FAMILY VISIT TO COLTER BAY

Daughter Wendy, her husband Scott and grandkids Amelia and John spent a week in Jackson Hole recently.  The temperature during their days of their stay was in the lower 40's and highs is the mid-70's; a far cry from the 100+ degree days they were having in Dallas.

We met them for dinner at Snake River Brew Pub.  Here we are sitting on an outside picnic table waiting for our buzzer to light up so we can be seated for dinner.  John is sitting between Scott and me, and Amelia is sitting with Ann.  Wendy is the photographer.

 

Later in the week, the Wilson family came north to stay at Jackson Lake Lodge for a few nights.  Here is a photo of us waiting on the patio at Leek's Marina/Restaurant for our pizzas to be delivered.  Leek's is one mile north of Colter Bay and has some of the best pizza in the valley.  We are all we wearing long sleeves because the mosquitoes were looking for dinner on our arms and legs while we were waiting for ours.

 

The next morning we took a scenic boat cruise on Jackson Lake.  Here is Ann with John sitting on the back deck of the cruise boat.  Notice how calm the water is.  Regulations require children under 12 to wear a life jacket when on the back deck.  The narrated cruise went all around Jackson Lake (15 miles by 5 miles) and was very informative.

Wendy and Scott rented a kayak and went back out on Jackson Lake after lunch, while Ann and I took Amelia and John for the afternoon.  In the second kayak photo, Wendy and Scott are paddling past the end of the dock with Mount Moran in the background - what a great view!.

Here John and I are on the swim beach.  John enjoyed jumping from this dead tree stump.  Amelia is holding our older camera.  We let the children take turns taking their own photos.

If you look closely, you will notice there is not sand but small stones for the beach.  The water is about 60 degrees because this water was snow only a few days before.  Neither grandchild chose to even take their socks and shoes off to put their feet in the water of Jackson Lake.

Later that day, We returned to our campsite for a picnic.  We let the children roast marshmallows over the campfire in order to make s'mores. In the photo, Dick, our next door neighbor, is  the official fire tender and marshmallow instructor.

John decided to have a "flaming marshmallow".  Look at the smile on his face.  

We had a great visit with the Wilsons and look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks as we stop in Dallas on our way back to Florida.

TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE

We took a trip to Yellowstone National Park with Dick and Sheri, our friends from Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We worked with them last summer at the Jenny Lake Store.  They have lived in this area all their lives and have explored this area both in the summer and on snowmobiles in the winter.  

We stopped in West Yellowstone, Montana for breakfast.  Yellowstone National Park is best known for "Old Faithful" and bears.  This statue is "life size".  Can you tell if it is a grizzly or black bear?  Correct, it is a grizzly bear--notice the hump behind the shoulder.

We toured the old Union Pacific train station which is now a museum.  Here is a snow plow from the late 1920's.

This photo includes one of the old stage coaches used to take passengers from the train station into Yellowstone National Park; about a 15 mile journey, which took a full day by stage coach.  Next to the stage coach is a snow mobile from the 1940's that used a propeller in the back for power.  This design is very similar to the design of air boats on the south Florida swamps.  The snow machine on the right is a Snow Cats from 1964.  Notice the different types of "skis" on the two snow machines.

Dick keeps inviting us out to Wyoming in the winter to go snowmobiling.  Yellowstone National Park may be beautiful in the winter, but I don't think I could handle the sometimes 30 and 40 degrees BELOW zero temperatures.  According to Dick and Sheri, modern snow machines have heaters and, with contemporary winter outdoor clothing, you stay warm, even in these sub-zero temperatures.
 
The town of West Yellowstone had a painting contest where local artists were each asked to paint a statue of a bison.  We saw several around town but this was our favorite bison statue.  It was painted by Anthony Floyd who named this bison--"Yellowstone Heritage".

This photo gives a few of the other side of the bison as well as a better perspective as to the size of a bison.

The inscription on the plaque below the statue states, "I chose to paint bears, buffalo, mountain men, Indians and beautiful blue skies as my theme of 'The Majestic Yellowstone' area." Here are Dick and Sheri with "Yellowstone Heritage".

