Grand Teton National Park: 60.7 miles, 5 hrs 30 min drive time

Poem of Teton Travels

Into the Tetons we went
(after a large burrito and eggs)
Oxbow Bend reveals a moose
Moo! Moose! It lay down after the
picture we took of the mountains
and bent south

Grand, Middle, South
All a-pointed towards the hazy sky,
backdrop today to
a row of barns
Moose
Transfiguration Ferry
Signal Mountain for pesto
and the Sacred Heart aflame

Dam, this park is pretty!
(oh, and the lake is dammed too)
Along the Snake River you wind,
then along the mountains you climb
Returning to the comfort of coffee and
Chocolate-covered raisins.

The guy in front of me headed into the restroom at Signal Mountain Lodge stopped in front of the door, turned around, and looked at me, a bit puzzled.

"I thought you were my wife."

Well, I suppose it's possible that that's the case in this day and age; alas, no.

The case of gender confusion came in the middle of the day as we stopped for lunch; before that, we had already done a small amount of traveling headed south through the park. We started our day with some moose-watching in front of the Jackson Lake Lodge overlooking Willow Flats, where we caught a glimpse of a baby moose. Our next moose sighting came at the famous Oxbow Bend, a few miles south of the Lodge. A few seconds after the picture was taken, he lay down in the grass, prompting a lot of groans from the photographers around us.

From there, we headed south, stopping in several overlooks and turnouts to take pictures of the mountains, including this one from the Snake River Overlook:

All the pictures today revealed the Grand Teton range as hazy due to the cloudy weather and smoke from the wildfires to the north. An occasional sun break gave us some very nice highlighting, though.

We headed through Mormon Row off of Antelope Flats Road, which was not marked from the main road at all (but was clearly marked along Antelope Flats Road). This is the site of the famous barns that are photographed with the Grand Tetons as a backdrop. I shot various photos from a few different angles, including one through a barbed-wire fence which came out quite well.

Antelope Flats Road is one of the best places in the entire park to view bison. In fact, they're quite plentiful and quite often close to the road itself. We encountered a number of them meandering along the side of the road, and even crossing it at some point. Now, I should remind you, faithful reader, of the many warnings given to visitors of the park about approaching wildlife in any form, including vehicles. The following flier is given out to all Yellowstone visitors:

Now, keeping in mind the fact that we were so close, I managed to get the following shot:

These buffalo were wandering across the road in front of and behind the car - we mostly had to just sit there in order to make sure we weren't disturbing them or presenting ourselves as a threat. Nevertheless, this is an awesome and humbling experience - I swear, one of them looked at me with something akin to boredom - sort of an "oh, you again" kind of thing. An eating bison, however, is a happy bison, and they didn't utilize the 2000 pounds they can wield.

From our bison adventure, we headed to Moose - the town, that is, not the animal - and stopped by the visitor center, where we picked up a stuffed moose to add to our collection, as well as an official "Best Of..." guide to the park and a pair of binoculars. Oddly, this is the only place in both parks where I found binoculars at all - these binoculars would have come in handy when moose-watching earlier. The visitor center featured a stuffed Strutting Sage Grouse, which is a big, poofy, turkey-looking bird - something my mother probably would have loved.

We then headed to the Chapel of the Transfiguration, a small log-cabin church just north of the Moose Entrance Station. The chapel itself is tiny, with two windows in the entrance - The Windows Summer and Winter. I only saw the Summer window, since I somehow neglected to look behind me. This is a very quiet, serene location directly opposite from Menor's Ferry, which is the site of the meeting that helped form Grand Teton National Park.

From there, we decided we needed lunch and set our sights on Jenny Lake Lodge to the north. Once we got there, though, the tiny parking lot was jam-packed; despite circling for a few minutes and having one very rude person who arrived after us take a parking spot, we were unable to stop. As it turns out, we would have needed reservations anyway, since they are required for all meals at Jenny Lake Lodge.

Therefore, we headed north to Signal Mountain Lodge, which was the other serious contender for our lodging when I was doing my research. This is also located on the shores of Jackson Lake, a bit further south than the Jackson Lake Lodge itself. The grill here is quite good, which seems to be the standard for the lodges in this park. I had the cran-pesto turkey sandwich, which the waitress said was her second favorite sandwich on the menu. It was a good choice, but the ciabatta bread used is almost too thick.

The Chapel of the Sacred Heart is a bit north of Signal Mountain Lodge - it was dark when we visited, but the stained-glass came into brilliant display in the front of the chapel. The silence was very reverent; there were some cameras clicking, sounding almost deafening in the silence.

From there, we headed back to the lodge, crossing Jackson Lake Dam. Jackson Lake Dam is the only dam in any national park. It was the reason that Jackson Lake was originally not included in the plans for Grand Teton National Park because people didn't perceive the dam as a natural feature. The original plan for the park itself included only the range and none of the surrounding countryside. More detail about this, including map overlays that demonstrate how the park expanded between its establishment and the final expansion in the 1950s, can be found at the Menor's Ferry site across from the Chapel of the Transfiguration.

There will be no more national parks in Wyoming; upset by what was perceived as a land grab by the federal government, Wyoming passed a law that effectively overrode the power of presidential proclamation, halting the development of the national park system in this state. What they have in the form of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, though, are both magnificent treasures. They aren't the only ones: Devil's Tower National Monument, featured very prominently in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is one of the others. Perhaps one day we'll see this monument; for now, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are more than enough.