Thursday, July 7, 2011

Grand Teton Nat'l Park - Jackson Wyoming

We made our way south through Yellowstone and into Grand Teton National Park.  The wildflower and mountain scenery along the way were beautiful:


If you're here to see the wildlife then you have to love when you see road signs like this in the park:


As we made our way down through the park toward Hoback Junction we did catch some pronghorns in the fields:

We landed at the Lazy J Corral RV Park in Hoback Junction where the owners Rod & Candy (and Rod's Dad) were all very friendly:


There's only a handful of sites here available to rent.  Full hookups, free wifi and very reasonable!  We sat on the porch with these guys and chatted while trying to catch a shot of a hummingbird:

Several hummingbirds hit this feeder constantly
Once we were setup, we headed back to the park to look for wildlife.  One of our favorite spots is Oxbow Bend of the snake river:

Looking east from here you could see a huge herd of elk off in the distance:

Herd of elk grazing in the field
We spotted some sort of white pelican (maybe?) near by:


We stopped at the Jackson Lake Dam to take a shot - no wind here at the moment:

Break out the ski and wakeboard!
We made our way to the top of Signal Hill where the view of the Tetons & Jackson Lake was incredible:


Another day we hit the Rockefeller Preserve and hiked.  Just outside the preserve we ran into this brown black bear:


He didn't look too old (yearling maybe).  We watched him dig for food and then take off into the woods (where we were about to hike . . . but he was cute!):


The hike was pretty good.  A 3 mile loop that passed by Phelps Lake:


Not much wildlife here but this little guy who sat and posed for the camera very nicely:

Another one just for you Greg!  Looks like shredded US dollars?
After our hike we headed toward the Gros Venture area.  Just outside of Rockefeller Preserve we saw this female moose in an area where we had seen moose before:


Gros Ventre is another area we had seen moose on a previous trip (and now this trip too):

Nice Rack!
From here we drove north and found a short side road to explore.  We found this doe and fawn:


This was the smallest fawn we've ever seen:


Check them out in action:


After an exhausting day of wildlife viewing we decided to hit Dornan's in Moose, WY (centrally located in the park).  They have a great deck to sit out on, good food and drinks, relatively inexpensive but mostly you come here for the view (Snake River with Tetons):


Two days here we went kayaking down the Snake River.  We dropped a bike off at a boat ramp just past the Moran ranger station and then we drove up to the Dam to put the kayak in:


Both days were beautiful for kayaking the river.  Winds were light so the water was like glass:
Very little paddling involved here as the current kept us moving at a good clip (especially when one of us paddled while the other took pictures):

One day kayaking this little beaver went swimming right by us:

and many little ducklings swimming close to their mother on the water:


They were probably staying close with this hawk/juvenile bald eagle? in the area:

Which is it?
And this bald eagle perched over the river too:


And this guy flew right over our heads:


We also spotted what we thought were moose in the river from a distance but on closer investigation, elk:


We found a couple of trumpeter swans along the way:

This one let us get a little closer:
Looks like soft fur on it's neck
Got a little tricky near the boat ramp getting out as an overflowing creek ran into the river just before the ramp.  We had to paddle hard to not get swept further down the river but all ended well (except for one of us getting a little more wet than planned the 1st day).  One day we then took the kayak over to Jackson Lake to paddle around a bit:

The lake was pretty much glass too which made for some cool mountain reflections in the water:


Another day after kayaking we biked to the Lupine Meadows Trail Head:

And to make it a triathlon kind of day we also hiked up the Lupine meadows trail.  Great scenery along the way:

After this very exhausting day we just had to go sit at our favorite watering hole deck again (Dornan's) to recuperate and take in the scenery.  This time we had the pleasure of watching a bull moose hanging out down by the snake river as we enjoyed our dinner:


We're off to Salt Lake City for a day to meet up with Charlie & Janet who are headed to Glacier NP.  Then we continue on to Zion & Bryce Canyon National Parks where we pick up our niece Kelly who will be joining us for a week of hiking red rocks - should be fun!  More to come . . .

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures! Looks like a blast, I am so lucky and so excited!! See you very very soon!! :)

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  2. Thanks for the squirrel pictures. Makes me feel like I'm walking on a trail in Ohio.

    I'm going with American bald eagle on the shot through the sun roof, and juvie bald eagle on the hawk or bald eagle picture.

    - Greg

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