When we evaluate a summer destination where we might want to work, West Yellowstone would not be at the top our list.  The town is about four square blocks, with little in the way of grocery and other stores we would need to survive.  Nice to visit, but we would not want to live there.

We completed our day with a visit to the new visitors' center at Old Faithful.  The Park Service did a very comprehensive job in having interactive areas for smaller children, older children, and adults.  The signage was also in multiple languages--a tribute to the many visitors from all across the globe who come to visit both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks each year.

PHELPS LAKE HIKE

One of our favorite hikes is at the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve.  Earlier in the year, when we were building up or hiking stamina, we hiked to Phelps Lake and back to the visitors' center.  This time, we hiked all-the-way around the lake for a total of 7.4 miles.  The trail follows sagebrush meadows, wetlands, forest, and lake environments.  Several times we were in a thick forest of Douglas fir with the aroma of a Christmas tree lot found in December.

This is the view when we first reached the shore of Phelps Lake.  The reflections of the mountains in the lake provided opportunities for stunning photographs.

 While hiking around Phelps Lake, you get many vistas where you can view Death Canyon. 

The only wildlife we saw were a squirrel, chipmunk, grouse, and a bald eagle. The bald eagle was flying majestically over the lake trying to spear a fish with its talons.  Unfortunately, we were too far away to get a decent photo.

We went out to Huckleberry Point to view the many huckleberry bushes nearly fully in bloom.  When ripe, the huckleberries will look very similar to blueberries. 

Because most of the trail is shady, the spring wild flowers were still in bloom.  Flowers we saw for the first time this summer include:

Blue penstemon:

Wyoming or Indian Paint Brush--the official Wyoming state flower:

and Columbine--the official Colorado state flower:

There were several varieties of Columbine

 and finally, an all white Columbine.

We talked to a Park Ranger at the Visitors' Center after completing our hike.  According to him, the Columbine are not native to the area but are left over from the garden the Rockefeller family planted when they had a private residence on this beautiful land.  This would explain why we haven't seen these flowers on any of our other hikes this summer.

PARTY @ THE ROOF FOR VERTICAL HARVEST

One of our employer's goals is for employees to volunteer in the community of Jackson.  Ann and I volunteered for the Party at The Roof fundraiser for Vertical Harvest.  The town of Jackson has one parking garage, and this fundraiser was located on the roof of the garage.  Vertical Harvest is a project to build a three-story greenhouse on the tiny patch of land next to this parking garage.  The greenhouse will grow fruits and vegetables year-round while providing jobs for disabled individuals and educational opportunities for the community.

Chefs from seven area restaurants were paired with different area food producers to create small plates of their specialties.  The chef tents were set up around the perimeter of the garage's roof, and our job, as chef's assistants, was to keep them supplied with paper goods--small plates or bowls, napkins, forks and spoons.  The first picture below is from the Four Seasons Hotel in Teton Village.  Buffalo pastrami, cole slaw, and cheese on a small slider bun disappeared from the display almost as fast as the chef could put the delicacies on the shelves.

The Couloir Restaurant, dining at 9500 ft. in Teton Village (you ride a ski gondola 3,000 feet up to the restaurant), provided a very colorful salad comprised of greens, feta cheese, walnuts, and other trimmings with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.  The colors were amazing.

Another selection included thinly sliced beef, greens, and horseradish sauce on a toasted baguette. 

Our favorite was ham, cheese, with sweet mustard lightly grilled on a slice of baguette.  The grilling warmed the ham and melted the cheese which helped it melt in your mouth.  These small sandwiches were only put out in groups of 3-5, and they disappeared quickly.

Below, monster pork loins are being displayed on a table for the Lotus Cafe.  The sliced pork was delicious.

Watching the people attending the party was very interesting - the local rich and socially connected of Jackson.  The crowd paid $30 for admission, which included 1 food ticket and 1 drink ticket.  Wine and beer were donated by local businesses.  

