Carol and I with the towering snow-capped Teton mountains in the background. Mild wind blowing in the background......:)

From Moose Junction, we made a short visit to the Moose Visitor Centre after crossing the Snake River. Snake River was rather high in terms of water level at the time that we were there and fast flowing as well. I can kind of remember watching a video on the formation of the Grand Teton Mountains and the surrounding flora and fauna in the visitor centre. In addition, there were various exhibits on display, such as a stuffed black bear and different types of rocks. Guess everyone one was in kind of a laid-back mood, so all of us went about the entire day at a rather delayed pace. We headed northwards to the Jenny Lake area, which is one of the popular attractions in Grand Teton National Park.

In front of a boat house somewhere near the Jenny Lake area, where we had some fun skipping pebbles. :)

We did an approximately 4 hour hike to Cascade Falls and Inspiration Point. Starting from the Jenny Lake Visitor Centre, the 5.8 mile round trip took us along a trail that follows the banks of Jenny Lake. I can still remember seeing a beaver scurrying along the banks of jenny lake. My first ever close-up with a real live beaver ;)

Are u as surprised as me to see a clump of bright yellow flowers growing strategically right in the middle of the trail? Credits for this photo goes to Robin Low

Needless to say, who could resist capturing our glorious surroundings on film?

Can still remember being absolutely captivated by the effects of the sunlight on the waters of Jenny Lake. Can u see the marked distinction in terms of lighting in the background? Half the lake is covered in shadows, while the other half is lighted. :)

After a couple of breaks along the way, we finally reached our first "attraction" along the trail i.e. Hidden Falls. How apt! Despite the fact that we have already seen many waterfalls since the commencement of this trip till now, guess Hidden Falls remains fascinating as it is literally a waterfall tucked in the middle of nowhere. Without hiking along the trail that leads to it, this waterfall would have not been visible at all :) After yet another break, yep....we kind of took a lot of breaks for this particularly hike, mostly because of me. I found it particularly strenous, having spent the whole of yesterday almost without food, the after-effects of a possible hang-over and food poisoning ;( Anyway, we proceeded along the trail towards Inspiration Point. Inspiration Point is a lookout that offers a stunning view of Jenny Lake and the surrounding mountains. To reach Inspiration Point, the trail grew circular as it led us upwards, the relatively rocky terrain and slight elevations added more challenges to the trail. After some efforts on my part, oh...the guys didn't have much trouble as usual ;p we made it to the top!

At Inspiration Point! One of my favourite pictures out of the many taken on the trip! Hmm....so does this make the 3 of them my favourite people as well? ;p

Our round trip back to the trail head took us an even longer time, as I was really tired by then. HMm...just to clarify, I hope that I don't sound too self-centred, but as I'm the slowest member in our group, so I'm the limiting factor in all sense. My friends, being the wonderful people they are, have to put up with my lack of fitness and clumsiness and hence I kind of set the speed that we travel at. ;p Managed to make it back to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center Carpark eventually after much huffing and puffing! It was late afternoon by then, after a few more scenic drives to places such as Signal Mountain, time for us to set off for West Yellowstone, a town at the Montana border, for the part of our trip to Yellowstone National Park.

West Yellowstone

We reached Yellowstone National Park-Wyoming in the late afternoon admist a drizzle. The sky was overcast and chilly winds blew. We made a stop at the Old Faithful area for gas before continuing on to West Yellowstone which is just outside the boundaries of the park at the Montana border. I can still recall how cold the weather was as we stepped out of the car. Carol and I had to make use of the hand dryer in the ladies to warm ourselves ;p

To date, we have not had too much trouble finding our motels at the various locations that we've stopped for the night. However, this particular motel that we stayed in at West Yellowstone proved to be a real challenge to locate. Armed with only the address of the motel, we went about looking for the motel in our usual fashion with 4 pairs of eyes on the lookout. As we were more prepared to see a motel like building, we drove past our motel a couple of times without actually realising it. Eventually, upon some discussion and further scrutiny, we found out that the address of our motel is actually that of a shop. Feeling rather apprehensive and uncertain, we went into the shop. Subsequently, it turned out that the motel office was actually in the shop itself whearas the motel rooms were located in other ground level buildings located behind the shop houses. Phew! For a moment, I really thought that we would be stranded for the night! ;p Thank goodness my fears were all unfounded! Guess my deepest impression of West Yellowstone is that the weather here is even more chilly than that in other places at night....Brrr.....let's hope that the weather gets much warmer in the daytime!

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