Grand Teton National Park

It was a little bit of a haul from Lander, Wyoming to the Grand Teton National Park. That was our next destination. I guess it was about 150 miles or so when we began to notice a difference in the terrain. One of things that caught my eye on the sides of the highway were these wooden 'fence' sortof things. I really had NO idea what they were, or why they would be constructed along the sides of the highway.

My ever so genius brother-in-law and riding partner explained it to me. Those things are to help keep the snow drifts from getting to bad on the highways. It made sense to me. I can imagine that the winters in the middle portion of Wyoming can get pretty bad. With the wind rushing through, I have no doubt that some major snowdrifts can accumulate on the highways.

The further into the ride we travelled, the more ups and downs we found. The hills starting getting a little steeper. We did run into some road construction, though. Parts of it even turned into gravel for awhile - ouch!! It seemed like we had not been in the hilly part of the ride for very long, and the next thing we knew, we could see them. The Grand Tetons!!

What a sight! I had never seen mountains so tall. We naturally had to make a stop at a safe spot along the roadside to get a couple of pictures.

We rode a little further and came upon the sign welcoming us to the Grand Teton National Park.

I had already reserved a campsite in Grand Teton National Park for us to bed down. Since we had been riding for a pretty good ways by now, we decided to head directly toward the campground. As it turned out, we rode right along side of the Grand Teton Mountain range on our way to the campground. I still think about that view!!

We actually went a little north of the Teton Range, and toward Yellowstone National Park to get to our campground. Once checked in, we found our site and started unloading our gear.

I took along a really small tent. I called it "the coffin tent" because you basically had to lay down to get in and out of the thing, and once it was setup, it looked kindof like a coffin. It was OK, but in hindsight, I wished I had taken a different tent. Even though it packed up really small, it was a pain to get in and out of. It was almost impossible to change clothes inside of it. I have found much better tents since then.

By the time we made it to Tetons, we had the unpacking and setting up part down to a science. It didn't take us long at all to get our stuff setup.

We headed back to the office, got another map of the area and a little camping food, then headed back to our site for dinner. A few pieces of wood later and a little cooking, and dinner was served!

We only had reserved two days in Grand Teton national Park, so we got a little rest, because we knew the next day was a riding day.

Riding the Grand Teton National Park is an adventure that I won't soon forget. We woke up at our new campsite and got us a little breakfast before venturing out to explore. We met our new neighbors, which was really cool. My brother-in-law and riding partner is from Mississippi, and I from Tennessee. Our neighbors, as it turns out were from the south as well. Wow, what a small world!.

We rode out of our campground and headed south toward those amazing peaks. There was a really cool place to stop with information about the formation of the Grand Tetons - and some good picture taking opportunities. The river below was small, but very beautiful. We saw a raft floating down the river just far enough downstream that we couldn't tell how many people were taking a floating trip that day.

We arrived in Jackson Hole just around lunch time and stopped at a little restaurant for a bite to eat. The building across the street had one of the most interesting roofs on it that we had ever seen. The entire roof of that place was covered with grass!!! Yes, actual, real, growing grass!!. We laughed about that for a bit, wondering how they got the lawnmower up there to mow the roof.

After lunch, we rode around "the hole" for awhile, then headed back northward to the road that runs by Jenny Lake. The lake was crystal clear, sitting just beneath the rise of the Tetons themselves. Picturesque!!.

That evening, we found a nice Italian restaurant at the edge of a lake, the Tetons lust beyond it, reflection mirrored in the clear greenish, blue water. We were able to get a table on the wrap around deck, so we could eat our dinner while enjoying the fantastic view.

Tired, full, and our eyes full of the beauty of the day, we headed back to the campsite to start our campfire.

The next day, we planned to journey on toward Yellowstone National Park, but we had decided to take the long way.

More pictures are at http://www.sightseeingreview.com