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Cooking breakfast in the KOA in West Yellowstone, Montana, before we get
ready to leave the area and drive to the Grand Teton National Park
(8/15) |
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Elena's favorite part of packing up is sprawling out on the air mattress to
get the air out of it. Oh Elena! |
We've arrived |
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Relaxing at our new campsite after setting up our tent in the Colter Bay
Campground |
A short bike ride to the Colter Bay Marina led us to this bay area.
One of those peaks is the Grand Teton itself. |
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Preparing for the Rock Skipping championship match |
Sailing under the Tetons |
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The next morning, we met up with a ranger-led walk with about 8 other
people. This is Ranger Rachel, pointing out Mt. Moran, which is the
mountain that was most prominent along our walk.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (8/16) |
Heading towards Swan Lake, where actual swans had not been seen for about
2-3 years... |
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This is part of Colter Bay that feeds Jackson Lake |
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Lily pads a-plenty |
You want swans? We got swans. Ranger Rachel was quite surprised
and excited to see these two swans (very small in the center of the picture)
after many years of them being absent from sight. |
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Swan Lake |
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Signs of bear activity; they often peel the bark off of trees to get sap and
insects. |
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Mt. Moran |
Ranger Rachel and us |
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From the left, Teewinot Mountain,
Grand Teton, Mt. Owen, Mt. St. John, and Rockchuck Peak (I think!) |
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Mount Moran: The white
patch in the center below the top is called Falling Ice Glacier. The
line of black rock rising above the glacier is called Black Dike, caused
when molten rock intruded into a crack in the older metamorphic rock called
gneiss, before the Tetons rose. The dike, now exposed by erosion of
the gneiss, actually stands out from the mountain face near the summit.
Similar dikes are on the Middle Teton and Grand Teton. |
This is the Grand Teton, not to
be confused with the other Tetons, the Middle Teton and the South Teton |
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Dinner at the Pioneer Grill in
the Jackson Lake Lodge, where we enjoyed some fish sandwiches (see picture
to the right) and a tasty dessert (see picture below), served by a recent
college graduate from Connecticut (see picture to the southeast) |
A mighty big sandwich for a
mighty big hunger! |
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The Dusty Glacier, before...
The Dusty Glacier, after... |
Our server, on the right, was
coincidentally from Connecticut! (She was a bit shy and dragged her
friend into the picture, obliging our request to capture the moment.) |
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By the Oxbow Bend Overlook, the
rainstorm in the distance eventually made its way to us. Thunder and
lightning entertained us every few minutes as we stood waiting with a quick
trigger finger to get a shot of this lightning bolt. Though others
were much bigger and lit up the entire sky, I was only quick enough to catch
this single bolt after about 20 minutes of trying my best to be quicker than
lightning (talk about high hopes!). |
