We arrived at Grand Teton National Park, and found the mountains had a
lot more snow than we were used to. The weather was also cold and
cloudy. We normally come here in July and August; we haven't been here
this early in the summer before.
The Teton skyline. The
mountains are still gorgeous, but look more imposing with all the snow
and dreary weather.
A young, and scrawny looking, bull moose that wandered almost
into the town of Jackson. (Photo courtesy of Alex.)
We decided to do some geocaching. One can look up on the Internet the GPS coordinates
of a geocache and, using a GPS, go and find it. The geocache is a
small, weatherproof container containing a log book and miscellaneous
objects. If you find it, then you can put your name in the log. If you
take an object from the cache, you should leave something of equal
value. That way the cache always contains objects, but the collection
changes with time. We found this cache (a WWII ammo box) on Shadow
Mountain in the Bridger-Teton National Forest; Alex was the first to
spot it.
According to what we read on the Internet, the cache was originally in
the national park, but the rangers don't allow geocaches in the park,
so it was moved to just outside the park.
The national park contains a sizeable buffalo herd. These buffaloes had
wandered close to the road, so we could get their picture. The buffalo
on the right doesn't seem too thrilled with my presence, so I quickly
grabbed the picture and backed off. The fence between the buffalo
and me didn't seem that strong, so I didn't want to depend on it to
protect me.
On the way to another geocache (again in Bridger-Teton National
Forest), we spotted some bighorn sheep. This was quite a treat, since
we had never seen bighorn sheep before in the Tetons. They are there,
of course, but rather elusive and usually pretty high in the mountains.
Again, we were successful at finding the cache; this time Zack was the
first to spot it. Alex is holding up the GPS unit that his dad sent for
us to use in geocaching. It worked pretty slick, so I may have to get
one.
Zack is signing the log in the cache, and seeing what objects were in
it. Since we hadn't brought anything to leave in it, we didn't take
anything from it.
Driving back into the national park, we were
treated to this view of the Tetons. My idea of heaven is to have a home
here and see this view everyday!
Another
excursion was a boat ride across Jenny Lake and a hike to Hidden Falls.
Normally we hike on up to Inspiration Point and into Cascade Canyon,
but this time the trail to Inspiration Point was closed because of
winter damage to the bridge over the creek. So we had to be content
with only going to Hidden Falls.
As
we approached Hidden Falls, the trail got snow-covered, which was good
fun for the boys. Zack is threatening to throw a snowball at Alex.
But who is that old man behind Zack? (Photo courtesy of Alex.)
This marmot greeted us at Hidden Falls. (Photo courtesy of Alex.)
