Goodbye Yellowstone - Hello Grand Teton

A couple of days catching up to do.

Weds - July 4th was our last day in Yellowstone.

We traveled the entire southern loop road and spent time visiting

the West Thumb Geyser Basin & the Lake Area.

The West Thumb Geysers are right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake and

that backdrop adds some interesting visuals.

Last year when Kate and I visited, it was also loaded with Elk.

We then drove North along the lake shore till we found a nice quiet

spot in the woods to have a picnic.

We continued up the Lake Shore and eventually into and thru the Hayden Valley

making a big loop till we exited the park once more thru the West Side.

The next morning - Thursday - we packed camp and drove about 2 1/2hrs back thru

the park, exiting the south gate and into Grand Teton National Park.

This is a shot of the road heading south in Yellowstone with the

Tetons in the distance.

In Yellowstone you get to see virgin forest - untouched by loggers.

Quite a beautiful park.

If you look back thru the Yellowstone pictures, you see all sorts of thermal events,

wildlife, snowcapped peaks, lakes, wildlife, streams meadows & forests.

Its quite an expansive and beautiful ecosystem.

We arrived at the Colter Bay Campground in GTNP by 2pm.

After dropping the trailer we headed down to Jackson for some shopping and

an early dinner.  While there we had some rain.  Our first real rain in almost 2 months!

This morning the crew hit the road to see the sights in GTNP

This is looking across a bay in Jackson Lake

A few shots from Jenny Lake.

The now abandoned Mormon Settlement along

Antelope Flats Road

It was first settled in the late 1800s and was once a thriving community.

Further up Antelope Flats, we went 4 wheeling into the mountains.

We climbed up Shadow Mountain on the East side of the Valley

where we could let the Doods run for a bit and get a great vista of the

Valley floor below.

We drove about 20 miles on the dirt mountain road..  at times the trees limbs overhead

 would rub the roof of the truck and the road was only wide enough for one vehicle

in many places.

Eventually the road started down the mountain, and turned back west so I

figured that we'd come out somewhere near a highway and soon enough

we were back in the valley, out of the trees, and into the sagebrush country.

We paused for our self portrait of the whole crew.

Tomorrow as wagon master I have to roust the crew out of their bunks at

an early hour so that we can hit the road for our 8hr drive to Ft Collins, Colorado.

On Sunday we will visit Rocky Mountain National Park.

We will probably travel thru the area burned the last few weeks by the large

Hyde Park Fire.

See you back in Colorado.