Days 13-15; Tetons, Lake Jackson, & Yellow Stone NP
I tend to be an early riser, so I got up in the cold mountain air, still being dark, and I cooked breakfast; no Denny’s this morning. At campgrounds such as this, they impress on campers to make sure food stuffs and trash to be all secured when being away from the campsite. After breakfast we prepared for the day’s adventure to Yellowstone National Park. So, we packed away all the trash and food stuffs. Then we hit the road and headed north.
Arriving early enough the car line wasn’t long at all. We parked and followed the signs to the walking tour around the geysers. The geysers and eruptions were spectacular to view in person, but the tour path was often crowded. From a photographer’s point of view, it was a little disappointing because of the crowd. Photographers must get those awesome postcard perfect shots you find in their brochures while the park is closed when photographers. But today was crowded and I could not get a good pic without loads of people. I was annoyingly thinking, “if I really wanted, I could take shots of crowds any day in Dallas”. Nevertheless, we did the complete walking tour and decided to go explore another part of the park, Mammoth Hot Springs.
Yet again, imagine this; a long windy two-lane mountain road which is backed up bumper to bumper like a Dallas rush hour. The traffic moved so slowly, I got my daughter to drive while I stepped out and took pictures; I was able to walk faster than the line of traffic. Eventually, we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs where I was able to get great camera angles that were uniquely interesting and highlighted scenery no tourists. After some quality picture time here, it was time to move on.
Yellowstone National Park is just way too big to fully explore in a couple of days. I suggest you plan to visit at a time way less busy and dedicate more time. Remember, this was a last minute choice but worth it. Anyhow, we considered taking a day and go summer skiing in Montana. But after examining the slope’s stats; they were rated advanced. So, we decided to return to our camp going the long way around. We drove into Montana, then Idaho and turned south down the west side of the Grand Tetons, crossed back eastward and back to our camp.
When we got back some of our gear was missing, so we went to the campground office to inquire. There the Park Rangers informed us that bears had been spotted in our camp area. Evidently, we left something out that attracted the bears and the park rangers had to run them off. Then they collect some of our stuff, and secured it in a lockup. Needless to say, the rangers were quite annoyed with us. Likewise annoyed we hadn’t seen the bears. Once we retrieved our gear and return to our site. We made dinner over an open fire, sat around as the sun went down, and discussed the upcoming day’s adventure.
Come morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and packed up our camp keeping in mind the scolding we had received from the park rangers the night before. We loaded up our kayaks and drove around the lake to where we had planned to launch. As we were driving we stopped at several pull offs to view the sites and to take pictures. We also saw there where there many signs posted, “Beware of Bears”; we still didn’t see any.
We drove on around and came upon a line of backed-up traffic; it was backed up because of an bull elk was in the middle of the road and didn’t want to move. Against all caution, tourists hopped out of their cars to take pics, despite numerous signs warning against it. And of course, with my supper-dupper 300 mm zoom lens, tossing caution out the window I joined them. After a short time, the elk got annoyed with all the attention so he moved off the road and laid down, thus allowing for the backed-up traffic to continue unimpeded. Finally arriving at the boat ramp, we launched out onto the scenic Lake Jackson.
Like Vallecito, Lake Jackson was crystal clear and smooth as glass, but the scenery was much better. The large lake is located where the valley widens out at the base of the Grand Teton mountains. The icy cold Snake River feeds the lake. The distant snowcapped mountains mirror off the surface of the lake early in the morning. After much of the day taking turns kayaking and taking pics, we loaded up and headed back to camp.
We decided to drive up on top of the 7,720 foot Signal Mountain Summit for a better view of the lake, mountains, and valley below. I resolved to return to take astrological pics of the Milky Way setting over Lake Jackson and Grand Tetons because of the spectacular view. With the sun beginning to get low on the west mountains, we headed down the Signal Mountain, and back to our camp.
On the way back, just off the road we came upon a herd of buffalo; two males were ramming each other, with each trying to exercise its dominance over the other. Of course, I had to stop to take pics, but with the sun going down, lighting conditions was not conducive for good pics and after the fight was over, the buffalo moved off and we resumed our drive back to camp.
The next morn, I got the girls up and this time packed everything on JINO, then headed to Jackson, Wyoming. Much like Durango, Jackson is a great little town on the banks of the infamous Snake River. It has all kinds of boutiques, hotels, restaurants, and the expected tourist attractions and activities. Furthermore, Jackson is the home of some of the best skiing North America, Jackson Hole, not to mention the whitewater rafting. Having a little time before check-in for rafting, we ate breakfast at Snake River Roasting Company; a great place for breakfast and your morning caffeine rush. Next, we checked in at Lewis & Clark River Expeditions, loaded up on a bus, and took off for the launch site.
Once there, we got off the bus, into the raft, and down the river we went; well at least my oldest daughter and I. My youngest does not usually do most watersports, so she drove JINO down and met us at the bottom.
Having learned from our Costa Rica trip, I chose not to get my DSLR anywhere near water. Instead, I tried using my smart phone; I recommend getting a GoPro for activities such as this.
I took as many pics as I could until I dropped my phone. Luckily, it fell inside the raft, but I where couldn’t reach it while the raft was moving. We went over and through several really rough rapids that are fed by the seasonal snow melt. Now I had been rafting and kayaking through some mildly rough water. But Snake River is bar-none, like the Animas River, an experienced kayaker’s paradise.
Hours later, we finally arrived down river at the place we were to disembark. We changed out of our wet clothes then got into the JINO for next leg of our adventure. Fifteen days behinds us with only four more to go. Knowing we only had four days left and four states to cross, we took to the highway at speeds I shalt not confess here. That eve we rolled into Rawlins, Wyoming, ate and got a room. And yes, hot showers; the first in four days.