June 27, 2010, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming

We hiked the Christian Pond and Lookout Rock Trail (5 miles) this morning. It’s a very nice trail that took us by Christian Pond, Oxbow Bend, and Emma Matilda Lake. It was a pretty up and down trail with great views of the Tetons and different meadows. As we were walking we heard a low noise. There was a Dusky Grouse sitting right next to the trail!
While we sat by Emma Matilda Lake and had a snack, we saw and heard a Trumpeter Swan and also saw and heard Common Loon.
Late yesterday evening we kept hearing what sounded like someone trying to start a generator (even though we are in a non-generator loop). It went on for probably 45 minutes. About 10:00 p.m. Mark decided to go outside and walk around a little bit. As soon as he stepped out the door he saw a Ruffed Grouse (a lifer!). We got great looks at it before it walked away. We got out the Sibley’s and this is what it says for the Ruffed Grouse voice: Male display is a series of accelerating, muffled thumps, produced by beating wings rapidly while standing, that sound like a distant motor starting.

Male Dusky Grouse displaying by inflating his purple air sac while giving a very low, pulsing hoot. The camera was not able to pick up the 'hoot'.

Dusky Grouse
Every where you go you can see the Tetons:
We rested and had a snack by Emma Matilda Lake. This is where we saw the Trumpeter Swan and Common Loons.
After supper we went to a ranger talk on beavers. The ranger was very informative and entertaining.

June 25, 2010 (evening), Grand Teton NP, Wyoming

After supper we decided to go bear hunting. We found a young male grizzly. We watched him for about an hour.

Click triangle to see a short video of a grizzly.

June 25, 2010, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming

We got up early to hike Jenny Lake. We had been looking forward to it because we have fond memories from our trip 13 years ago. When we arrived yesterday and when we were at the visitor center getting a trail map, we were told there are a lot of grizzly bears (and black bears) in the park this year. And, we should be ‘bear aware’ and report any bears we see. I thought it was just the usual bear talk. But, when we got the Jenny lake, this is what we found:


Apparently, they are having a lot of problems with the grizzlies! One of the rangers mentioned there were 30 in the park. At one of the lookouts we stopped at this morning a woman told us she saw a grizzly take down an elk calf the night before in that area. We haven’t seen any bears yet.
We decided to hike the String Lake trail. It was a very pretty 3 ½ mile hike.



After our hike we had lunch at the Jackson Lake Lodge. This is the view from our table:

June 24, 2010, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

We are staying in Grand Teton National Park. We were here in June, 1997 and have been wanting to return ever since. We finally made it!

Highway 287 into Grand Teton NP.

Plenty of snow on the Tetons!


The view from Jackson Lake

June 23, 2010, Lander, Wyoming

We moved to Lander, Wyoming. We’re just here for one night.
After dinner we went to Sinks Canyon. It is a place where an entire river disappears into a cave and comes out ¼ mile down stream. When it is really running (which it is now), it also goes around the cave.
We hiked a one mile interpretative trail that crossed the river on a suspension bridge and went through several different habitats. There were many beautiful wildflowers.


You can just see the top of the cave. The river is really flowing from snow melt.

June 21, 2010, Riverside, Wyoming

We hiked up to Green Mountain Falls (6 miles round trip) this morning. It was a really nice hike (600 feet elevation gain). The falls were running pretty hard. We did get into a little bit of snow. We saw a Goshawk at a beautiful, clear pond we came to. There were several amazing beaver dams.

Encampment River

One of many beaver dams.


A great place for lunch!

Still finding snow!

June 20, 2010, Riverside, Wyoming

We hiked up to the Indian Bathtubs this morning. It wasn’t a very long hike but the scenery and the wildflowers were fabulous!

June 19, 2010, Riverside, Wyoming

This weekend is the 50th Annual Wood Choppers Jamboree. Last night we went to the Encampment Opera House to see “Legend of Molly Malone”. It was pretty funny, mostly because the actors couldn’t remember their lines and we could hear someone behind the curtain saying their lines to them. At one point an enormous Saint Bernard came walking down the aisle and tried to get up on the stage. Apparently, he wasn’t part of the show! He had just walked in the door on his own. They had to haul him out! It was a lot of fun and the house was packed.

This morning we walked down to the city of Encampment. It's just down the road from Riverside. The Wood Choppers Jamboree started with a street parade. There was also a rodeo.

The car in the middle is actually going straight down the road!

There are steering wheels in the front and the back.

These are poles that were climbed, chainsawed and sawed down.

Two-man hand saw competition.

Log chopping.
It was a beautiful day (80 degrees with a few clouds).

June 17, 2010, Riverside, WY

While we were eating breakfast this morning we started hearing a lot of ‘mooooos’. We went outside where there was a real, live, cattledrive going down the road. This wasn’t for tourists (there are only 59 people in this town). This was the real thing! They were moving the cows from the lowland pastures into the mountains for the spring/summer.




We drove into Saratoga this morning. On the way there we saw this beauty!


Bald Eagle

June 15, 2010, Riverside, Wyoming

We've move to a beautiful little town called Riverside. We've been told that spring is late this year and some of the roads have just recently been opened.


Lots of 'wide open spaces'

June 13, 2010, RMNP, CO

This is what we woke up to this morning!
35 degrees and more snow!