Day 14 - Snake River float trip and Teton Science School wildlife safari

Weather:  it started out very rainy and cold, but around 10:30am, the skies cleared and remained that way for the rest of the trip!  It also got up over 70, so we were grossly overdressed for most things

Steps:  Shaun - 7,775; Shan - 8,042

Varmints:  Red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, pronghorn, bald eagles and then...wait for it...babies!(Shannon's point), common merganser, elk, osprey, trumpeter swans, kite (maybe), female blue dusky grouse, mule deer, bison, Clark's nutcracker, meadowlark, northern flicker, two kinds of warblers and three kinds of teals.  Seriously?  I know...it was quite a day.

Points total:  Shaun - 22; Shan - 22.   Oooooo, we're neck and neck folks!  Who will pull it out in the end since we only have one more day? Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Our guide Hank from Moose

We had an action-packed day ahead of us, and the bummer was that we didn't know if we were going up in the balloon this morning, so neither one of us slept very well since we were waiting for the 5:15 am text to let us know if it would be an even more action packed day. Luckily (in my opinion), it was too overcast to fly, so we headed to the lovely Bunnery Restaurant and had a hearty breakfast to carry us through our next event...a float trip down the Snake River. We met our guide and seven fellow passengers, drove ten miles north to Deadman's Bar, and prepared to board our large inflatable raft. Just as we were waiting, the skies cleared and we saw two bald eagles, which were the symbols of nothing but goodness to come!

Our guide was a geologist who was the son of a park ranger from Moose and a very cool, no-nonsense kind of guy, so naturally I really liked him. The trip was great, and the view of the mountains couldn't be beat. I asked Hank if he ever got tired of it, and he laughed at me and said no, in all his travels, the Grand Tetons would always be his favorite place on earth.

We didn't see a ton of varmints here, but we did get to see three eagle's nests, and one even had babies in it!  I got a pretty good shot of it since she was in silhouette, but you can't see the babies without binoculars.  Oh well, Shannon still got the point for that one.

Given the weather in the morning, we had five layers of clothing on, no sunscreen, and we almost stewed in our own juices once the sun came out!  Once we got off the river, we stripped down and toured the Craig Morgan Visitor's Center, which was very cool.  Check out the view they have!

We were starving to death, so we headed back into Jackson for lunch. We ended up at the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar where Shannon finally had her Rocky Mountain oysters. Surprisingly (not!), they had very little for a vegan to eat, so I had my least nutritional meal of chips, salsa, and onion rings.  Nice huh?  Oh well, I ate a bunch of nuts as a snack. I will say that Wyoming has proven to be pretty easy to eat in as a vegan, whether the offerings were truly vegan or could be adjusted to become that way. I had to compromise on the cheese thing a couple of times, but all in all, it wasn't that bad. Our last meal was at a very cool place called Lotus Cafe, and I had vegan lasagna and Shan had elk lasagna.....the perfect place for us!

There's a gallery with several bronzes on benches, so I insisted Shan take my picture with Honest Abe.  She didn't like it because she said they were art waiting to be sold and I shouldn't be messing with them, but I say that if they put them on the street and on benches, they're fair game!

Our shadows on the overlook.....my attempt at art.....

After lunch we had an hour to kill, so we went back to our little cabin, sat at our picnic table, and read. It was heaven because we hadn't had a lot of time to read on this trip. At 5:00, we were picked up by Jean, our guide from the Teton Science School, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about the area, the environment, and how people can live within it while still protecting it. It ended up that we had a private tour, and we took full advantage!  This was billed as a sunset wildlife safari, so we had four hours to see whatever we could find (which ended up being not much, but we learned a ton from Jean, so we had a great time).  In the picture above, we were hoping to see the giant gray owl that had been hunting in the area, but we never saw him, even though we went back to this spot a couple of times.  Bummer.  That would have been so cool!  We did see a bunch of ducks, a heron, and a heron nest through Jean's spotting scope...which will definitely be on our next Christmas list, along with another pair of binoculars!

Once Jean found out we were both gardeners, she gave us all kinds of information on the local flora, which was great because we'd been checking everything out ourselves, but she had so much more info for us.  For example, we had noticed what we thought was a flower on the sagebrush, but she picked one and opened it to show us that it was actually a gall that the plant had grown to surround an insect that was trying to eat it. Isn't nature amazing?

We did see some pronghorn up close and then got a geology lesson on the Tetons. They are a very interesting mountain range since they're so young (comparatively speaking). Unlike the other ranges surrounding Jackson Hole, the Tetons are not considered part of the Rockies because they were formed so much later than the events that created the Rockies. This picture shows an exposed limestone wall where sea fossils have been found among the mainly granite surrounding rock, showing that not only was the Jackson Hole area under an ocean at one time, but that the wall, which is over 10,000 feet up, was at ground level at that time.

  

This is baby birthing time in the Tetons, so there are a bunch of areas closed to the public because various animals are nesting/denning in them, and Jean showed us a couple places where we might catch mothers and babies if we're there at the right time. A coyote was denning under one of the Mormon Row houses (which is where Shannon is in the picture above), but we didn't see anything...today.  Do you hear the foreshadowing going on here?  Just wait for tomorrow's post!

Jean took us to the base of Teewinot Mountain (which means Many Pinnacles in Shoshone), and we could see the peak of Nez Perce, which looks like a howling wolf when seen from this angle, don't you think?  I loved it! There's also another peak across the valley that looks like a big bellied Indian laying down that has an interesting story behind it, but I didn't get a shot of it...sorry!

