Gary-Summer: Sept 11, 2021 - Day Five-Car Exploring

Saturday, September 11, 2021

Sept 11, 2021 - Day Five-Car Exploring

Title: Sept 11, 2021 - Day Five-Car ExploringHike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head:Gros Ventre Campground

Hike Info:

Type:Car

Description:

I slept in until 7. Well, sort of. I woke up earlier and saw there was no lightning to report, so I went back to sleep for an hour before getting up. Also throughout the night I woke to the patter and sometimes the pounding of rain. But the tent held up well and we were dry inside.

Female Moose

When I got up, I got the car somewhat organized. And then when Sherri arose, we went to Andrea and Lawrence's camp around 8. But they were not there, so we went moose hunting-shot lots of pictures. Andrea and Lawrence found us and we watched moose for a while. A couple of bulls were arranging the pecking order about who the dominant bull was..

Breakfast is homemade cinnamon rolls. that is interspersed with conversation about many things. Then it was time to clean up. We leave camp around 1130. The hope for today is to go to Jenny Lake, take the boat across and do some hiking.

Mount Moran and Leigh Canyon

On the road to Jenny, we stop at the Post Office to mail Andrea’s ballot. But it was closed. We go through an entrance station, flashing our old age cards-it is good to be old, in some cases.

When we get to Jenny Lake, we find the parking is all taken up, even along the road to it. Looks too crowded for our tastes, so we decided to go on and see if Leigh Lake area is full as well. It is. I guess this is what Grand Teton NP is like on the weekend, even though I do not think of it as a weekend park and it is getting close to start of Fall.

Planing our route

After checking out the parking lots in the area-noticing one person got a ticket for illegal parking. We take that as a warning not to push the edge. We decided to drive the Jenny Lake loop. When we pull off of the highway, there is a nice pull out. So we use it to gawk at the Tetons.

While looking, we observe a couple of bicyclists who also stop across the road. What catches our attention is how they balanced their bikes on their pedals, amazement we feel. So we go over and engage them in conversation and examine their technique. They are from Omaha and ride all over the Midwest states. They are pretty open about their travels and we have enough terms to show we know a thing or two about cycling.

Trees in a Pothole

The drive around the loop is nice. But we are looking for a place to get out and stretch our legs and hike. We do not find that. We do see a small path, but it leads to nowhere after about 200 yards. So we return back to the car and continue on.

We see the Jenny Lake parking lots are still full, so we continue on. It is past lunch time, so we stop at Mount Moran. This gives us a different view of the Tetons, with Mount Moran front and center. All I can say is, impressive. Andrea has been looking for glaciers and we see several of them, also from a different perspective.

View from Signal Mountain

Before we move on, Lawrence spots an antelope on a hill to our right. We watched it for a while (Confession, I could never see it very clearly). And then we are off, but not for long. A couple of miles later, we see a sign for The Potholes. Now the road has been pretty good so far, so I do not think it is referring to that. What it is referencing is these giant divots throughout this area. We take a path and it wanders by one of these divots-a tree is growing on the slope of one of them. Then we circle around to go to another one. This one is pretty plain. If nothing else, it has been a good walk.

Gary, Lawrence, Andrea and Sherri on top of Signal

Are you wondering what the next stop will be? We come to Jackson Lake, but do not stop. A mile or so later, we see a sign for Signal Mountain. This looks interesting. We climb on up. The guide books say this is bear territory. But we did not see one on the drive up. But what we did see was a mishap. About half of a mile before the top, is a sharp turn with a parking area for a trail. An RV was parked in the slot at the end, sticking out so it was difficult making the turn coming down. Another RV thought he cleared it, but did not, crunching his own RV, but not the parked one. Poor guy.

Lawrence and Andrea at Cunningham's Cabin

The parking lot at the top is tight, but a spot clears out quickly for us. We get about a 270 degree view. It is a phenomenon we are used to in our fire lookouts-when looking down, the countryside flattens out. It is still impressive. Wish I had brought a map up here with me. I would have enjoyed naming off what I was seeing.

On the way down, we stopped at a small pond, a short walk from the parking area. We look around, mostly to see if we can spot one of these mysterious bears which are said to frequent the area. But no such luck. The pond is mostly filled in with pond lily type things. A couple stops-you know in Grand Teton, somebody stops and others stop because it must be interesting. Nice talking with someone else. She tells us about some birds whe has seen recently.

View from Cunningham's Ranch

Andrea takes over the driving chores. When we hit the highway from Jackson, we turned south again. I think we are all a bit tired as there is no “let’s stop here” until we get to Cunningham Cabin.

Cunningham played an instrumental role in having Grand Teton turned into a National Park. Originally he was against it, but after talking with Rockefeller, he changed his mind. The cabin is a little off the road, which we gladly walk. The cabin seems a bit small. I wonder why someone would fight to live out here. Definitely not palatial. It would be cold most of the year. On the other hand, there is this feeling that the earth would go on forever, just by standing out here, looking at the horses.

We load into the car and keep on traveling until we get to our Gros Ventre campsite, where we park at Andrea and Lawrence’s place. Nobody feels like cooking, so we are a pizza for pickup in Moose. I drove back there to pick up our order at Dornan’s Pizza. We had a Mount Moran and Thor Peak. Tasted pretty good-were we that hungry or was this reality? What’s the difference? Tonight, Lawrence and Andrea show us the first half of their pictures: from California to Florida. Then it is time to go to sleep, about 9:30.