A few years ago, the park rangers in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks decided that they were having too many problems with bears interacting with people, often with an unhappy result for both. They started trying to get the bears to stay in areas of the parks far away from people by using bearproof trash containers and relocating bears whenever they got into populated areas. The result is that the parks are now safer for people and their pets, but you rarely see bears any more. Linda wanted to see bears, so we drove into the community of West Yellowstone outside the West entrance to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center located there. They have nine grizzly bears in captivity, but they let them out for viewing three at a time. They hide food in the area before they let them out, then the bears come out and search for the food. The birds get close to the bears, but seem to be wary of them. I’m wary of them, too.
There were three or four wolves there also, in a different enclosed area, but it was mid-afternoon and all of them were sleeping.
After leaving the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, we drove back through Yellowstone Park out the South entrance and on down to the Jackson Lake Lodge. The lodge was built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. on several thousand acres that he had preserved and which he donated to the park. There is an incredible picture window in the lodge with views of the Jackson Valley and the Grand Teton Mountains. This was the view in late afternoon from the deck at the lodge right below the picture window.
Below is a photograph of Mt. Moran. The vertical black rock in the center of the mountain is referred to as the Black Dike. The signs say that it was created when there was a crack in the surrounding rock, and molten black rock seeped up through the crack. The snow near the bottom is a small glacier.
The picture below was taken at a scenic overlook in the park where Ansel Adams is supposed to have taken one of his famous photographs. I don't think I did quite as good a job as Ansel, but the scenery is so beautiful, it's not hard to take a good picture. That's the Snake River in the foreground, and the Grand Teton Mountains in the background. An unusual characteristic of the Grand Tetons is that there are no significant foothills. The mountains seem to rise straight up from the Jackson Valley floor. Linda commented that they almost look like a painted movie backdrop. In the 1800's valleys were referred to as "holes" so that's why the area is called Jackson Hole.
While we were at the above area, we observed a young couple taking pictures. The guy had his girlfriend lay down on her back on a ledge with the above scenery in the background of his picture. We assume it was a "compare and contrast" photo appropriate for the Grand Tetons.
Linda took some great pictures of moose along the side of the road, as I drove.
We drove up Signal Mountain, which is a small mountain that's in the valley, then stopped about a third of the way back down the mountain and hiked to an open meadow for a picnic while overlooking Jackson Lake below and the Grand Tetons in the background. The view from the meadow is below.
No pictures for the next couple of days. As we drove around the park, we saw many elk. We visited Menor's Ferry, a reproduction of a historic ferry across the Snake River, and Cunningham Cabin, an old rancher's cabin in the valley. I bought a sasparilla at the cabin. It tasted a lot like root beer. We spent a few hours in the town of Jackson walking around the square at the center of town, where there are numerous bars, restaurants, souvenier shops and other places to spend money.
On the way out of Jackson on September 7, we stopped at Bob and Sandra Williamson's home to visit them. They are friends from Shreveport, but have a second home about 10 miles south of Jackson at a great location on the Snake River. Bob is an avid fly fisherman. Every year, there's a big charitable fishing tournament in town called the One-Fly. The main rule is that each contestant only has one fly for the two days of the tournament, and if he loses the fly, that ends the tournament for him. Bob won the prize this year for the largest fish.
After leaving the Williamsons we drove to Vernal, Utah and spent the night there. It was a beautiful drive. The town is a nice small town. The main street was lined with hanging planters of red flowers every 100 feet or so for a couple of miles. We left Vernal on September 8, and drove near Dinosaur National Monument, but didn't go in. We had lunch in Meeker, Colorado, then drove through the White River and the Routt National Forests over the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway. We stopped at a small park at the top of one of the passes, where the scenery was really nice in all directions. We drove to Yampa, then turned south to I-70 near Vail. We were finally back home in Keystone about an hour later. Scenery from Flat Tops Scenic Byway is below.
We took a couple of hikes after returning to Keystone. One day, Miles and Kendal joined us for a hike along the ridge of the continental divide, from Loveland Pass. Miles led the way most of the time, and we stopped and found a geocache along the way. The pictures below are from the ridge, and you can see the ski runs at Keystone in the background behind my right arm. I thought we had some pictures of Miles, but I can't locate them. He was almost 4 years old at the time, and was great to hike with. He would stop and smell the flowers, giving us time to catch our breath at this altitude.
Another picture from the continental divide ridge with Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in the near background.
One afternoon, we went to watch Jeremiah play flag football. He's on a team of 6-9 year olds. Lexi normally plays on the opposing team, but she had a stomach virus earlier in the day, and was not able to make the game.
Linda and I bought bicycles from a nearby bicycle shop and had a great time riding around Keystone. There is a great bike path network all over Summit County. The ground will be covered with snow when we return, so we won't be able to ride them again until next summer.
Finally on September 17, we flew back to Shreveport.
