Wednesday, September 18, 2013

September 17, 2013

A wonderful day in the National Parks.  We started in Jackson WY and ended up at the Shoshone Lodge just outside the East entrance to Yellowstone...address is listed as Cody but still 50 miles from the city.

We left Jackson bright and early...while on vacation is usually about 9 am and started around the mountain toward the Teton Lodge.  This area is kind of flat and has plenty of space for those who want to bicycle around the area.  We traveled on the Moose- Wilson Road towards Jenny Lake which gave us a closer look at the Tetons.


Several of these next pictures were taken on the Moose Wilson Road.  On the first one you might note that there is a cabin in the foreground.  It is a private residence in the park one among many that are lifelong residences for the people who donated land to the park.























 When we got to Jenny Lake, we took a ferry across to the other side to go to the Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point which would have been a total of about 2 miles.  On the was up to Hidden Falls, a thunderstorm came through.  We decided to skip Inspiration Point,turned around and headed back to the boat landing and across Jenny Lake in heavy rain.  We did however get a closeup the grandest of the Tetons.




The Snake River seems to forever wind it's way through the valleys.


 I bought this T shirt in Union Maine knowing that we were going to be traveling through the mountains.  Liberty Graphics.  Lots of nice T-shirts.


 We got to Yellowstone and guess what...Old Faithful still hasn't run out of water.  Old Faithful is only one of many geysers, not the tallest, but she is the most regular of them all.  We arrived about 15 minutes early for her next presentation.  This time was about 150 feet high and 3 minutes long.  They keep track of this information so they can predict to visitors when she will go off next.
 





 Walking around the area, are lots of small geysers and holes that spurt up water.  This one was about 2 feet in diameter.


 As one would expect, they have names too.  This is Chinese Spring and is probably around 7 feet in diameter.


 This one continuously seeps into the Firehole River.


 For the 2nd time today a thunderstorm was approaching rapidly with predicted hail.  From the parking lot with plenty of lightening in the background, we headed out with Old Faithful doing her thing.


Yer, we actually saw something live today.  A female Elk was feeding beside the road.


 Occasionally she would turn around to see where her young one was.





 Yellowstone Lake is quite large and sort of reminded us of the Ocean.


 Several years back, a lot of the area was consumed by a fire, but slow and sure the area comes back.





 Yellowstone River.


 Yellowstone Lake


 Finally, we found Grammie resting on the porch of our luxury suite!!! 

For those with attention to detail, the Brown Bear mentioned in yesterdays blog is actually a Grizzly.  Poetic license for sure.  After spending most of the day traveling above 7000 feet we had a good meat here at Shoshone Lodge and called it a night.   Goodnight John Boy....

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