Red Lodge to Jackson…

We were up moderately early… mostly packed then headed downstairs for a wonderful breakfast…  Then a quick blog post (blog posts are never quick, but at some point after writing and rewriting the bloody thing I post it… at least the posting is usually quick)

We headed up hill, south-bound, towards the Bear Tooth Highway… it was switch backs up and up, and up… above tree line… into a landscape of small snow fields and marshy meadows filled with wild flowers and views that went on forever.  The Bear Tooth Highway is maybe the best road ever…

We paused on the back side at the Top of the World store (and a sticker for the jeep)… again at Cooks, at the new local museum… then down into Yellowstone and Lamar Valley…   

Yellowstone was crowded… lots of folks were fishing… eventually we saw a bison… then a few bison… then Tina spotted a small herd of prong horn antelope… from there it was herds of Bison… 300 plus at a time… above near the tree line were more antelope, and far away, walking across Tina spotted a bear… (Tina is good at spotting wild life… except for the unfortunate armadillo incident… but we rarely talk about that.)

Now into the park proper… (this was my 4^th trip here in 10 years… it was Tinas 2^nd in 5 years… we were not here to visit Yellowstone… but only to drive through)  There was a group parked by the side of the road with a ranger… there had been a bear feeding in sight of the road, but said bear had wandered off… A rumor suggested that there had been a bear sighted near Tower with cubs…  We pressed on to Tower… there was a closed area, but no one gawking… We parked and walked out to see Tower Falls… the parking lot was crowded… crowded is the new normal in our national parks… it used to be Yosemite… but the disease is spreading.  The ghost trees are still around… from the 1988 fire storms… trees don’t rot as fast here, so the forest is marked with grey spires… not as many as 10 years ago, but still a common sight.

Then continuing south, we picnicked, then stopped at Canyon to look around… I spent some money in the book store and renewed our Yellowstone Association membership… then south… now in the Hyden Valley… The Yellowstone river was running high… the bison were scattered… we encountered a couple of bison jams… We paused at the dragon’s mouth geyser with two busloads of unusually rude Asian tourists (I have never been elbowed by someone who wanted to take a picture before, but I was today.. I watched her move through the crowd like a linebacker on steroids.)  Beyond we stopped at the Yellowstone Hotel… the old Northern Pacific Railroad hotel on the lake… Its painted yellow and so is known as the Yellow Hotel… its huge but not as grand as the lodges in Glacier… or the Old Faithful lodge across the ridge…  again we head south… along the lake… We see some people parked looking at something… it was a bull elk… a mile later Tina spots another off to the side… we stop to take pictures and cause a elk jam… again a bit later, another elk, another jam… then south, out of the park… we look for more animals with a notable lack of success.

Into Grand Teton National Park, we stop at the first visitor center where I buy a book on the park’s history (it was the first really nasty political fight over the creation of a national park) and a sticker for the jeep.  A couple of miles later I spotted a human climbing onto the road where humans were not commonly found… I slowed… I spotted a bronze Mazda in the trees where cars are not commonly found… we stopped… it was a one car accident, the driver the only occupant… he was unhurt.  Another car stopped, she a nurse… She checked the driver… more cars stopped, some local fire and ski patrol… they checked the driver… emergency services were called… eventually we had a local volunteer fire/EMT, a park ambulance, two police/rangers, and a fire truck…  We were asked to stay and make statements… a bit over an hour we left… now running late.  We skipped the spot in on the Snake River below the dam where I always see moose… We decided that we were done looking for wildlife… then we saw a few elk and a bison along the ridge line to the east… at the river we encountered an animal jam… a bull moose…  We may have been done with the animals but they were not done with us.

Into town (Jackson) where we check in to our hotel, the Angler Lodge, then go down the street to the Snake River Brewing Company for dinner… then back to the lodge, a quick walk around together, then back… then I go out and walk some more while Tina checks email and catches up on work…  It’s now near 10:00, Tina sleeping me blogging…