It's the 4th of July, and when the 4th is close to a weekend, that means it's time to head to the Tetons and Yellowstone. This is the third or fourth year in a row we've come over the 4th weekend. Unfortunately, our secret campground that never fills up is no longer a secret. We left early Saturday morning, though, so we arrived in Jackson by noon and had no trouble finding a camping spot. The campground filled up every afternoon through July 3.
This is the famous Mormon barn that many people photograph. It even has a parking lot with a bus turnaround. However, the big crowds don't know about this spot nor the whole area around Kelly and Mormon Row.
Same barn from a distance.
And the not-as-famous Mormon Outhouse.
Also on this road are some very pretty wild flowers. You'll need to wait until the end of this blog to see a photo of the yellow and purple flowers.
This picture is from Signal Mountain. Even though there's a Signal Mountain lodge, not a lot of people know about the drive up the mountain for a great view of the Tetons and the entire valley below.
Side note: When Chieko and I were up here several years ago, a young couple in a small car had gone airborne from the main highway (speed limit: 45) and stuck their car in the air between two trees. This year a pickup truck got sideways in almost the same location, hit a two-foot-thick tree with the passenger side, broke the tree clean off, and landed the truck on its driver's side. No emergency vehicles had yet arrived, and we don't know the condition of the occupants.
On Saturday evening we visited the Bar J Wranglers for their chuck wagon dinner and cowboy singing. We have been coming here almost every year for the past 28 or 29 years, only missing the couple of years when we lived in California. There were a few years we came twice, and I came three times one year.
Danny is the bass singer.
Tim is the fiddle player.
Donny plays the steel guitar and a host of other stringed instruments.
Brian is the clown, bass fiddle player, and yodeler.
Babe is Brian (tenor and guitar) and Scott's dad and the founder of the Bar J Wranglers. He's retired, but he still shows up frequently. This year is the 40th anniversary of the show. Babe used to sing bass, recites cowboy poetry, is a patriot, and is a champion for veterans. He served as a Marine during the Korean conflict.
The next morning we drove to Yellowstone, where these three chipmunks greeted us at the entrance ranger station.
I've never seen so many people in Yellowstone. We were planning to stop at Old Faithful, but there were zero open parking spots and a parade of vehicles cruising up and down the aisles hoping someone would leave. We decided we've seen Old Faithful plenty of times. So we headed to some less well-known places, like Firehole Lake Drive.
A cone geyser on Firehold Lake Drive.
And a hot pot.
This hot pot was pretty and fun. We could see the gas bubbles emerge from the side of the pool and then rise to the surface and bubble up. Because the water is so clear, the pool looked shallow, but based on how long it took the bubbles to reach the surface, I guessed it was really quite deep.
This is at Mammoth.
This is a view from Mount Washburn on the way to Canyon from Mammoth.
The Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Another view of the falls.
I guess the bison and elk don't mind each other.
We can always count on seeing bison, even if we don't see any bears or wolves. We did get in one traffic jam due to a bear on the hill by the road, but the bear was gone by the time we got to the front of the jam.
We went through a crazy rain and hail storm. The rain drops were as huge as I've ever seen hit the windshield. But the storm left a nice partial rainbow over Yellowstone Lake. The other end of the rainbow was also visible (but not in this picture).
On Monday morning I went on my favorite bike ride. Of the places I've ridden a bike, this is by far the prettiest.
This bridge crosses the channel leaving Jenny Lake.
Later, Chieko and I drove to Jackson Lake Lodge, which still has phone booths next to the grand staircase on the first floor.
We also stopped at Colter Bay, which offers showers and has a store with hand-dipped ice cream. Canyon Village in Yellowstone also has hand-dipped ice cream. Just so you know.
The South Jenny Lake area, which has a store, rest rooms, boat ramp, and a trail and boat to Hidden Falls, and a large parking lot, was partially closed for construction. The cars were parked all along the road to the highway and up and down the highway on both sides in both directions. Just too many people for us. So we headed to the Jenny Lake scenic drive and found a great little quiet beach on the trail that traces around the edge of the lake.
This is the north end of Jenny Lake.
Chieko tried skipping rocks.
See the rock Chieko is standing on? After she got off, I sat here, relaxed, and just enjoyed the serenity of the lake, mountains, blue sky, and mild temperature.
That is, until this family from India found the same little beach. Very friendly people, ready and willing to share our space. The dad came down the hill and said, "It's very quiet here." At first I thought he was also enjoying the quiet, but afterwards I decided maybe he was complaining about the lack of noise. He brought his whole family down the hill, and they filled in the rock all around me and started taking pictures, not minding that my back was in all of them. I thought they might leave then, but they took off their shoes and started wading and playing in the water. We left.
We took the Moose-Wilson road back to Teton Village. Along the way we found this large herd of elk. We didn't see any bulls other than a very young one.
And we waited for the Teton Village fireworks. This is just before the fireworks show.
Teton Village really puts on a nice show.
I guessed the people lighting the fuses were in a hurry, because they lit the rockets as fast as they could.
This is the finale.
On the morning of the 4th, we avoided going into Jackson due to the parade, carnival, and all. We took the Moose-Wilson road to Wilson and had a late breakfast at Nora's Fish Creek Inn. We used to come here for a great almond-crusted salmon dinner, but the Inn is now only open for breakfast and lunch. Nora's brother quit the restaurant, and because she has a family at home she cut back her hours. She said she may open for dinner again at some point in the future. Anyway, we enjoyed a nice trout with two eggs, hash browns, and hot cake breakfast.
We then went to the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve and hiked up to Phelps Lake. The Teton mountain range was established as a national park in 1929, but not the land surrounding it. John D. Rockefeller and Horace Albright, the superintendent of Yellowstone, discussed ways to preserve the area, and Rockefeller started buying up the land from Mormon ranchers. He then donated it to the park, keeping a large portion around Phelps Lake for the Rockefeller family. Chieko worked there for two summers during college. The Rockefellers moved their lodge and cabins just a few years ago and donated most of what was the JY Ranch to the Park Service, which turned it into the LSR Preserve
This rock looks like a long swim in freezing water, but these three girls actually waded to the rock. They didn't really fit well on it once they got there.
The rest of these pictures are mostly flowers with recognizable scenery in the background.
These crazy flowers were growing next to a hot spring on the Firehole Lake Drive.
This is on Mount Washburn. This tree was burned in the fire during the summer of 1988, as were the black skeletons standing in the background. The shorter, light green trees are the new growth. They're probably 10 feet tall. The darker trees further in the background survived the fire.
This is the raging stream coming from Phelps Lake.
That's it.
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