2013 Western Trip – Grand Teton NP

We began the second day in the Teton area by splitting a huckleberry shake from the Emporium in Victor.

Then we drove over the mountains and into the Grand Teton National Park (NP) for scenery and wildlife viewing.  Getting from Victor to Jackson Hole required a trip over the 8431’ Teton Pass and this is a shot into the Jackson Hole area from the pass in the morning.

And this is from the pass on the way back to Victor in the afternoon.

We took the Moose-Wilson road (some was gravel) and our first stop was a drive through the base of Jackson Hole Ski Area where we had spent some happy times in our younger days and as expected the base area had grown a lot.

Shortly thereafter, we enter the NP as the road continued along the east base of the Tetons.  They are a unique mountain range as they spring up 5000 to 7000 feet above the valley floor without the foothills common to most mountain ranges.

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We’d hope to see a bear and a moose but while there was no bear, a beautiful red fox ran across the road in front of us and we did see moose.  This mother and calf were standing in a classic moose habitat.

Others were enjoying them as well and this was the highlight of the day.

We continued on and were soon at Jenny Lake.

Son Eric, who had spent a couple of summers working in the area advised that Jackson Lake Lodge was a must see while we were there and upon arriving we were underwhelmed with the architecture of the lodge, especially compared to those at Old Faithful.  

But when we went up to the second floor and looked out the back window we saw the must-see.
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These were from the back deck where a wedding had just taken place (folks were arriving for another wedding as we left) – Mt Moran is the dominant feature.

The above shot would have been much prettier had Jackson lake not been so low as seen in this shot of the marina boat launch.

From there, we drove back to Jackson for a late lunch at Bubba’s BBQ, which had converted itself from a great place where the locals ate into a bigger place across the street serving expensive food to the tourists.  I’m sure they are making way more money, but while the food was pretty good, I much preferred the original (with the cop cars parked outside) that we had visited in our skiing days for cathead biscuits and sausage gravy.

On a sad note: I'm a Tennessee and West Virginia football fan.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/7/2013 event date