Our lovely day ended with this beautiful sky as we said goodbye to Jean and collapsed in a pile after this busy day. Tomorrow begins with a balloon ride (we hope), and then a hike up to Inspiration Point above Jenny Lake. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Day 13 - Jackson, Teton Village, Teton Pass, and Phelps Lake

Weather: despite the photos above, it was actually mid-60s on the ground.
Steps: Shaun - 14,159; Shannon - 14,571 Varmints: a light day - osprey, mule deer, pronghorn, magpie, and a red-tailed hawk (maybe)

Our trip is winding down, and we're visiting our last, must-see places before heading home on Sunday. Today we got a late start, partially because we were supposed to have a hot air balloon ride but couldn't because of the weather. We'll try again tomorrow and then again Saturday if we have to, but for today, we decided to take it easy. First, we drove to Teton Village, a resort area about 15 minutes outside of Jackson. They have lots of summer and winter activities, including parasailing, skiing, etc. What we were interested in was the aerial tram that goes 4,139 feet up Mount Rendezvous.

The tram was completely rebuilt a few years ago, and it's super nifty. Each car can hold up to 60 people, but there were only 3 other people with us when we ascended. The weather on the ground was mid-60s and partly cloudy, but as we got further up the mountain, it started snowing and the temperature plummeted 30 degrees. We reached the top in 12 minutes and found snow ten feet deep! After the winter Shan had in Boston, she never wanted to see snow again, but there it was, looking terribly familiar.

The top was shrouded in clouds when we got up there, so we went into the snack shop that serves hot chocolate, coffee, and booze to wait for the next tram going down. We were finishing up and heading back to the platform when what should we see but the clouds parting and the green valley of Jackson Hole laid out before us. What an incredible sight!

There were quite a few more people on the tram going down than going up, so I couldn't get as many cool pictures, but I did get these two artsy fartsy ones with the cowboy on a horse etched into the window and then Shan's reflection superimposed over the waterfall.  Pretty cool, huh?

After finishing up with the tram ride, we ate at a cool little bistro called Nick's where we were introduced to Grand Teton Root Beer and wondered where it had been all our lives. It was super nummy but is, unfortunately, not distributed anywhere close to where we live.  Bummer.  We did find some more in a little grocery store in Teton Village, and we also found some other Native American crafts we couldn't live without, like goat's milk hand cream.  Dang it...a couple more things to ship home after we already had our boxes packed!

Our next activity was to drive over Teton Pass, which reaches 8,431 feet at its highest point and has a 10% grade.  An interesting side story is that we met a man in Jackson who had just ridden his bike from Portland, Oregon to Jackson Lake Lodge -- 806 miles -- through Teton Pass, and he was not a young guy!  He was probably older than me (which isn't very old, mind you), but holy cow...you've got to give the guy some serious credit for that one!  Anyway, we drove through the pass, actually saw the brewery where they make the Grand Teton Root Beer (totally by luck), so we bought some to have for the rest of the trip, and Shan bought a t-shirt and a Raging Bitch beer glass. I'm not making any further comments on that one for fear that it may incriminate me!

Our trip back over the pass was quite a bit more challenging since it started to pour down rain, and those of you who know about my little Jeep-rolling incident know that wet, curvy roads make me nervous.  Throw in a 10% grade going down, and I wasn't having fun!

Osprey nesting right side the park entrance

After coming off the pass, we were uncertain about what to do next because the weather was crappy, but it was still early, and we didn't want to waste the time we had left, so we decided to hike through the Rockefeller Preserve.  John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife, Fanny, were huge supporters of the Grand Tetons area in their day, along with their son Laurance.  As a matter of fact, they bought 39,000 acres at the base of the mountains and then donated them to the government, thereby expanding the park substantially.  What a way to spend your money...preserving some of the most beautiful natural resources on the planet.  Not a bad day at the office!

The hike followed the Lake Creek Trail up a fairly gentle slope until it ended at Phelps Lake. The rain had backed off some, and at some points it got downright warm!  We saw all kinds of wonderful plants and water features along the way...but then...we got a four-legged surprise!

This female mule deer could have cared less that we were in her space.  She obviously knew we were there despite our very clandestine approach...sneaking up behind the trees...but she just kept eating and checking us out.  Shan decided to continue on down the trail, and the deer just walked right up to her!  It was seriously cool!

Phelps Lake was very pretty but about 20 degrees colder than the surrounding area, so we didn't stick around too long. We still had about another 1.5 miles to go and the skies were clouding up again. We crossed a very unusual bridge that had multiple levels and rock enclosures along the side. We also came across another raptor of some kind, but we couldn't identify him.  Probably a red-tailed hawk since we've seen a whole lot of them here.

We were so glad that we decided to take this hike, and we decided that 3 miles was the perfect length...we were tired but not exhausted, and we'd dressed appropriately and were prepared for both the rain and the sun.  Here we are in front of a waterfall that you could actually walk right up to.  Isn't Shannon getting good at these selfies?

On our way back to the cabin, we were treated to a lovely sunset. Tomorrow is a big day because we have a float trip in the morning and a wildlife safari in the afternoon with a possible hot air balloon ride thrown in for good measure, so we're going to crash fairly early. More on the morrow!