Grand Tetons: Above The Timberline

When I left my hotel in Jackson, WY this morning, it was chilly...38 degrees! Brrrr! I had to put on my Five For Fighting hoodie, at least till the sun was up for a couple of hours. I was excited for my first visit to Grand Teton National Park. I knew the mountain views would be awesome, and I was looking forward to getting some nice photos. My enthusiasm was dampened a bit when I noticed a smoky haze in the sky. It appeared the park service was conducting a prescribed burn, which took away what should have been pristine views. Oh, well. I made the best of things, and it actually cleared up as I traveled north through the park. I managed to get some pretty decent shots of the peaks.

 

While at Grand Teton, I decided to have an early lunch. I stopped at a picnic area and found a table in the sun to eat the supermarket sushi I had bought yesterday. When I entered the park, I got the latest copy of the newspaper given to visitors and I looked through it as I ate. It mentioned being careful about bears, and said they might even show up at picnic areas. I found myself looking around me occasionally during my lunch. I didn't want a bear to sneak up and try to steal my sushi!

As the afternoon rolled around, I drove north and crossed into Yellowstone National Park. I had visited this park last year (see blog Geysers Are Cool, But Bison Rule) , but only had one day to look at the most popular areas, such as the Old Faithful geyser basin. This time around, not only would I have the rest of the afternoon, I had another two days to hopefully see everything I missed last time around. I saw some interesting volcanic features by taking the road less taken in the eastern side of Yellowstone. No spouting geysers, but a lot of steaming and bubbling pools.

 

Tomorrow, I'll be seeing more of Yellowstone that I've never laid eyes on before. Even though I'm not planning on doing any real hiking, I'll still be negotiating the paved trails and boardwalks around the hydrothermal features. Only four more days of road tripping...