The
Tetons
July 13-21, 2010
The Tetons are our favorite mountains. In the last few years we have
normally come here in early June or in late September, so coming in the
middle of summer was a bit different for us. The weather is warmer, but
the park is more crowded. I think I prefer the off season times better
- besides less people, there is more snow in the mountains in early
June, and beautiful colors with the aspens turning yellow in the fall.
The Tetons as seen across Jackson Lake. Mount Moran looks the highest
from this viewpoint, but Grand Teton, the highest peak on the left, is
actually about a thousand feet higher.
This group of mountains is called the Cathedral Group; Teewinot is on
the left, with Mt. Owens to the right, and Grand Teton in between and
behind both of them. What is especially striking about the Tetons is
that there are no foothills. The mountains rise directly from the
valley floor to a height of six to seven thousand feet above the valley.
The Tetons mirrored in a backwater of the Snake River.
What an idyllic spot for a chapel. Church (Episcopalian) services are
held here each Sunday. Behind the altar is a window looking out on
Grand Teton. If the sermon gets boring, you can ignore it and
contemplate the beauty of the mountains!
I was surprised to see a couple of pelicans swimming in the Snake
River. I asked a ranger about it and he said that it was not unusual;
there are pelicans breeding in this area.
A small forest fire started one afternoon; it burned about 40 acres and
took the firefighters about 4 days to put it out. The weather here has
been very dry. During the week we were here, we had only a light rain
one night. The policy for fighting forest fires is, if they are from
natural causes and do not threaten buildings, they let them burn. In
this case they suspected the fire was of human origin since there had not been
any lightening for a couple of weeks, so they extinguished it.
A young deer that wandered into our campsite looking for something to
nibble on, which she found. Our last night here we had two does and
two fawns come trotting through, but I didn't have my camera nearby, so
I couldn't get a picture of them.
We did some kayaking on Jenny, String, Leigh, and Jackson lakes. The
weather was nice, the winds were manageable, and scenery was simply
gorgeous.
While kayaking on the shore of Leigh Lake we spotted this cow moose and
her calf wandering along the shore. Mama looked our way, but apparently
didn't think we were a threat, so she continued on.
Cascase Canyon is one of the more popular hikes in the park. You get to the canyon by taking a boat ride across Jenny Lake.
Hiking up the canyon you come to Hidden Falls, which are named that because the falls can't be seen from outside the canyon.
Further on is Inspiration Point, where you get a nice view of Jenny Lake and Jackson Hole, as the valley is called.
This golden-mantled ground squirrel is a resident of Inspiration Point
and begs food from hikers. He looks cute, but can become rather
aggressive in going after your food if you give him a chance.
Heading back down from Inspiration Point, we were reminded of why we
like the Tetons better during the off-season; a lot of people were
coming up the trail and it got pretty crowded in places.
A Uinta ground squirrel that lives near our campsite. They are speedy
little creatures that are always darting around and don't stay still
very long, so I was lucky to get this picture (since we haven't seen
much in the way of moose, bears, or buffalo, I am reduced to
photographing squirrels (:-)). They don't seem to have learned to beg
for food, which is good.
After a week of boring cloudless sunsets, one our last night in
the Tetons we had an absolutely beautiful sunset. Tomorrow we head for
Yellowstone.