Friday, July 6, 2007
Where the deer and the antelope play...
Well, well, well; what have we here? A moose, a bear, a buffalo, and an osprey too! The Tetons have been magnificent – both for hiking and general scenery. Right now it’s 12:30 (MST) on Friday the 6th (it’s quite an effort to remember days/times out here, one can really lose track of that sort of thing). We’re on our way out to Camp Davis so I can show Tom where I spent my time at Geology class. I probably won’t get a chance to post this until this evening when we head back into Jackson. We plan to see the town a little bit and then have dinner (no sandwiches = yay!!).Let me backtrack a moment to recap what happened since I last typed a post (but didn’t get a chance to get it to the internet). We drove through the Wind River Range to the Grand Tetons…there is no mistaking you are at the Tetons once you see them! They rise from the ground in a manner that looks forceful even though they are stationary (technically they are moving, they still lie along an active fault…for those of you that care, the reason that the ground is so flat and there are no foothills is there are two faults in close proximity and they produce a graben (German for grave) where the middle piece drops down and the outer edges rise up.) Other than being in the park, we watched the fireworks in town on the 4th (the night we got into town).
One of the first things we did on our way to camp was drive through a buffalo herd (literally – they were in the middle of the road). We are camping in the Gros Ventre slide area; this is pretty cool in its own right as a section of the mountain completely gave way and slid into the creek, creating a natural dam. Our campsite is along the lake so we went swimming yesterday (didn’t want to pay $3.50 for showers). It’s crazy but when waterways are glacier-fed they are pretty damn cold!
We’ve done a few hikes in the park so far and we’ve been lucky enough to see wildlife on them all. No farther than ¼ to ½ mile into our first hike we encountered a black bear. He was up above on the hill digging at logs (for grubs?). Fortunately he didn’t seem to pay us no mind so we kept on the trail. That took us to a nice view of Jackson Lake. Our next hike that afternoon took us up Signal Mountain. As we crossed a hill and came down into a clearing with a pond, we saw a moose in the water swimming and eating. It was pretty cool to watch it because it would completely submerge its head and then come back up. The only unfortunate part was that it wasn’t a bull moose and we were eager to see some horns (Tom likes racks).
Fast forward to today when we decided to take a longer hike along the base of the Tetons up to Cascade Canyon. The hike could have been longer but we opted to shave 2 miles (each way) off the hike and take the boat across Jenny Lake. The trail had a couple of interesting views as it wound up through the woods along a stream. There is a large waterfall (Hidden Falls) that was pretty cool; further up we made our way to Inspiration Point (7200 ft.). From then we proceeded up the canyon, following a trail the meandered with the stream. For most of the way the roar of the water over the rocks was our constant companion (if we wouldn’t have caught the first boat, we would have had a lot of people companions because the trail was busy on our way back!) We saw a marmot (badger-like, apparently very common and fearless – they like to beg for food if you picnic) and a snake. And then, as we came into a wide clearing where the stream slowed a bit I spotted a bird with a large white chest and curved beak. We kept walking and then he dove off the top of the pine tree where he was perched, swooped down into the water and caught a fish! I asked a guide on the way back, turns out that we had just seen an osprey fishing. The last notable thing we saw on the way down was a bull moose eating willows along the stream. He was just a young guy but we sat down to watch him for awhile. As we sat there we saw another young bull across the stream in some more willows (they like willow thickets for food and cover). These looked quite big to us…and then we saw a VERY large bull moose up on the mountain just on the edge of the tree cover. Now that was site to see, even from a distance.
So that’s that for the last few days, hopefully I’ll post this by the evening. I hope everyone had a great holiday and keep checking back. I’m also going to try and post the bear video but I don’t know if that will be possible.
A word from the past...
Not sure when this will get posted, but I’m writing it on July 4th as we’re heading toward Jackson. We got a pretty early start (6:30) so we should get to town by mid- to late-afternoon. There’s not too much to see in this part of Wyoming; lots of cows and pronghorns. Tonight we’re probably just going to camp in the Forest and then try to get a spot at Jenny Lake tomorrow that will be for the next couple of days.There’s not too much to report about the last couple of days. We went swimming in Center Lake (Custer S.P.) before heading out toward the Badlands. [Here’s a stream of consciousness entry for you, we’re turning around to get a picture by the Boner Ranch sign, a place that is along Old Woman Creek.] The lake was nice (and cold); I really felt like I was a part of the Black Hills as I swam surrounded by Ponderosa pine and millennia-old granite rock faces.
After swimming, we headed on to the Badlands. It is truly a unique and strange place (a bit of trivia, it was called the “Bad Land” by trappers and Native Americans alike who had to cross the area). We took a couple of short hikes to see the formations up close and then headed back towards camp at sunset. The day and drive ended up being longer than we anticipated, but it was good to see everything.
Yesterday was another one-track sort of day. The fireworks at Mt. Rushmore draw quite a crowd so we headed down there around 1 or so (this was late according to all the locals). We were told by the police at the checkpoint that the parking lot was full so we just parked along the road where we saw others had started parking. As we got out and started walking we saw the sign that said we were 2 miles from Rushmore. Fortunately, the hills were fairly gentle so it didn’t seem like that bad of a walk (it helped that it wasn’t 100 degrees!). Once at Rushmore we walked the President’s Trail to get a close up of the carvings…this led to a picture of Tom picking Lincoln’s nose and giving Lincoln a kiss on the forehead.
After hiking the trail, checking out the gift shop, and eating dinner, we still had a lot of time to kill so we just sat around waiting for the fireworks. Unfortunately we didn’t think to bring cards, books, or anything else; we did get some quality people watching in (little girl to Forest Ranger: “Are you a cowboy?”). I wish I could say that the long wait was worth it but I honestly didn’t find the fireworks worthy of 4th best in the country (as we had read before). It seems like I’ve seen others that were just as spectacular but perhaps the location and ambience it what gives them their distinction. One of the coolest things happened before the fireworks even began: there was a Lakota singing the traditional flag song and just as he finished a B-1 bomber came in overhead from behind us with full engine. Now that gave me goosebumps! Right or wrong, there is something that is just American and pride-inducing about flexing our military might.
I am not certain if the fireworks are normally bigger or longer because it does seem possible that they reduced the show due to the fire danger in the area (not completely unlikely since they considered canceling everything. Apparently the threat was very real because as we were walking down the road heading back to our car we were stopped by the police (in full gear with M-16s) and told to move to the side of the road and stay put. Turns out the fireworks started a fire, blocking us from passing down the road to our cars. We had to wait on the side of the road for about an hour before they were able to put out the fire enough for us to get by. When we did pass, we could see a little bit still burning up in the hills. That part of the day was probably the most surreal for me; I felt like I was with a group fleeing a war-torn city or nuclear attack or something else calamitous. Walking through the dark, with a few flashlights here and there, police lights flashing around the corner, officers with assault rifles, kids crying…it was definitely a different sort of feeling.
Well, I suppose that’s all for now. I realize that this is pretty long-winded but like I said, we’re just driving through greenish-gold pastures with only the occasional animal for company. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post soon. Thanks to all of you who’ve been commenting, I’ve enjoyed reading what you have to say.
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