Grand Tetons & Jackson Hole; July 25-26

Colter Bay on Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park

Jenny Lake Overlook

We spent our past weekend as tourists, traveling two hours south of the Park to the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Grand Tetons are another fascinating story of Rocky Mountain geology. Preposterous earthquakes lifted these magnificent mountains up and laid down a broad valley below them. Huge glaciers then sculpted them and carved out the lakes below that mirror the towering montains to the eye’s delight. The landscape serves as a reminder how fortunate we are to live in this blink of geologic time that allows the fragile thing we call modern life.

Antler Arch on Town Square, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole, Wyoming is twenty-five miles south of Grand Teton National Park, a four-season town with ski and golf resorts, Snake River rafting, and the National Park. It has the traffic and sprawl to go with it, quite a contrast from Yellowstone’s gateway cities of Gardiner and West Yellowstone.

We had an entertaining evening in town, watching the 55^th annual Jackson Hole gunfight on the town square and enjoying a terrific meal at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar’s Steakhouse.  Too many tony retail shops and inflated real estate price tags, though, made me uncomfortable, evidence of people with more money than they know what to do with. So many employees here at Yellowstone are the underemployed and working poor.

Grand Teton mountains over sagebrush valley floor

We enjoyed the grandeur of the Grand Tetons the next day.  A three mile hike took us to the back side of Jenny Lake beneath the brow of Teewinot Mountain rising to 12,325 feet, where a high mountain stream cascaded down to the lake and cooled the hot summer day. The shuttle boat ride back across the lake was a delightful way to shorten the hike.

Hike to Hidden Falls around Jenny Lake

Lewis River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park

The tourist feeling dissipated as we made our way back into Yellowstone. Most travelers miss the first and last few hours of each day; views from a restaurant table are severely limited. We enjoyed a picnic dinner overlooking the Snake River with sandhill crane, marmot, and a few trout hanging in slack current. Cool of evening brought out the wildlife along the Lewis River that South Entrance Road follows. The Lewis River Canyon is spectacular; a place where the river nearly disappears at the bottom of a huge gash in the landscape carved out by yet another preposterous force of Nature and span of time.