Tuesday morning: we were on the road out of Willard Bay by 7am! That is the earliest that we have started traveling in the RV. But we wanted to travel while the winds were low and also to get to our site with time to explore the Grand Tetons.
The trip was smooth. We ended up traveling 55 miles on Idaho 34 (yes, we traveled a bit through Idaho) between the Bear River Range and Peale Mountains. There was almost no traffic on this road! The road itself had many turns that required slowing the RV down, and many passing lanes. But there were no problems on this road and Vicki got to enjoy the scenery.
The next few days would be spent exploring the upper corner of Wyoming: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and the John D Rockefeller Parkway connecting those two:
The route to Grand Tetons took us through the scenic (e.g. tourist trap) town of Jackson, WY (which is in the valley and wilderness area of Jackson Hole).
And on the way to our campground we stopped to see a herd of bison on the edge of Grand Tetons National Park
We got into Colter Bay Village campsite (in Grand Teton national park) around 12:45. And we were ready to explore Grand Teton by 2!
Our first stop was at Colter Bay’s Visitor Center. We watched a film about the Grand Tetons.
And then we looked across Jackson Lake and admired Mount Moran and the Tetons. There was snow on the mountain tops and we could see some glaciers. The glaciers looked like more snow…
We took the Grand Teton Loop Road stopping at the Potholes turnout to look at a pothole (or kettle). A pothole is a geological depression in the ground caused when a large piece of glacier gets buried by soil. When the glacier ice melted, the ground sank.
Jenny Lake overlook provided views of the Tetons across Jenny Lake.
Jenny Lake visitor Center gave us more views of the Tetons as well as a chance to shop (and get another cancellation for Grand Tetons.) Steve also bought a can of bear spray from a visitor who was flying home (and bear spray is not allowed on planes.)
At the Snake River Overlook we could see the Tetons in the background with the Snake River in the foreground. The Snake River was smooth at this point, we had seen it wilder on our way north of Jackson. The Snake River Valley had two terraces, the lower more recent plain and an older, higher plain created when the Snake River was much larger.
At Oxbow Bend we scanned the Snake River and opposing shore for wildlife. We saw a couple of pelicans and a few other, unidentified birds. But no bear or elk.
Dinner that evening was at the Pioneer Grill at Jackson Lake Lodge. The food services at Colter Bay were not going to open until Thursday (just in time for the Memorial Day weekend.)
(Wednesday and Thursday adventures in Yellowstone will be covered in the next blog.)
The rest of the park services in Colter Bay were open on Thursday, so we went to the Ranch Restaurant for dinner (trout, short ribs) and drinks for our last evening meal in Colter Bay.
Thursday night was cold again, and there was more snow in the higher altitudes. You can see that Mount Moran and the Grand Teton have more snow cover on them than when we arrived Tuesday.
As a note: this is the first campground where we didn’t get T-mobile reception, so our WiFi came from hotspots on our phones. Fortunately our Consumer Cellular (on the ATT network) was able to get 4G service. Not enough oomph for streaming movies but good enough for email and messages.
V: another park that took my breath away!
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