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| Friday,
June 9, 2000 -- We're going to YELLOWSTONE!!!!
9:30 a.m. flight - they're looking for "bump" volunteers, but we would arrive in Salt Lake City at 9:30 p.m. Nah. "We'll volunteer to get bumped for a flight to Jackson Hole!" (Ticket agent got a good laugh out of that one!) We arrive in SLC, get the rental car and are on the road around 3:00 p.m. Dinner in Pocatello, and then on to spend the night in Idaho Falls Best Western right next to the falls. Pretty! |
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| Saturday,
June10, 2000
We made a run to the store, and then are on the road for the Tetons!
It's a pretty drive through the Snake River Canyon past the Palisades Dam,
with a small delay for road construction south of Jackson.
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| We arrived in Grand Teton National Park a short time after lunch, and notice the small "Chapel of the Transfiguration" just beyond the visitor center in Moose. We had read that this Episcopal church has a window to the Grand Teton behind the altar, but we expected it to be a larger building. There was wedding in progress, so we didn't check out the inside. |  |
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On the way to our first park lodging at Signal Mountain Cabins, we stopped to do part of the Jenny Lake trail that leads to Hidden Falls from the String Lake parking lot, as serious clouds are rolling in. We had not been on the trail 5 minutes when we met a couple of guys who said, "There's a bear just ahead, across the river." Sure enough, we soon spot a mom black bear with two small cubs on the other side of a rushing stream. She was digging around for food, but she looked very agitated. Not only were there people stopped on the trail about 50 feet across the stream watching her, but the cubs were climbing up and down a tree making all kinds of racket. One cub was hanging from a limb by one arm, screaming at the top of its lungs! She finally had enough and hustled them away. |
| By now it is beginning to rain fairly hard. Ill prepared (no rain pants), we go on a little further until we hear "Crash! Boom!" Thunder - RETREAT! On the way back to the car, we see mom bear again, foraging in the same spot, only this time the cubs must be back home in the play pen. We also meet some lovely women from England - Epping Forest near East Anglia - who were hiking the loop from Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls to String Lake. It was still pouring rain, and they were a bit anxious about hiking the stretch of trail from the String Lake parking lot back to the Jenny Lake lot because it passes right by where the bear and family were. We offered them a ride back to their car, and had a nice chat about their "holiday" which was coming to an end, and our excitement about ours just beginning. | |
| We finally
arrived at Signal Mt., get settled and crash! I guess we worked harder
than we realized getting ready to go on vacation, and were pretty near
catatonic at this point! We rose refreshed from a nap, grabbed an early
dinner and set off to look for moose. By now the weather was clear and
beautiful. We drove down a gravel side road at Oxbow Bend, but only saw
a couple of elk. Carol saw some kind of "swimming rodent" but couldn't
identify what it was. Up to Willow Flats, where John spied a moose way
off in the distance, but before we could set up for any serious scoping,
a rain squall popped over the mountains and soaked everyone. It also provided
a gorgeous double rainbow arching over the entire valley.
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| Driving back toward Signal Mt. we saw a bull moose in a small shallow pond just of the road near the Jackson Lake dam (and joined the "moose jam" already in progress). | |
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| The evening ended with a drive to the top of Signal Mountain - what a view! The whole valley was visible, but we were surprised that there were no elk in sight! | |
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As the sun was setting, and we drove down the mountain, we saw a sage grouse strutting along the side of the road like a little turkey. A second one was a little further down the road.
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| We watched the sun slide behind the Tetons, and full of awe at this wonderful place, went to sleep. | |
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