Tetons and Yellowstone

Chieko and I try to go to Teton National Park and the Bar J Wranglers chuck wagon at least once a year, usually in September, kind of an anniversary and end-of-summer celebration. It's a great time to go, because there are few people, and many of the larger animals are actively getting ready for winter.

This year Janet, Jennifer, Stanton, my dad, Nancy and Cecil joined us. The following pictures are more or less in chronological order.

We arrived Friday, checked into the Alpenhoff Lodge in Teton Village, and the other group checked into a condo nearby. We then headed over to the Bar J to wait in line. 

Babe is the dad who started the Bar J Wranglers 36 years ago. He retired several years ago but showed up  this night and did his intro. 

These are the wranglers, except Donnie, who sits to the left. 

Brian is the smart aleck base player brother. 

I think Brian is the older brother. 

Tim joined the group 25 years ago and is a national champion fiddler. 

Danny joined a few years ago. He replaced a deep base nicknamed Bullfrog, who replaced Babe when he retired. I think Bullfrog left for health reasons. 

Donnie plays the steel guitar and anything else with pickable strings. 

On Saturday morning we headed up the Teton-Moose road that winds past the old JY Ranch and in to Moose. This guy was fattening up for winter along the side of the road. 

He headed our way, and we scooted back into our cars. He then walked up the road and right past us. 

I couldn't decide whether to roll the window up so we wouldn't be eaten or roll it down and take pictures. 

We stopped at Old Faithful, shopped for souvenirs, watched the geyser and ate lunch. Then we visited Midway Basin. 

The springs were pretty steamy, and a wind blew the steam mostly in our direction. 

Then over to The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is Artist Point. 

On the way back we saw a large herd of bison. 

I think this is the granddaddy. 

We ate dinner on a picnic table on the Yellowstone Lake beach at Fishing Bridge. Except for some deer drinking from the lake, we were the only visitors here. 

On Sunday morning we drove up the Jenny Lake road. This is one of my favorite picture spots. Sometimes horses are in this pasture. 

The weekend group. 

Chieko and me. 

We saw this elk looking for his mate, who was trotting along behind a hill with a calf. 

He's pretty serious. 

At Jenny Lake we saw, heard and spoke no evil. 

Dad reminiscing, maybe. 

We skipped and threw a lot of rocks in the lake. 

We stopped at Signal Mountain to see the valley from the top of the world on our way to Jackson Lake Lodge. This is the view from the lodge. Jackson Lake was dry north of the dam. 

On the way home we received the 40-percent chance of rain that was predicted, and this rainbow presented itself as we left Woodruff, Utah.