Third Weekend - Third US National Park

 

Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) is just south of Yellowstone, roughly 30 miles via the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.  It is another wonderland of wildlife and mountains, part of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. 

Over the years, I have enjoyed GTNP just about as much as I have Yellowstone National Park . . . mostly because of the grizzly bears that are well known and often very close to the road.  Back in June 2016, I had an exceptional front row seat to the world famous brown bear known as #399, and her first year cub I affectionately called "the snowy faced cub."  Sadly about a week after I took this photo roadside, the little cub was killed by a vehicle while crossing the road in the middle of the night.

More recently #399 became known as "the quad mom" successfully raising her crew of four cubs to independence earlier this summer.  At the ripe old age of 25 or 26, who knows how much longer she will continue to produce cubs . . . or even survive the harsh life as a bear?  Every time I'm in her area, I hope to catch a glimpse of her or any of her progeny, but so far this year, I've come up empty.

For this past weekend, I actually camped in Yellowstone at Grant (on the south end of the park) Saturday night and Canyon (more central) on Sunday night.  This was mainly because the prices for camping in GTNP were cost prohibitive.  For under $20/night, I was very comfortable using Yellowstone as my home base for my full Sunday in GTNP.

Since I first started planning my summer "vacation" here, I knew I wanted to do a raft float trip on the Snake River.  Where I live in Gardiner there are several whitewater rapids tour companies, but my old lady knees (and back) really aren't up for the thrill of the Yellowstone River.

I booked with Solitude Float Trips out of Jackson. Signing up online
was very easy, and even earned a small discount.  Our river guide was Sam, who coincidentally was from Wisconsin . . . not far from where David & I live.  He had been living and working in Jackson for roughly seven years and was very knowledgeable about the river, mountains, glaciers and all that folks come to this park to experience.

One of the ladies on our raft could not stop talking about wanting to see a moose.  Well on about mile eight of our ten mile float trip, we got to see a HUGE bull moose.  He was laying in a small shallow alcove, just chilling out on a hot summer day.  While I did enjoy seeing him, we were going pretty quickly downstream and I wasn't able to get either of my cameras positioned for the photo op.

I've learned in recent years to not worry about getting ALL the photos but to enjoy living in the moment, enjoying the sights without dealing with the camera gear.  Sorry I don't have the image to share with you here.  But seeing him in all his majestic glory is something I hope I never forget!

For those interested in seeing how the float trip went, here's a short video.

The scenery throughout the ten mile float, was really beautiful,  Here is a view of the Teton Mountains through the clouds, as we floated down the Snake River . . . and another looking downstream and around the bend.  It really was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours just out on a nice summer afternoon.




 

 

 

 

 
I did spend more time on Monday back in Yellowstone, trying to find some bears to watch, but to no avail.  Sometimes it's easy to take for granted the abundance of animals you can see in any of our US National Parks . . . especially in the Rocky Mountain region.

It's a humbling reminder to enjoy every opportunity you have, when they do make their presence available to humans to enjoy.

On Monday morning, I drove the first little bit of the road heading towards Lamar Valley.  The road was only recently reopened to visitors for the first eight miles, as the rest of this stretch up to the NE Entrance into the park at Silver Gate/Cooke City has been closed since the floods in June.  There are sections where the road was totally washed out, and will require major reconstruction before fully reopened to the public.

I did enjoy watching a small herd of bison, including several bulls who were flexing their testosterone driven need to demonstrate their superiority over the younger and smaller bulls.  I got this video of just how testy they can be during the rut. 

Sorry Nick . . . I just don't think these boys have a scratch under their chin on their minds.