Sunday, September 16, 2007

Grand Indeed!

Thoroughly jaded: Our thinking on anything regarding landscapes after being in Yellowstone.

Totally wrong. Our preconception of Grand Teton.

The two parks are connected by road and share a common border. You only have to buy one pass to visit both, so what could the big deal be? You pass through a little brown gate, and lo and behold... more pine trees!!!

So we continued driving south through the rolling hills, literally nonplussed by the landscape, but still reveling in the joy of our morning safari. We probably passed a deer or elk somewhere and slowed down just enough to point and smile. Then, around a bend somewhere, the towering majesty of the Teton range, spiking out of Jackson lake, came into view.

We pulled over.


It would be redundant of me to write an account of our reaction each time we saw the mountains, but it seemed that every time we drove past it, something was so magnificent that we would gasp or sigh and either pull over or swerve so badly that we should have. Whether it was perfect blue sky. Manicured clouds. Even the black-on-black of stone mountains breaking a night sky.

Early one afternoon enjoyed a picnic lunch in a secluded little spot on the bank of Jenny lake, where, from the rocky beach, we could see straight down to the bottom of the lake at least 30 or 40 feet out. It was that crystal clear. Generally, however, we were more distracted with the 9000 feet of rock rising out of the water. We were also thoroughly distracted by the MOST persistent little chipmunk I've ever seen. He was enough of a badger to turn any nature lover into a bloodthirsty murder.

Enduring the incredibly stressful drive down a 55 mph road literally teeming with elk and deer, we spent a little time in the city of Jackson Hole. We certainly enjoyed our respite at a wonderful little coffee shop, but we're over the tourist-hype at this point, so shopping for overpriced eccentricities wasn't high on our to-do list. We spent most of our time amongst the herds of Elk (dozens together) and Buffalo (we probably saw a hundred in one group, all crossing the street while we waited patiently) framed again by the mountain majesty.

Other close encounters with the animal kind included a bear being chased through our campsite by groundskeepers (Lindsay ran screaming - I would have done the same if I wasn't already in the truck), and a herd of deer plodding through another campground we stayed at.

The pictures clearly won't do this justice, but hey, worth a shot, right?

4 comments:

Morriss Partee said...

Did you take those panoramic pictures yourselves?

Anonymous said...

Really Beautiful...
Keep 'em comin'.
Hope you survived the windsurfing Josh... I'm sure you did.

Aunt C said...

The trip sounds amazing and I love your humorous descriptions. The pics are so beautiful, I can't wait to go to Yellowstone.

Daniel Philp said...

Ooooh, nice pics. I like the slow exposure of the mountains at night.