More of Teton NP
Up early again. This time in hopes of seeing wildlife. We went back to Jackson Lake Lodge. The day before a pack of wolves and a grizzly bear had been from there early in the morning. We stood on the overlook scanning the meadow for twenty minutes with no luck. Finally off in the distance I spotted a herd of elk grazing at the far edge of the meadow.
We continued on hoping to see wildlife and picking up our tour of the park where we left off yesterday. We tried to stop at every formal turnout we could to read the interpretive signs and take pictures, often of the mountains from a different perspective. A couple of miles in to our tour continuation we made a stop and slightly off to the right was this:
Just before the south entrance station we came to the Menors Ferry Historic District. An early settler had a small ranch, a store, and a ferry which was the only way across the Snake River in the valley. The ferry has been recreated and is functional. Unfortunately the ranger was not there when we were and the docent was not ‘qualified’ to do it so we did not get a ride. Very cool ferry design. It uses the flow of the river to move the raft across it. No input of force or power required at all.
Just south of the entrance station is the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center. Informative displays, art work and great view of mountains. While I’m thinking of it, I forgot to mention one thing in the first blog from here. Coulter Bay Visitor Center has a Native American Art museum. We are not too big on museums but if you are ever in this area see this museum. It is very good.
We continued south to Jackson to gas up the car and have lunch. On the way back north on the edge of town is the Jackson Hole Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center. Probably the best visitor center we have been to. Great displays. VERY helpful staff. It is also the center for the National Elk Refuge with great viewing platforms. In the summer the elk are further north in the park so we did not see any from the center. If you are planning on visiting the Teton/Yellowstone area and coming from the south, make this your first stop. Just ask for ideas and specifics if you have them and you will be flooded with good information.
The main reason we stopped at the visitor center in Jackson was to see if a road indicated on the map was open. The ranger had to do some searching and calling but did determine it was. We wanted to take this back road because it went through an area of old Mormon settler homesteads and taking the dirt road would avoid having to double back to see it. When we first entered the park we were fortunate to see a lone buffalo (from a distance and while driving at 55mph. See earlier blog for picture.). From that time on, nothing. As we drove toward our turn to the dirt road, we came around a small bend and saw this:
This was only a small group on one side of the road. On the other side were 50-60. I did not get wide angle of large group.
The cow and calf were about 40 yards away. The bull passed about 40 feet from the car.
On to our planned destination, Mormon Row.
As we neared the turn to the campground we saw more elk grazing on a ridge above us.
Not too bad a day.
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