The Grand Tetons

We looked at routes into West Yellowstone and realized that going through the park from the east was not an option because of the mountain passes and narrow roads. We had planned on going north through Montana but we had also tried to figure out how to include Grand Teton National Park south of Yellowstone in our itinerary. It would have been out of the way to go there after Yellowstone but it looked like we could go that way before Yellowstone. We had the time to spend a full day in Grand Teton and still get to West Yellowstone on time so we did it.

From Keyhole State Park we drove southwest to Casper where we visited the National Trails Interpretive Center. This building has information on the wagon trails that went through Casper on the way to Oregon and California. The multimedia presentations are great and it made us appreciate all the more our relatively easy trip across 3/4ths of the U.S. to get to this point. Eight hours of sitting in a diesel powered motorhome is about the equivalent of two weeks of walking for the pioneers.

We then drove on for about two more hours to Riverton, WY and an overnight stay in a funky little RV park. Some grocery shopping and a stop to fuel up both of the rigs in the morning and we were on for a three hour drive to Grand Teton National Park and some boondocking (no hook ups at all). Coming into the Tetons from the west on US-26 as we did is the way to do it. We saw the mountains for about an hour before we entered the park itself and some of the views were spectacular.

Friends from the Jewish RVing Chapter, Shalom Roamers, Sandy and Carl Greenbaum, are volunteers in the park to direct traffic and keep visitors away from wildlife. However, as it was our luck, they had the day off when we were visiting so they volunteered to show us around the area. The great thing is that they have been doing this for many years so they know everything about the park and were able to tell us lots of things as they were taking us around. It was fun.

The first day we arrived, they came to see us after work and we took a short trip to Mormon Row, where there used to be a pair of Mormon farms back before the park was formed and the buildings are still there looking onto the mountains. They are kind of iconic sites for photos of the mountains. We were there late in the day so the sun was behind the buildings but I took some multiple exposures and processed them into HDRs and they came out great.

Then we had a wonderful Shabbat dinner at Myra and Dave’s RV. The next day, Geoff got up early and headed out to take some sunrise pictures of the mountain, a once in a lifetime chance as this was the first time he was in the park overnight. He was not disappointed except that the sky could have used a few clouds to pickup the morning rays.

When everyone else got up, we headed out early and spent the day driving up to Moran Junction, which was where we came into the park, and then around in front of the range past Jackson and Jenny Lakes on Teton Park Road. We stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge for lunch.

We also saw a lot of wildlife, especially on the river. There were some beaver dams and lodges but we did not see any beavers. We did see lots of ducks including a Mother duck with about 23 youngsters. Wow! The views were magnificent and we had a great day. Finally, we make it to West Yellowstone after another 3 hour drive over Teton Pass. Should be fun.