Day 05 - To Yellowstone National Park

Today we will just head north on Rte 89 from Jackson and into Yellowstone with side trips through the Teton National Park.  (As we begin, we can see the reclining Indian as we head to the raft trip.)

This morning we begin our trip with an optional rubber raft float down the Snake River.  It is not part of the tour, but an optional excursion, Carmen and I have decided to go.  I was a little concerned when I read the name of the launch site – Deadman’s Bar.  In any case, they took a picture of us so they could identify us later.  Just kidding, but here we are ready to hit the raft and hopefully not the water.

One of the first fantastic views on the trip is the portion of the Snake River where Ansell Adams took his famous “Tetons and Snake River” photo.  His was in black and white ours is in color.  All I can say is that the scenery is fantastic and is almost impossible to really capture in a picture, no matter how good the picture is.

The boat ride is simply fantastic.  Our guide, who reminds me of Woody Harrelson, pointed out a number of places we might see animals. 

A hawk flew by right in front of us and attacked something on the hill next to us.  It look like it missed, but we did get a picture of the hawk.

At one place, an eagle was perched high up on a tree with the nest nearby.  There are eaglets in the nest but I could not see anything.  Others thought they saw movement.

As we traveled down the river, you could hear the small stones on the river bottom bouncing along.  It sounded like popcorn popping.   All along the trip, the scenery is just unbelievable.  You can see Carmen is enjoying herself.

Besides the eagle and hawk, we saw elk, moose, geese, and ducks.  But, the most important of all the Teton Mountains with snow!

The boat ride took almost an hour and a half and soon came to an end.  I think we could have gone back up for another trip down.  We hopped back into the bus and headed along the park and a stop at the Chapel of the Transfiguration Episcopal.  What a view from here as I think you will agree.

Continuing on, we travel a short distance for a view of the mountains of course our obligatory picture taken in front of Grand Teton.

While we were at this picture stop, we spied a fox in the field.  I am happy to say that Carmen and I were not the only ones running to get pictures of the fox.  The fox of course was hunting and cared little for our presence.  But it did stop near a bush, right next to the parking lot, looking for something and posing.

Back on the bus, we traveled down to Colter  Bay, passing more elk and deer, for our picnic lunch. 

Continuing our travels, we stopped at Jackson Lake for more panoramic views of the Tetons - only this time with Arrowleaf Balasmroot flowers in the foreground.

We entered Yellowstone Park and took a picture next to the entrance sign.  It is not often that you can park a bus at an entrance sign and let everyone off.  As a mater of fact, I do not remember when Carmen and I have had our pictures taken this often while on vacation.

Before too long we stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin, and toured the hot springs.  Here the water is so clear that you can see right down into the spring's hole.

And mud springs.  This mud spring was bubbling while some of the others were mounded or drying out.

Traveling again on our way to our overnight lodge at Canyon Village we spied a Bison and stopped for pictures.  However, as usual, as we round the next turn we spied a large number of bison in Hayden Valley that were close enough to see.  As Bruce, our guide, mentioned, when we see bison the first time we’ll stop, since you never know if you’ll see them again. 

On the way to the lodge we stop at the Lower Yellowstone Falls.  Quite a spectacular site.  The falls are over a mile away from where we are standing when we took the pictures, but you could still hear the roar from the water falling.  Also, notice the ice to the left of the falls created by the falls spray.

We reach the lodge just in time for a little rain shower, but it was finished before we got out of the bus to head to our rooms.  It was a long day and Carmen and I are going to bed early.  Tomorrow we stay for another day in Yellowstone. 

Later Carmen and Bob.