Grand Teton National Park

After spending the night in Buffalo, WY, where we had a great meal at the Winchester Restaurant (and where I left my favorite brown hoodie), we set off for Grand Teton. The drive was great, although longer than we anticipated. We drove over the Bighorn Mountains, which were very scenic, and encountered some unexpected road construction that delayed us awhile As a result of the delays, we approached Jackson Hole late in the afternoon and were treated to a view of hazy, late afternoon, looking into the sun views of the Tetons. They were spectacular! The Tetons are very young mountains. Their jagged tops rise straight up out of the flat Snake River valley, with no foothills, making them look even more dramatic.

We spent the night in Jackson, where we wandered around the town, checking out the multitude of galleries (we have found they love bronze sculptures in the West), and had dinner at a local brewery. Jackson Hole is a little "high end", but definitely worth seeing.

All is serendipity on a trip like this- we almost forgot we wanted to check out Jackson Hole ski area before we left on our "scenic drive" of Teton, so we checked with the hotel person on how to get there. She told us it would work fine- go to the ski area, than take the back way to where our drive would start, part of the drive would be unpaved but well-maintained. Well, just a 1/2 mile before the park Visitor Center, we spotted a young moose in wetlands right next to the road- not more than 30 feet away, who was not at all upset about us taking pictures.

The drive around Teton was just spectacular. We were unable, due to the number of people, to take our first choice of hikes, so drove further north to Jackson Lake. We passed by so much beauty (as Dale said, you could take a picture around every corner), that we finally just drove. We opted to take a 3 mile hike at the northern end of the park, which took us along the shore of Jackson Lake, and past 2 glacier lakes- Heron Lake and Swan Lake. We were surprised at the number of wildflowers everywhere- wild lupine, sunflowers, Indian paintbrush, wild geranium, and others that I don't recognize.

Overall, one of our favorite parks thus far! Tomorrow, we head to Yellowstone.

Just an aside- we have been surprised at the lack of population in the towns we have visited (for example, Buffalo had a population of 1100)- yet they seem to have several nice restaurants, and several hotels, though I am not sure where they shopped for food or clothes... A very different life style from what we are used to on the East Coast.