Grand Tetons National Park

Our last night in Yellowstone dropped to 27 degrees. The weather was getting colder and the aspen leaves had mostly turned and dropped in Yellowstone, so we headed a little further south to the Grand Tetons to see if there would be more color. Cold weather comes more quickly to the north and the higher elevations.

View of Tetons and Cottonwoods from Oxbow Bend

We camped at Signal Mountain Campground on Jackson Lake for 3 days and nights. The Tetons have always been one of our special places - the spectacular mountains and diverse wildlife never disappoint.  And just being there refreshes and restores the spirit.

Aspens

 

We had not been to the Tetons since the new Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center was finished. The new center had huge windows with an amazing view of the Tetons in the lobby.  It almost felt like you weren't in a building. There were video panels on the floor complete with sound - a video river.  So as you walked and looked down it looked like a birds eye view of the park. Very cool!

Those little dots in the foreground are elk...

Our campsite neighbor, John, from California invited us to share dinner our first night in the campground.  John had some special cheese from Switzerland. He cooked  potatoes in the fire and we put the melted cheese on the potatoes and ate them with pineapples, tomatoes and pickles.  Interesting combination, but John says that is how the Swiss do it.  And it was really good.

Jenny Lake

 

We spent some time at Jenny Lake, one of our favorite places and saw elk and pronghorn antelope along the road.  We walked along the shore of Jenny Lake enjoying the aspens.  But the wind was taking the leaves quickly.

One morning we had breakfast at Signal Mountain Lodge and afterward drove to Oxbow bend and saw a male elk with five cows.  Then we drove further south to the Snake River to a launching point.  There were several people down at the boat launch and we saw that they were observing 3 moose - a cow and two older calves.  We got to watch the moose for about an hour as they slowly grazed and crossed the river.  Two bald eagles soared over head for a few minutes, so it was a real treat.

Moose in the river

Another place we looked for wildlife was along the Moose-Wilson road that runs from Moose to Teton Village.  We were so excited to see a young solitary black wolf running next to and then across the road.  I didn’t get a photograph as it ducked into cover fairly quickly.  But we saw it running for a few seconds and it was fantastic! 

One night we drove slowly along Jenny Lake Road looking and listening for elk. Our efforts were rewarded and we stopped about 20 minutes and watched a big bull, 3 cows and a younger male as they grazed just yards from us off the road.  The big male ‘bugled’ ever so often and we both wondered why he was tolerating the young male among his cows.  We returned to camp around 8:30 and compared our animal sighting stories with our neighbor, John, who had seen two bears that day. 

The Middle and Grand Teton

 

I think I'll ask Santa for a bigger lens this Christmas.  Mine isn't very long and alas I didn't get any close ups the animals we saw.  But just seeing them and being in the Tetons was pretty darn nice...