Grand Tetons

Our great National Park adventure of 2018 started with an early morning flight out to Jackson, Wyoming. We spent the night up at Mom Mom & Grandpa Don's (our first time sleeping in the new room!), and Don drove us up to BWI in the morning where we met up with the Telfair-Cha's and hopped on the plane. The flights went smoothly, even though we didn't have seats assigned beforehand, and when we landed in Jackson we were greeted with gorgeous weather, stunningly beautiful views, and elk horns! We picked up our rental cars, divided up the kids (Steve & Megan got the girls, since they needed Mirabel their car for her 4th grade park pass), and headed off to our first stop, the Grand Tetons Visitor Center.



Before we even got to the Visitor Center, the first curve ball came our way. A text from Megan told us that Nora had a head wound. What?!? The kids had been playing in the airport, we walked Nora to Steve & Megan's rental car, then hopped in ours and drove off, when could Nora possibly have gotten hurt? (I know, I know, this is Nora, and we were on vacation, so should we really have been surprised...) Turns out while the kids were playing in the airport Nora fell, hitting the back of her head on the corner of a bench (though the official story is a bison chased her). She didn't act hurt, so the kids kept playing. Once everyone was in the car, Nora said her head felt wet, and Mirabel noticed Nora's hair was soaked with blood. Thankfully, Dr. Steve was there to keep everyone calm, inspect the wound, and have Nora apply pressure (not bad for someone who's not even a real 24/7 doctor ;-). We were  all able to meet up again at the Visitors Center, where the Park Ranger EMT, cleaned up the wound, and let us know that she could use stitches. Luckily, there was a small clinic at Jackson Lake Lodge (right where we were headed!), and just enough time to get there before it closed. We rushed over (a quick half hour drive), and the very nice EMT there was able to close Nora's head wound with three staples. Nora was a trooper through it all. The only real cause for her tears was when she was afraid that her getting hurt was somehow going to ruin the trip. Her fears were completely unjustified, and before we knew it, we were sipping huckleberry mojitos and margaritas on the deck at Jackson Lake Lodge with a stunning view of the sun setting over the Grand Tetons!



On our first full day in the Tetons, Steve and I got up early to get our three campsites at Jenny Lake. Then we met everyone at Horseshoe Bend before heading back to the Lodge to for our rafting trip. We rode down to the Snake River, and had a lovely picnic lunch on the banks of the river as our guides gave us the orientation for the trip. Steve & Megan's old neighbor Grainne and her kids Iona and Daniel had joined us for the Teton's portion of the trip (they had moved out to Idaho a few years ago and were getting ready to move back to Ireland), so we had a raft to ourselves with a wonderful guide. The weather was perfect -- Low 70's with just a few scattered cumulus clouds, an ideal day to be on the water. The first half of the trip was some relatively relaxing floating, the kids even got to take turns on the oars as our guide told us about the history, geology, and wildlife of the park. Then things got interesting. As we learned, the Tetons are a somewhat unique mountain range (the Dolomites are the only others similarly formed) in that the eastern geologic plate dives under the western plate, so the young craggy mountains rise up dramatically from the smooth plain at fault line. That flat plain below the mountains is made up of glacial till 10,000 feet deep, so the Snake River is able to cut a wandering path across the plane. Wandering being the key word. As we learned from our guide, just a week before our trip this section of the river moved a full quarter mile to the east, cutting a new channel through what was previously a wooded plain. That meant this section of the river was even more challenging for our guide than the big rapids that this trip was trying to avoid. Our guide did a excellent job of course, finding the new channel and navigating through all the downed trees, with just one collision. We slammed into a big root-ball on the corner of the raft where Elaine and I were sitting -- thankfully our guide warned and prepared us just in time. The rafting trip was truly amazing (we even had a rare daytime beaver siting!), so much so that I may have cursed our Yellowstone weather by noting it could only go downhill from here ;-)



After rafting, we drove down to Jenny Lake to set up our tents, find Mt. Owen, explore the trails near the campground, relax in the hammocks, and cook a chicken and vegetable satay feast over the campfire courtesy of Grainne's outstanding provisioning. We even had time for s'mores for dessert, though that went better for some people than for others. That first night in the tents was the one clear night we had while camping, and Nora and I took advantage of it with a middle of the night bathroom run to get us outside to see the stars and the Milky Way.



In the morning we caught the first boat across Jenny Lake for a hike up into the mountains. The trail led us along streams raging with melt water, across rustic bridges, and eventually to the beautiful Hidden Falls. On past the Falls, we ascended the trail to Lower Inspiration Point with a stunning view out over Lake Jenny. Beyond that point the trail was closed, so the whatever further inspiration was available up at the true Inspiration Point will remain a mystery to us.

After a bunch of games back at the campground, we drove down to Dornan's Chuckwagon for dinner, then relaxed with some whiskey by the campfire before turning in for the night. We woke up to rain on our last morning in the Tetons, spoiling our plans for a relaxing pancake breakfast by the campfire, but even as we struck camp in the rain, we couldn't help but marvel at how wonderful the Grand Tetons had been. We finished packing the minivans, said our goodbyes to Grainne and family, then hit the road for the next stop on our adventure, Yellowstone!



(Click here for all the Grand Tetons pictures.)