The Grand Tetons
Hello one and all.
We made it to the Grand Teton Nations Park early yesterday morning. Xavier was still in bed as we drove, much to his delight. How fun it is to be in the back of the van on the bed while driving through the forest!
The campgrounds in the Tetons were first come, first served, and there was a line. We had met two men in Yellowstone two days earlier who told us it was crowded. They advised us to go to one particular campsite: Colton Bay Village. Boy are we glad we ran into them!
That was the right call. We hit a line of people waiting before daybreak. The site host asked us "Are you sleeping in this van?"
When we answered "yes," he replied "That's the right answer! You have a site."
We set up our camp and had breakfast. As the Village had a general store, a laundry and showers, we spent a few hours bathing and washing clothes and picking up a few items we realized could use.
We hiked a two mile loop around the bay. There were two sow bears with cubs, one bear having three cubs with her according to the park ranger we met along the way. We never saw the bears, but as we walked in the dense forest, both Rebecca and I were wishing we had remembered to bring our can of bear mace.
On Sunday, we headed for Jenny Lake, a very popular place. We wanted to take the ferry across the lake and do some hiking. This time, we remembered to bring along our bear mace.
As we approached the ferry, a tree across the stream was shaking and a crowd of people were staring and holding up cameras. A black bear and a cub!
We never saw the cub other than the tree shaking. We did get an action shot of the mama bear standing on her hind legs, but neither Rebecca nor I could get our cameras ready in time.
After watching the bear a while, we purchased three round trip tickets for the ferry and started across the lake. This was Xavier's first boat ride.
We hiked up to Hidden Falls and had a snack, then decided to head up the rocky goat path of a trail to Inspiration Point.
Xavier did not like this plan and explained hiking was not his idea of camping. The view from the Point was not what we hoped, but still a nice view.
After a little discussion, we decided not to hike further into the canyon.
At the top we met a chipmunk bold enough to nearly hop into your hand trying to get something from unsuspecting people's backpacks.
On the way back, Xavier got to wade in the glacier-fed stream water coming from the Hidden Falls and crawl on some rocks. That was his reward for hiking up to Inspiration Point. It was a good way to refresh your feet from the hike as well.