Our Big Smelly Neighbor to the North

No, we are not trying to offend our Bulgarian neighbor...IT'S YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK!



West Thumb

Grand Prismatic

Yellowstone is a big park and trying to see it all in one day it hard to do, but we tried our best.  After getting a later start than we orginally intended because a certain someone temporarily misplaced her keys, (go figure) we headed North. 

First stop, West Thumb, where you can see thermal pools and Yellowstone Lake side by side...we even touched the hot water after making sure no one was watching and contemplated cooking a lobster. 

Old Faithful did not dissapoint despite Jesse's life-long fear that an earthquake would stop it's eruption before he could see it.  A special treat was that the entire geyser basin seemed to be going off right before it's eruption, so we got to witness a half of a half dozen (somewhere around 3) other geysers going off.

Upper Falls

Rare pic. of a martian
space-ship flying overhead

All this geyser watching was making us hungry, so we headed to the Midway Geyser Basin for a picnic by the river.  After some delicious sandwiches, we saw the Grand Prismatic and than off to Artist's Paint Pots to see some bubbling mud.  Our last stop was a hike around The Upper and Lower Falls. 

We didn't see much wildlife except for a couple manalope sneaking up on some Bison...yes, manalope- the stupidest and most dangerous wildlife in Wyoming. 

After a full day of smelly adventures, we never even made it to the Northern part of the park, perhaps we will leave that for another day and another blog!  

Fourth of July Failures

So we were pretty excited for the fourth this year...getting to be in the United States, (for Jesse only the 3rd time in 7 years) see firework displays and celebrate the good ol' American way.

Plan A was to head into the nearby town of Jackson, go to a rodeo, and then watch the display in the evening.


Plan B was to head to a nearby Mountain where you could see the display from Teton Village and Jackson, and then head to a nearby camping site.

Well, fireworks were officially banned in the county because of the bad drought and our camping spot ended up being full.  It's was a little disappointing not being able to see fireworks this year, but we would have to be idiots to argue.  It was a good decision.  The recent forest fires are already too close, and we would really hate to evacuate.

Moving onto Plan C, we decided to go camping a little further into the woods and reserved a spot near Leigh Lake.  The campsite was supposedly 1.5 miles from the parking lot, so we walked as quickly as possible to reach the spot before the sunset (unfortunately, we left later than intended because work got out late).  Now we are very aware that we ARE in fact in a national park and there ARE in fact wild animals all over so we knew if we didn't hit the halfway point with plenty of time to get to our campsite by 9:00, we would turn around.    

15 minutes into the hike, Jesse heard a big splash in the water and looked over to see a very big rump 10-15 feet away.  We froze, and got a pretty good glimpse of a female moose.  Thankfully, there was no baby near and she didn't seem too concerned that we were close enough to jump on her back and ride her.  We continued onward.

25 minutes into the hike we came across some bear scat.  It looked to be about a day old, so not a huge deal,  we continued onward...

30 minutes into the hike, more bear scat.  Fresh, dark brown, spankin' new bear scat.  After a few words that should not be mentioned slipped from my mouth, we whipped out the bear spray and decided instantly we should NOT be moving forward on this trail.  We were probably only a few minutes away from our site, but we did not want to be sharing a bed with our bear friend.

After we turned around and headed towards the car, singing loudly, yelling "hey bear, coming through" and making up word games to play, we ran into more bear scat.  Indeed, it was a very good idea to be heading back to the car.

We asked God to clear the path to the car...no bears and no moose standing in our way, and He did.  No more troubles, we made it back to the parking/picnic area.  We ended our evening at a picnic table, drinking hot chocolate with a curious deer by our side and listening to some good music.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!  It may not have turned out as we planned, but it was good day full of memories :) 
 

Activities Galore!

On Jackson Lake

If we never mentioned it before, one of the benefits of working here is the option to do almost any activity for free, so the last couple of weeks have full of fun as we filled up our time with as much stuff as possible.

Heres the break down of the last 2 weeks:

Water Activities-


Scenic Lake Cruise

We fell in love with tandom kayaking.  We rented one for a couple hrs, taking it out on Jackson Lake.  To top of the experience, we even saw a bald eagle fly over our heads. 

We took a scenic boat cruise on the lake.  It was a beautiful day so we spent the whole ride on the boat deck enjoying the scenary. 

Getting Ready for our Raft trip

AND the most exciting day on the water, was a white water rafting trip down the snake river's class III rapids.  It was our first white water experience, and we entertained ourselves by watching people fly off the raft behind us when they went through the big rapids (don't worry, no one got hurt).

Other Activities-

We went on an awesome horse-back ride that included a river crossing.  Jesse's horse was named Dusty and was a perfect fit...they even had the same colored hair.  My horse was quite the porker and insisted on stopping for frequent snack breaks along the way. 

