Grand Teton: Friday, June 25th
Dave got up and was out of the camper before 7am. He was eager to get down to Schwabacher Road to capture the reflection picture in the water of the mountains and trees that is often seen on the cover of Grand Teton photography books. It was definitely worth his while, the photos came out beautifully.
As an added bonus, on his way in, a grizzly was wandering along the side of the road. He was able to capture it wonderfully. At one point, it was within 5 feet of his open car window, he said it made him a tad nervous so he put the car in gear and was ready to put his foot on the gas pedal, should it have got any closer! A little too much wildlife for my liking! Look at the 7th picture, do you see the claws? Dave went through the photos and deleted a lot of the bear ones, when I came to decide which ones to use in here, I still had 41 to choose from....this gives you an idea of how many photos are taken each day!
Late afternoon, we all headed back to that same point in hopes of seeing beaver as there is a large beaver lodge there. On the way in, we stopped at the newly, renovated sign area. While they were re-paving the road, the sign had been removed completely so it was great to be one of the first to stand by it - it smelt new!
It really is an incredibly peaceful spot and not a terribly well-known or marked one in the Park, so, rarely crowded. While we were sitting watching the water, an elk appeared through the forest and just stared at us, it was a great moment. Along the path on the way to this point, Caitlin spotted a snake, on the way back, many, many ground squirrels criss-crossed in front of us, lots of little tunnels all over the place.
The Teke Family from Outbackers had let us know they were also in the area this week. Our paths weren’t crossing at the beginning of the week, when we were in Yellowstone, they were in Grand Teton and vice-versa. Today, they were staying at Signal Mountain campground, which wasn’t very far out of our way, so we stopped in to see them. While we chatted with Dan and Rachel, the kids played with their 9 year old daughter, Sydney. There are no hook-ups here, so they had a good fire going for their dinner and to deter the mosquitoes. Today was a particularly bad mosquito day; we weren’t outside very much and still went through a container of spray! There were a couple of mule deer wandering around in the woods behind the campsite, totally unconcerned by the number of people around.
By the time we left them, it was almost 9. We had promised the kids ice cream for dinner as we’d had a late breakfast and very early dinner. The day ended up being a little longer than we had planned, especially as we saw another bear on the drive out of the Park and needed another moon photo – the joy of travelling and flexibility!
Dave had spent the afternoon fixing a leak on the toilet but thinks he may have over-tightened it slightly because when we got back, it cracked (unfortunately, while I was sitting on it, clearly spent the next day as the ‘butt’ of a few family jokes!). This was less than perfect timing, given that we had wanted to quickly pack up and be ready to leave early in the morning. So, instead of packing, Dave had to try and figure out an RV store on our route that might have a toilet we could buy, sigh, nothing quite goes the way we’d hoped (and just goes to show that life still throws those curve balls occasionally)!
As an added bonus, on his way in, a grizzly was wandering along the side of the road. He was able to capture it wonderfully. At one point, it was within 5 feet of his open car window, he said it made him a tad nervous so he put the car in gear and was ready to put his foot on the gas pedal, should it have got any closer! A little too much wildlife for my liking! Look at the 7th picture, do you see the claws? Dave went through the photos and deleted a lot of the bear ones, when I came to decide which ones to use in here, I still had 41 to choose from....this gives you an idea of how many photos are taken each day!
Late afternoon, we all headed back to that same point in hopes of seeing beaver as there is a large beaver lodge there. On the way in, we stopped at the newly, renovated sign area. While they were re-paving the road, the sign had been removed completely so it was great to be one of the first to stand by it - it smelt new!
It really is an incredibly peaceful spot and not a terribly well-known or marked one in the Park, so, rarely crowded. While we were sitting watching the water, an elk appeared through the forest and just stared at us, it was a great moment. Along the path on the way to this point, Caitlin spotted a snake, on the way back, many, many ground squirrels criss-crossed in front of us, lots of little tunnels all over the place.
The Teke Family from Outbackers had let us know they were also in the area this week. Our paths weren’t crossing at the beginning of the week, when we were in Yellowstone, they were in Grand Teton and vice-versa. Today, they were staying at Signal Mountain campground, which wasn’t very far out of our way, so we stopped in to see them. While we chatted with Dan and Rachel, the kids played with their 9 year old daughter, Sydney. There are no hook-ups here, so they had a good fire going for their dinner and to deter the mosquitoes. Today was a particularly bad mosquito day; we weren’t outside very much and still went through a container of spray! There were a couple of mule deer wandering around in the woods behind the campsite, totally unconcerned by the number of people around.
By the time we left them, it was almost 9. We had promised the kids ice cream for dinner as we’d had a late breakfast and very early dinner. The day ended up being a little longer than we had planned, especially as we saw another bear on the drive out of the Park and needed another moon photo – the joy of travelling and flexibility!
Dave had spent the afternoon fixing a leak on the toilet but thinks he may have over-tightened it slightly because when we got back, it cracked (unfortunately, while I was sitting on it, clearly spent the next day as the ‘butt’ of a few family jokes!). This was less than perfect timing, given that we had wanted to quickly pack up and be ready to leave early in the morning. So, instead of packing, Dave had to try and figure out an RV store on our route that might have a toilet we could buy, sigh, nothing quite goes the way we’d hoped (and just goes to show that life still throws those curve balls occasionally)!
Comments
As told my boss the other day...flexibility is the name of the game. It just makes life a bit easier to deal with.
Continued safe travels for all of you.
Ali