The 2019 Road Trip: Grand Teton National Park – Day 1

I have a habit of waking up early in the morning when traveling.  It might be a certain restlessness that comes with being in a new place, and a need for me to explore and find out more about the new surroundings.

Thus it was this first morning at our log cabin in Victor, Idaho.  This was the view outside the window of the bedroom we were occupying when I woke up.Later in the morning, from the front of the house, we could see the neighborhood where our cabin was located.The morning light streamed into the dining room area of our house through the giant windows as we had our morning coffee,while a little, stout, bird warmed itself in the sunlight on top of an evergreen tree in front of us.The rising sun revealed open fields behind the house.After a leisurely breakfast, we headed towards Grand Teton National Park, crossing the Teton Pass once again, this time on the way east.  After descending into the valley on the Wyoming side of the mountain range, we turned onto the road to take us into the park.  This turnoff was well before the town of Jackson.

We passed the resort area of Teton Village before we reached the entrance to the park.  The ski slopes behind the resort were bare.  The traffic around the area was light.  I am sure the place is busier during the winter season when the ski slopes are covered with snow.  The entrance to the park itself was a small, unmanned, affair, and the road beyond it narrow and winding, with a section that was still unpaved.  It was apparent that this was a less developed section of the park.

After a short while of driving in the park, we arrived at a section of the road where temporary road signs indicated that vehicles were not allowed to stop by the roadside.  Beside the road were either woods or an open low-lying area.  A stream meandered through the flatland.  Reeds and shrubs, and the occasional tree, dotted this space.  All of a sudden we began to see vehicles stopped on the roadway, blocking it partially (because of the lack of space beside the road), and people getting out of their vehicles.  We were curious, but we were also inclined to follow the park rules.  We made our way (with some difficulty and a feeling of annoyance) past the stopped vehicles.  As we were leaving the area of the cars, there was a shout from the back seat that a couple of moose had been sighted!  We were really excited because one of the objectives of this trip was to see a moose.  Unfortunately, I was still driving and did not see the animal, and there was also no place to stop.  A short while after that we arrived in an opening with a big parking lot.  I was able to pull in.

We got out and started looking for moose.  Below the parking lot was a creek, with woods on the other side. There were ducks in the water, but there was no moose to be seen.  We had to leave the place without a moose sighting (for some of us), but we were resolved to come back to look for moose once again later in the trip.

The road now entered a more open area of the park.  You could see the Tetons off in the distance to the left.Our next stop was the park headquarters at Moose Junction.  At this point we ended our drive on the narrow road that we had been on, and entered a more developed section of the park.

We watched a video about the park at the visitor center.  At the end of the movie the curtains opened up behind the screen to reveal the Tetons.We then drove further north into the park.  We were now on a stretch of road that was wider and more suitable for the more significant tourist traffic.  We had come to the park at a time of year when the traffic was dying out due to the colder weather, as is obvious by the looks of the empty parking lot in the picture below.A bike trail ran beside the road, leading me to imagine some future adventure on a different set of wheels.Our lunch stop was in a parking area near the Lupine Meadows trailhead.  We were constantly on the lookout for moose, but none obliged!We drove further north through the park.  It was past noon by now, and the position of the sun had shift further west.We arrived at the parking lot for the String Lake trail.  Our plan was to hike to Inspiration Point, overlooking Jenny Lake.

This picture was taken as we were starting the hike.  The first part of our hike would take us from the parking lot for String Lake towards Jenny Lake.We crossed String Lake early on.This is where an inlet from String Lake feeds into Jenny Lake.The colors of Fall were in full display beside the trail along Jenny Lake.There is a boat that takes tourists across Jenny lake. We had to leave the trail beside the lake and start a climb up a different trail towards Inspiration Point just beyond the place where this boat docks.We passed Hidden Falls on our way up the hill.  There were short stretches of snow and ice on this section of the trail, at places where the sun does not reach that easily this time of year.We reached Inspiration Point after a short climb in an open section of the trail higher up the mountain.  This was the view of Jenny Lake for Inspiration Point.Once we left Inspiration Point, we continued to climb towards Cascade Canyon Trail. We turned right at the intersection with Cascade Canyon Trail in order to head back to Jenny Lake, and to the parking lot where we had left our car.Cascade Canyon Trail in the other direction actually goes between mountain peaks to a point where you can catch the Teton Crest Trail and get closer to Grand Teton mountain, the highest peak in the range.  A hike in that direction had to be left as a possible adventure for another day.

We headed back towards Jenny Lake.The sun was setting behind the mountains as we arrived back at Jenny Lake.As we were leaving the area of the lake, I noticed these markings on the side of a tree. From what I had read that morning at the visitor center, these were most likely the markings of the paw of a bear.Throughout our stay in the park, we were warned about how to handle encounters with bears.  We were on the lookout for them constantly, but did not see any in the end.  They do recommend carrying bear spray to deter the animals.  The spray contains an extract from cayenne pepper.  Apparently, it is quite potent, and something you do not want to get in your eyes.

This picture was taken as we were crossing String Lake to get back to the car.The sun was setting as we started our drive out of the park.On the way out, we came upon a herd of pronghorn deer in the fields a short distance away from the road.  This is the first time I was seeing pronghorn.  We stopped by the roadside for a few minutes so that I could take pictures.As we were leaving the park, we could see the mountains of the Gros Ventre range on the eastern side of Jackson Hole valley lit up in the fading light of the setting sun.Dinner was at a place called Liberty Burger in Jackson.  Some of us tried out bison burgers.  Then it was back over the Teton Pass, and onward to Victor, Idaho, for the night.

Later in the evening, back at the cabin, I tried to take more pictures of the moon.  It was the day after a full moon.  For some reason, just as it happened the previous night, I was still not getting a clear picture with the camera. It was a strange image, as if some diffused light from around the moon was falling on the lens of the camera through the night sky. Weird!We did not stay up too late that evening.  We were tired after the day’s activities.

Next blog in this series here.