Friday, May 23, 2008

May 23, 2008 - Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

I can’t believe another week is almost over. Today is Friday and we left Yellowstone this morning. I need to make a correction to a comment about Yellowstone Lake. I said in an earlier blog that it was so wide that I could not see the opposite shore. Well, today it was sunny when we left the park and I was able to see the other shore. Granted, it was a long way off, but I could see it. The snow and bad visibility prevented me from seeing the mountains on the other side when I first viewed the lake.

OK - Now that my correction is out of the way, I’ll move on. We left Yellowstone this morning around 9am and headed out the south side of the park. Almost immediately upon leaving Yellowstone on the south side, you enter the Grand Teton National Park. We did not take any of the side roads in the Grand Teton Park because we were making out way to Jackson Hole, WY. We had mail waiting on us at the Jackson Hole post office and we needed to pick it up before they closed.

The Grand Teton mountains were off to my right going toward Jackson Hole. The Snake River runs along them and there is a very wide valley on either side of the highway. I think what makes the Grand Tetons so remarkable is there are no foothills in front of them. The rise sharply right out of the valley floor. I don’t know the height of these mountains, but they must be pretty high because they still have a heavy snow cover on them. It is such a sight to see the contrast of the deep blue of the mountains, the bright white of the snow against the lighter blue of the sky and green of the valley. I hope the pictures I took will be turn out good so that you can see the beauty of these mountains.

Well today it finally happened. I SAW A MOOSE! We have seen tons of elk, deer, antelope and buffalo, but not the elusive moose. We were well into our drive to Jackson Hole and saw cars stopped. We slowed down and I strained to see what everyone was looking at. I couldn’t see a thing. Mike asked me if I wanted to stop and see if it was a moose. Mike pulled off and stopped the truck. I got out and walked back to check it out. Sure enough, back in the trees just a short way from the road, a female was lying down. I got some good pictures. I was hoping she would stand up, but she never did. A noisy car came by and she did open her eyes and raise her head. I think she even winked at me. Anyway, I can now rest easy as I have finally seen a moose in the wild.

Jackson Hole is a neat little place. Mike had been there before and knew I would like it. The streets of the town are narrow so we found a back road where we could park the RV. We walked around town for a while and had a bite of lunch. Jackson Hole is a ski town filled with lots of expensive little shops. As a true typical ski town, they have a great pizza place. Mike and I ate lunch at Mountain High Pizza Pie. It sure was good. I’d been wanting some pizza and this hit the spot.

We found out that the main post office is now outside of town. So, we had to go back and get the truck and RV and drive out to the new post office. Thankfully, the roads in the newer section of town are not nearly as narrow so we did not have any problem driving to the new post office.

We left Jackson Hole and backtracked a ways ant then took another highway toward Dubois, WY and on to Riverton, WY where we spent the night. Our time on this trip is fast running out if we want to bet back to KY for a family reunion by the 23rd of June. We still have several places we want to visit on our drive back east. I would have liked to stayed in Jackson Hole and visited some of the shops, but I knew I was not going to buy anything and we needed to get on our way.

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