THE TETONS AND THE TRIP HOME.

On Saturday the 16th, Ron, Jane and Deb had to move out of Gros Ventre Campground over an issue of only being able to stay in a national park campground for 14 days at a time. So, they went up to the Atherton Creek National Forest Campground on Slide Lake. Slide Lake was created in 1925 by a landslide that closed off the Gros Ventre River until a lake 5 miles long formed behind the slide. Two years later an unusually wet winter and spring flooded the natural dam with enough water to break part of the dam, flooding Kelly and killing 6 people. The lake today is about a mile long.

The sites are not as level here---



But the views are magnificent.





We took a couple more pictures of the Tetons at dusk as we drove back to Gros Ventre Campground.





The next morning, August 17th, we had a couple of visitors outside our door. We do not really like seeing them as they have a habit of building nests in the engine compartment and they love the taste of electrical wire.

 



We spent the day sitting around the RV. Friends, John and Linda, came in today and will be leaving on the 20th, the same day as us. They are returning home after spending the summer driving to Alaska and back.

I keep trying to get a good picture of the bluebirds here, but so far no luck. Or maybe the word is patience. The campground is full of them and they are in constant motion catching bugs in the air like swallows.



It’s the 20th and we are heading home so we got to the dump station by 7:30 to get an early start. After dumping and taking on fresh water we hooked up the Subaru and noticed we had a low tire, 19 PSI. Fortunately while filling the tire I could see a nail in the tire. I do carry an air compressor in the RV so after filling the tire it was off to Jackson to find a tire shop. We pulled into Kmart and unhooked and drove across the street to Big O Tire to have the tire fixed. They said they could get it in in about a half hour so while they worked on the tire we walked down the street to the Café Boheme for breakfast. When we got back we expected to see a roofing nail from the tire as we had been to Ron and Jane’s condo where a roofing project was in progress. But, low and behold, we had picked up a horse shoe nail. Or was some Ferrier trying to shoe the wrong horse?



All was fixed and we were on the road by 10:15, headed south to Pinedale to see the Museum of the Mountainman. It is a very nice museum and well worth the time to visit. One of the odd things we learned was that, contrary to what people have been led to believe, most mountain men were clean shaven. The beards were added to the books and magazine article, to make them look more rugged.



The main floor of the museum was about the Mountain Man era, with artifacts from the Native American and the Mountain Man population.













The heaviest trapping took place from 1822 to the early 1840’s when it begain to decline because silk hats were becoming the fashion replacing felt (beaver) as the the material of choice.



Aside from hats, beaver pelts were also used to make luxurious coats, gloves and muffs.

















The basement area exhibit told of the people that lived in the area around 1900.







It was noted that most of the baby clothes were made of white material as this was cheaper than colored fabric which made it more economical because the children out grew their clothes so fast.











This valley was north east of Riverton, WY.





We stopped for the night in Douglas, WY at a KOA Campground where they had corrals for livestock while people camped there. Our campsite overlooked one of those corrals.The only other time we have seen this (other than at trailhead campgrounds) is at Cave Creek Regional Campground north of Phoenix.



As we got ready to leave Aberdeen Sunday morning the 24th, Sandy’s mom noticed that their cactus was in bloom. It was great timing as they only bloom one day in the year.





Until next time,

Dave and Sandy