Day 3: On to the Grand Tetons

Profile view of George Washington

Today we decided to get up early and eat our breakfast on the road by consuming breakfast bars purchased on our way back to our hotel from the Grizzly Creek grill last night.  My goal was to get into the Grand Teton National Park area in time to do some afternoon sight seeing before checking into our room at the Jackson Lake Lodge inside the park.  I set may alarm for 5:30 and we were on the road by 6:00 AM.  We thought we could get some early morning sun hitting the presidents as we drove pass Mt Rushmore but the clouds were covering the sun at the time and I was not willing to wait (rare for me, but I had places I wanted to be by a certain time).

Recovery from the Jasper Fire

I did take a few pictures of the busts as we drove out of the area, including some angles rarely seen on postcards.
As soon as we left he region of Mt. Rushmore we found ourselves in the Black Hills National Forest and were witness to the devastation of the Jasper fire of 2000.  The scenery through this area was amazing and we were awed by the number of dead trees that resulted from this unfortunate event.  Once through the Black Hills Forest we were into Wyoming and about to embark on 400 miles of absolutely nothing (or at least it seems that way).

Pooh by the famous Moulton barn.

The state of Wyoming  is the least populated state in the union with just over 500,000 people and with its size, it is second only to Alaska in population density at 5.86 people per square mile.  Their largest city is the capitol of Cheyenne with just slightly more than 50,000 people.   We saw several town signs proclaiming populations in the range 10 for the smallest to around 1800 for the biggest town we drove through.  This largest was Wright where 40% of our nation's coal is mined (so we were told by a nice lady staffing the information booth at a rest area we visited. Maybe she was originally from South Dakota).  Besides the small towns that popped up every 15 miles or so, the one thing I was in awe of was the complete lack of trees.  The visibility was incredible as we could see all the way to the horizon and, at times, the complete 360 degree view did not give up a single tree.  I don't think I could live without trees!

An Instagram from an iPhone shot of the Moulton barn. 

As we drew closer to our destination the terrain took on a more interesting shape and composition with rolling hills and small buttes.  Things turned back to more my liking as we entered the Sheshone National Forest followed by the Teton National Forest, the latter giving us a clue that we were getting close to our destination.  As we came around the bend and crested a final hill, the majesty of the Teton Range was before us and Katie exclaimed, "Wow! Is that where we're going?".


First on my agenda was to see if we could locate the famous abandoned Mormon homesteads that are often photographed against the backdrop of the Grand Teton mountains.  I had done some research before leaving home and was pretty sure I knew where to go. We did find the famous barn built by T. A. Moulton and Pooh enjoyed the view and I even got an interesting Instagram shot of the famous building.  One of the other cluster of buildings that also offers interesting photo ops was overrun by a herd of Buffalo and we couldn't really get close enough.

B&W Instagram from Jackson Lake Lodge

We made our way to the visitor center at Grand Teton National park and then proceeded into the park and worked our way north towards our destination for the evening - Jackson Lake Lodge.  Along the way we pulled into occasional scenic overlooks and even saw a young grizzly bear! I was just glad that the mommy bear wasn't anywhere to be seen.  We drove up signal mountain that offered fabulous views of the surrounding area and glimpses of the southern end of the range.  We pulled into the lodge around 6:00 PM, got checked in and went to get a bite to eat and a cold beer to wash it down with.  We spent an hour or so in our room and then returned to the lodge for an Ice Cream cone and some sunset photography.  The current plan is to be up before the sun to see if sunrise photos from the lodge will be as good as I'm imagining them.