The Grand Tetons (Part one)

We’re on the road again. We headed out on Wednesday the 24th of August to the Grand Tetons to spend a week with our friends Ron and Jane from Scottsdale. As a bonus Gil and Nancy from Henderson, Nevada will be there for the first couple of days we are there.  We left home and put in a long day getting to Lusk, WY for our over night stop. We wanted to get into the Tetons early the second day so the first day we drove 726 miles in 13 ½ hours.  We drove US 169 to MN 60 through SW Minnesota where we picked up I-90 west to Murdo, SD.  Sandy took over the driving from Murdo and headed south on US 83 to US 20 at Valentine, Nebraska.  Dave was able to relax during this time to take a short nap.  We headed west to Lusk, WY where we spent the night. We’ve got to come back to Nebraska and spend some time in the Sand Hills and Chadron areas.
The second day we drove 391 miles and it took us 10 hours because we got bogged down with road construction for the last 40 miles.  We had several stretches where we had to wait for pilot cars to lead us through---so much for the “getting in early idea”.  We stopped at Riverton, WY to wash off all the grasshoppers and honeybees we picked up driving through South Dakota and Nebraska.  Little did we know the bugs would soon be replaced by dust and mud from road construction.
This interesting stratification is along the North Fork of the Wind River going NW on US 26/287 out of Riverton, WY.



We had a long wait at this construction stop.  Three bicyclists showed up while we were stopped. They talked with the person holding the sign who kept shaking her head “no”. A little while later a supervisor showed up and they kept talking with the bicyclist. Finally a couple of pickups came but the bicyclist kept talking and the road crew people keep indicating they should put their bikes in the pickups. I’m sure the road crew won out because we drove through 17 miles of construction and there were sections much worse than we show here. I do know that the bicyclists take pride in having ridden every mile of the trip so they were reluctant to take the “shuttle ride”.  The ride would have been extremely difficult and dangerous on bikes.  The motorcyclists made it through, but they drove through a lot of dust and mud.



These guys sure get a day’s work in. I am surprised they don’t use dynamite.
 

We arrived at Gros Ventre Campground at about 5 PM on August 25th. We spent the next day relaxing and reading and we all got together for supper with Gil, Nancy, Ron and Jane. Ron and Gil grilled scrumptious pork tenderloins.  Jane made her special sweet potatoes and Nancy served cole slaw and juicy watermelon for dessert.  Mmmm good.
Dave, Sandy, Nancy, “movie star” Jane with the shades, Gil and Ron.

Now, behind every good picture there has to be a director with many retakes.

Here Ron and Gil are doing a superb job on the pork tenderloins.

Later in the evening Sandy took this picture of clouds facing east with the sunset reflecting from the west.  Parts of the clouds are actually smoke from the wildfire burning about 10 miles east of the campground.

Our visit time with Gil and Nancy was too short as they had to leave on Saturday and head back home.

Here in the campground we generally see moose in the early mornings between 6:30 and 7:30. It’s interesting to watch how they strip the leaves off the young willows. Sorry for all the background clutter but the moose wasn't interested in posing in a better location.


 This is what Sandy and I get to see every day out our rear window. That is the Grand Teton in the far left background peaking over the hill.

Jane is real happy as the park is putting in a bicycle riding path along the road that will hook up to an existing path further north in the park. I’m sure both cyclists and motorists will appreciate this.

Here is a Speyeria Coronis butterfly which looks a lot like a Monarch butterfly but smaller.

One day Jane wanted to take a little bike ride so we agreed to meet up with her and have lunch by String Lake. When I looked at her odometer and saw that it read a little over 16 miles I was glad I didn't take her up on the offer to ride with her on their other bike.


After a picnic lunch we all took a hike up to Leigh Lake.  Below is a picture of String Lake which we hiked by on our way to Leigh Lake.

While hiking, we encountered a pine marten that followed parallel to us for about 1/8 of a mile. Thanks to Jane for these excellent action photos. Believe me, we were not as close as these photos imply.



Here are Ron, Sandy and I at the Leigh Lake end of a portage which runs from String Lake to Leigh Lake.

This is me at the same portage with Mt. Moran in the background.

Here are Sandy and I with Mt. Moran in the background.

We thought it would be interesting to take a picture showing the contrast between a “classic” and a “modern” paint scheme of a Lazy Daze in the same color.

Tetons part 2 coming to your local computer soon!!
Until next time,
Dave and Sandy