Idaho, where Jerry was born and where his grandparents lived.






On we went through Twin Falls, Burley, Pocatello, and Idaho Falls. We headed north along the Snake River, then over Teton Pass and into Jackson Hole. Though we had really bad air quality until we got into the mountains, it was beautiful along the Snake and in the pass. (Note the eagle enjoying the view of the Snake below.)





Welcome to Grand Teton National Park!



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