There was also a silent auction with various prizes including overnight stays at local resorts, dinners at local restaurants, and hiking and skiing gear.  The big ticket item in the silent auction was a yacht cruise for eight including captain & crew of 2 with a minimum bid of $30,000.  Really within our price range!  Needless,to say, we bid on more moderately priced items.

The cocktail tables were decorated with fresh vegetables to further support the theme of someday being able to get locally grown fresh vegetables year-round.

The evening was a lot of fun from both the people watching standpoint and  the unique location overlooking the town of Jackson.  You can see views of the town in most of the photos above.  We also got to sample all the delicacies as well as enjoy a few cold beers.

HIKE AROUND CHRISTIAN POND

On a recent day off, we spent the morning hiking 3.7 miles around Christian Pond.  Christian Pond was named after Charles A. "Tex" Christian, who managed one of the first lodges in the area.  The trail goes through a willow-filled basin before coming to a ridge overlooking the pond.  

We saw this mother duck with her 6 little ducklings in the pond.  The mother duck was teaching her ducklings to dive below the water for food, and it was fun to see the ducklings imitate their mother's action.

The meadows were covered with various types of wild flowers.  Here is a sampling of these "spring flowers" which we found during the last week in July.  First, some "Nuttall's violet" or purple daisies.

"Wild Buckwheat" are shown below. 

"Roundleaf Harebell" are a vibrant blue in color.  The name means little bell.

Lastly,"sagebrush buttercup", which have been blooming for several weeks now.  The flowers pictured below are in an area which is shaded most of the day.

The trail is mostly through areas of sagebrush with an assortment of pine trees for some shade.

We found this female grouse along the path.  The female grouse had a baby following close by but we were unable to get a "family photo".

We also got some different views of the mountains.

Mount Moran as seen from afar is pictured below.  Skillet Glacier is more distinct from this distance.

While it was good to go hiking, we completed this hike mostly in the scorching sun on a very dusty trail because we have had very little rain in the last month.  Even though it was late July, the flowers were very colorful despite the lack of rainfall.  It was probably the first - and last - time we will hike this trail.

BEAR FAMILY SAGA

Many of the adult bears in Grand Teton National Park are tagged by the National Park Service for tracking purposes. We have been following one bear "family" since last summer.

Female grizzly bear #399 is the most famous bear in Grand Teton National Park and is the only bear that has her own postcard.  She has had several sets of cubs during the 15 years she has lived around Colter Bay Village.  In January 2006, grizzly bear #399 had 3 cubs, one of the cub females was tagged as bear #610.  Again in the spring of 2011, #399 had 3 cubs and daughter #610 had her first set of offspring of 2 cubs.

Here is #399 with her 3 cubs following behind.  The large hump, which is actually muscle mass right behind the shoulder, is a quick way to identify #399 as a grizzly bear.

The  3 cubs are seen frolicking in a stream.

And, standing up to get a better view.

One of #399's cubs wants to climb a tree.

#610 with her 2 cubs following closely behind. The hump behind the shoulder is more noticeable here.

#610 with her 2 cubs coming towards the camera.

A close-up of #610.  Notice the ears are round and proportionally small, another characteristic of a grizzly bear.

Currently, one of #399's cubs was left behind and #610 is now taking care of this wayward cub as well as her own 2 cubs.  A possible reason for this switch from bear experts is that  #610 adopted one of #399's cubs after #399 had an altercation, possibly with a large male grizzly.  

We give photo credit to Bob Davis, who works with Ann at the Colter Bay Campground.  He follows the bear sightings several days a week and is adamant about protecting the bears in the wild.  The photos above were all taken before the recent cub switch.

Although we seen some bears this summer, we have not actually seen these grizzly mothers and cubs, just heard about their sightings from guests and coworkers.  With our remaining time here this summer, we hope to see either #399 or #610 with her cubs.  We came close last Friday night when we stopped along the road coming back from Jackson.  However, new National Park Service rules require you to stay with your vehicle if you pull off the road to watch wildlife.  From accounts of others parked near us, we think it was #399 and her two cubs, but they were too far from the road for us to get our own photos.