We made a few trips into Jackson to run errands, check out the town, and visit our new favorite spot in town...the church thrift store.  Just outside of Jackson is the National Wildlife Art Museum, so we made sure to check it out as well!

On our other days, we spent time hiking, bear/moose watching, camping, and made a day trip to Yellowstone (more on that later).   

BE BEAR AWARE...a bear's tale.

TRUE/FALSE-   Teresa was within 125 yards of a female Grizzly.

True.  Last Saturday after an outing to Yellowstone National Park with 2 of her co-workers, I found myself in a “bear jam” where I got to see a Grizzly named Goldie grazing in a field off of Pilgrim creek in Grand Teton National Park.

TRUE/FALSE-  Teresa, along with a crowd of tourists, got charged by the female Grizzly.

False.  The crowd of tourists and I did not get charged by the female Grizzly, Goldie, BUT by a much larger and angrier male Grizzly on the walk back to the truck.

TRUE/FALSE-  Grizzly bears can run up to 35mph

True.  Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way, after witnessing a 700lb male grizzly come running across an open field attempting to scare off me and the rest of the people (talk about a heart pounding experience!) ,  so he could have his way with the female Grizzly. 

TRUE/FALSE-  You should carry Bear Spray when in bear country

TRUE!  It is very smart to carry bear spray with you…however, even with all the warnings in the park, no one was smart enough to have it on hand as we found ourselves weaving back and forth through the cars attempting to get away from the very agitated bear who was now huffing and pacing, realizing he was trapped between the row of parked cars and a pond. 

TRUE/FALSE- Teresa jumped into a stranger’s vehicle in an attempt to get away from the bear.

True.  My co-worker, Debby, and I opened the back door to a stranger’s vehicle and climbed inside after deciding 25 feet was WAY TOO close to be standing next to a massive, grumpy Grizzly.  Poor Sonya and a hand-full of other tourists were left outside huddled in a circle and clinging onto vehicles.   

TRUE/FALSE-  Teresa witnessed someone getting mauled by the GrizzLy.

FALSE!!!  Thank the Lord no one got hurt.  After a bit of shuffling around with the help of a volunteer ranger, everyone made it safely back to their vehicles, and left with only a thrilling story to tell.  What could have easily been a terrible experience, fortunately turned into a unique and memorable experience which hopefully will never happen again!

(sorry for the lack of pics…too concerned about safety to whip out the camera J )

"Let the good times roll"



Float trip on the snake river

Over the last few weeks we have had a couple days off together and definitely made the most of them :)  It is fun when every day off feels like a mini vacation up here. 


Mormon Row Barn

DAY ONE started with waking up at 4:55am so we could catch sunrise at Snake River Overlook (the spot where Ansel Adams took his famous picture of the Tetons) and then onto Mormon Row Barns (supposedly the most famous photographed barns in the world). 

Next, we went on a 4 hr. hike around Phelps Lake.  After the hike we warmed up in the visitor center after getting rained on and admired their fine collection of preserved animal poo. 



Snake River Overlook

Our final activity of the day was a ride up a 10,400 ft. mountain on the park's aerial tram.  Of course right when we started up the tram we realized our camcorder had no memory card in it.  We continued this trend of absent-mindlessness (maybe its the altitude!) when we found ourselves without a camera while watching a moose and her day-old baby on our way back to our dorm.  We will try to do better next time...


The Adorable Pika




DAY TWO started with another early wake-up call so we could catch the sunrise at Oxbow bend...which did not dissapoint. 

Next stop, a 4 hr. hike around Jenny Lake where we visisted Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.  Along the way we found ourselves overrun with marmots (11 of the fuzzy suckers!) and came face to face with what could be the mountain's cutest rodent...the friendly Pika. 

The afternoon's activity was a 10 mile float trip down the Snake River in a giant rubber raft.  We got a great view of the mountains, learned lots of interesting facts, and saw a few Bald Eagles.  We had a marvelous time.

As we are writing this we have just been warned that two bears are headed our way so we must sign off...Have a great day and be bear safe!

Another Change of Address...

For those of you wanting or needing our address here it is:

Jesse and Teresa Williams
P.O. Office 606
Moran, Wy 83013-0606


And here is another picture to go along with it :)

The GRAND Tetons

We have officially been living in Grand Teton National Park for over a week now and the view never gets old...

 

One of the best hobbies we have picked up together as a married couple, is photography.  Jesse is much better at handling the camera then me, but I still manage to get a few good pics like the one above.  Jesse was determined to capture a good pic as well and went on a  short hike to capture these two beautiful images.  Pretty amazing what a 15-20 min. walk from our room will get us!

  

 

Tomorrow is our first day off TOGETHER :)  We are excited for more adventures and more stories to post from our GRAND adventure at the Tetons.