jesseslife.com

Grand Teton is located just south of Yellowstone National Park in north-west Montana. With it’s proximity to Yellowstone, you’d think that the parks would be similar. On that, you’d be wrong. While Yellowstone centers around geologic features, the river and Lake Yellowstone; Grand Teton is crowned by a short, but dramatic line of mountains looming over a flat valley and lake. The flatness of Jackson Lake and the plains surrounding the Snake River provide a great foreground for the tall, craggy mountains.

Okay, enough of the tour book stuff. The views from the main park road are dramatic, take my word (or look at the photos). To quote Seinfeld, “Yadda, yadda, yadda…” I took a day hike from the Colter Bay Visitor’s center toward Swan Lake. Hey, Swan Lake even had swans in it, even if there were reallllyy small and at the other end. But I had set up my camera and was snapping pictures of this little woodpecker on the edge of the lake. He was acting especially anxious and kept looking out over the lake. All of a sudden, I felt two eyes on the back of my head and turned around to see this beautiful guy.

Back in the Everglades, the ranger told us about the birder’s S-List. For those of you who don’t know, which I didn’t at the time, a bird gets put on the S-List when you can observe a bird long enough to watch it S**T. Plain and simple. Well, he wasn’t going anywhere, and I was able to sit there for almost 15 minutes watching this guy. And, now, a golden eagle joins the blue heron, barred owl and cardinal on my personal bird S-List.

On the way back to Harold, I was able to sneak up on a uinta ground squirrel, just stuffing his face with leaves. He wasn’t scared of me a bit, and just kept picking leaves nearly as large as himself and shoving them in his face. Very funny.

I stayed at the Signal Mountain Campground, so far, the National Park Campground with the best view. If you arrive early enough, you can get a spot right on the lake, which is right at the base of the mountains. Very, very nice. I got the chance to try my MacGuyver skills again when I noticed people hovering around a truck in the next campsite, armed with coat hangers. This poor family had locked their keys inside their truck, and I stepped up. It was a race, me on the driver’s side, another guy on the passenger’s side, both trying to pop the locks with coat hangers. I lost, but I came away with a great idea for a reality TV show!

Anyway, I got the chance to meet the family and their golden retriever puppy (dog fix…check!). Over the course of the evening, I got a chance to get to know them a little better and I enlisted the help of the older of the two kids. In my truck, I carry a inflatable globe in order to show kids where I lived and where I’m going. That’s the theory, at least, and I tested out my story on this pre-schooler. It seemed to go over well, and we digressed from where we lived into a deep discussion of the orbital mechanics of sunrise and sunset. This was HIS idea. The things they teach these kids!

The next day, I headed around the lake by foot towards Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Well worth the 6 mile round trip hike, but for those of you with less time, take the concession boat across the lake, Were I to visit the park again, I could easily imagine heading out on a backpacking trip from this point, exploring up the cascades from Inspiration Point. As it was, I regretfully hopped into Harold and headed north toward the last park in Rockies, Waterton-Glacier. I’m planning on writing on Wednesday this week in order to catch up with some recent stories – see you then!

P.S. I got an e-mail from a reporter from the NY Times. I will be mentioned (hopefully) in an article in this week’s style section. More to follow, but I’m pretty excited!