Tetons National Park

What an unbelievable day. I know I say that too much, but I simply can't think of a better way to put it! We got a really early start today because we were going to take a long day trip from our location here in West Yellowstone, to Teton National Park. The only way to go is through a portion of Yellowstone, as the Tetons are actually an extension of Yellowstone that begins at the southern exit of Yellowstone.

We drove 275 miles today and though it was a busy day, we had such fun. We began our journey at 7:00 this morning by entering the West Yellowstone entrance and driving 70 miles from West Yellowstone to the Southern Yellowstone exit, then entering the Grand Tetons. Suffice to say the views of the Tetons did not disappoint.

In addition to the many glaciers that still exist within the park, there were also a couple of old homesteads from 125+ years ago that included original cabins and various other extended buildings including barns, wagons, etc. We got to walk through all the various areas and it really brings you back in time. Just standing in these areas I kept thinking that the people pictured lived and worked...in this very space, some 125 - 140 years ago. It kind of brings you back to that moment in time...it's one of the things I enjoy most about this lifestyle. I enjoy the wonderful views, scenery, and 'things to do' so to speak, but it's the actual history of each place that captivates me.

After driving through from the north to southern exit of the Tetons, we were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We parked the car and walked around for a couple of hours. It's a quaint, old town with the majority of buildings being National Historic Landmarks, filled will all kinds of quaint, wonderful little shops. Of course we had to get a picture of the elk horn terrace that are located in a few places within Jackson Hole. It's an actual arch of elk horns that Jackson Hole is known for.

We had to make a stop in Cadillac Bar, which I had seen on the Travel channel. The bar stools are actually saddles. Guess you just belly up to the bar and rather than plop down on a bar stool...just climb up on one of the saddles. Of course Mark had to get my picture doing just that. We shopped through the Jackson Hole local museum and saw lot's of memorabilia from the past. There were a couple of beautiful parks in the center of town, along with a stagecoach that would drive you around town for a mere $6.00 each, (but we passed on that).

By then it was close to 1:00 and we were starving. We had packed us a picnic lunch and drove back towards the Tetons at the entrance to Jackson Hole where there was a beautiful picnic area and stopped there for our picnic. After getting our bellies full, it was time to head back as we had a good 140 mile return and lot's of stuff to see heading south back through another section of the Tetons. We did see a coyote that had apparently snared a squirrel and he was snacking on him...we weren't able to get pictures in time though, darn it.

We had thought about possibly stopping by Old Faithful to see if we were close to the next anticipated geyser, but it was approaching 4:00 in the afternoon and we had left the dogs at home for such a long time that we decided to defer checking out Old Faithful as well as all the other Yellowstone geysers until Wednesday.

We've had Lot's of snow, sleet and freezing rain since we've been here. That's why we basically didn't do anything Saturday & Sunday...if it wasn't snowing, it was freezing sleet or freezing rain. The temperatures have been quite cold (well to us anyway)...the temps during the day have been in the low to mid 40's and in the upper 20's or low 30's at night. Brrrrrr!!

Based on tomorrow's forecast, we'll probably make a visit in town of the Grizzly Bear/Wolf sanctuary. Other than that, we'll probably just chill tomorrow. We've yet to really check out any of the Yellowstone geyers, springs and waterfalls. We hope to head to Yellowstone Wednesday for our first full day of tourism.

Well folks, that's a wrap for this update. We had a wonderfully blessed day today. We are very blessed to be able to take the time to see all the wonders God has created. Until next time~