Jackson Hole

Friday, August 21, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

I had a pretty lazy day today After hiking nearly thirty miles the previous two days, decided to take the day off and knock around Jackson and the campsite a bit

The day started with a drive toward Jackson. Near the Jackson Hole airport, I am able to get good internet connectivity, so I stopped at a turnout situated where the famous pictures of the Tetons were originally taken and uploaded pictures and postings from Yellowstone.


Jackson is a cute little town on the edge of the mountains. They have this central park area that has huge arches made from antlers at each of the four corners of the block.









Next stop was Jedidiah's House of Sourdough, a restaurant in Jackson which had been recommended to me. I opted for the Hungry Man's breakfast - three eggs, bacon, hashbrown potatoes, and three mini sourdough pancakes. It tasted like heaven on a plate after many mornings of Cliff Bars, cereal or when I cooked them, cold eggs and bacon (since it was freezing outside at Yellowstone). I rationalized that I had burnt enough calories the day before and ate so little (since I was so tired after the hike) that I had it coming. They had this jelly - maybe Ioliaberry or something like that. Waitress said it was a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry. Any way, squirtted this onto the sourcakes and they were delicious. Highly recommend Jedidiah's and their menu has interesting newspaper stories from the early days of Jackson to entertain you while you are waiting for your food.

After Jedidiah's, wandered around Jackson a bit. Never been to Aspen but imagine its something like this - lots of art galleries and trendy western clothing stores. I didn't add much to the Jackson economy though buying a couple of straps for my sleeping pad and some lens cleaner for the camera.

While in Jackson, I did find a health club and ask them if I could borrow their scale to weigh in and see where I am on my weight loss objective. They were very nice and directed me to their locker room. It wasn't a good doctor's office scale like I would have expected but one of those floor scales. Getting on it, I was surprised that it registered below 200 pounds. Moving it around on the tiles a bit, I could get it to register different weights, but never above 205. I went out and told the guy I didn't believe his scale and he went back there with me and weighed himself and thought it was actually weighing a bit high. So, its anyone's guess, but it looks like I might have already dropped another ten pounds or so since I left Fort Worth.

My rafting trip is not going to happen. I called the company to see if they had a space available, which they did. They were not willing to match my last minute price I wanted to pay and worse yet due to the low water this late in the season, they are putting in 25 miles and 2000 feet of elevation downriver, so I didn't think it would be worth the money they were asking. Prior to heading up, I had contacted a fly fishing guide about doing some fishing as a backup, so after the raft trip fell apart, I called him and unfortunately he is booked up through next Thursday. I went into a fishing outfitter there in Jackson and got a couple of names to check into that are on the way from here in the Tetons to Glacier National Park, which is my next stop. Maybe something will work out there, because I would really like to try fly fishing while I am near Idaho and Montana.

So, now I need to plan the next few days and timing things to be in Banff on the 31st with the hopes of meeting up with Debbie for a few days. I might stay here in the Tetons a couple of extra days and attempt a backcountry overnight hike. I passed a couple of their designated areas on my Solitude Lake hike and it wasn't quite as challenging as I had imagined. I am planning on driving into one of the Ranger stations and see what they can recommend for me and if there are any permits left available.

Solitude Lake Kicks Bob's &#@ and a Moose Nearly Finishes the Job

Thursday, August 20 - Grand Teton National Park.



A view of the Tetons early in the morning on my drive from Signal Mountain to Jenny Lake. I had talked with one of the Rangers at Jenny Lake the day before about a hike that would get me up about 2000 feet. They suggested I hike to Solitude Lake, which is nine miles one way and an elevation gain of about 2250 feet. Much longer and higher than anything I had done so far, but I thought I would give it a go. The first two miles took me back over what I had hiked the day before - two miles around the lake and then up 400 feet to Inspiration Point. From there, you walked up a beautiful canyon following a really nice creek. It gently climbed through the canyon, but when I had about a mile to go and about 800 feet of elevation left, I knew the end of the hike would be tough. It was. At that elevation and after walking nearly eight miles already, my legs and lungs were not liking that last mile. But I would take short thirty second power rests and then walk another hundred feet and eventually I got to the lake. I have never been so happy to see a body of water in my life!


As you can see (left and below), the lake is absolutely pristine. It doesn't look very big in the pictures, but some other visitors (for a lake named Solitude, there were quite a few people there) walked around to get on one of the snow glaciers that came all the way down to the lake. At the other side, you could barely see them they were so small, so the lake was larger than it looked.

I had to wait a few minutes after arriving for this picture so that the pain had left my face. After having some lunch of jerky, cashews and a Cliff Bar, I layed on the rocks and soaked up some sun (too much, my sunscreen must have faded by then). Between the warm sun and the cool mountain breeze, it was glorious and I could have layed on that rock for hours and been perfectly happy. Unfortunately, I had nine more miles to hike back, so after about forty five minutes of rest, I headed back down.

I just loved all the little snow glaciers that were right there at the lake, including this one that actually kisses the lake - awesome in August!

The first seven miles of the hike down felt great and I was moving right along. I think I can walk forever - its the climbing that I have to get better at.

Near the bottom of the canyon, I was thinking how I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't seen much of any wildlife. I was at a place where the trees opened up for a nice view of the mountains, so I decided to take a picture. I'm glad that I paused there a minute.

Right as I finished taking my last picture, I heard a crack to my left and turned around and there crashing down the hill toward me was this moose. This picture is not zoomed in any way - it was live action. He did stop about five feet from hitting me to eat something off a tree just off the trail. Two other hikers (Spain and Argentina) who I had met up with and chatted along the trail came up at that moment and we all were snapping pictures of this giant creature. He was so close I was a bit worried that he would swing around and his antlers (or whatever a moose rack is called) would probably have knocked me over. Amazingly, we all stood there taking pictures and Mr. Moose was oblivious to us for about thirty seconds and then he gets this starttled look and heads down the trail (below) causing other hikers to get off the trail and start taking pictures. Simply amazing to see one of these things up close.

After the moose encounter, I got to the bottom of the canyon at the lake. I only had two more miles to go and everything to that point had been downhill. I had forgotten a bit how much up and down there was on that lake loop trail and I must say my legs had very little "up" left in them, so those last two miles were killers. I was also a bit sun baked, so when I got to my car, I headed back to camp and promptly sat myself down in my camp chair and had one beer (yes, one from the Snake River Brewing Company). I must admit I did little else the rest of the afternoon and evening I was so wiped out from that hike. All together, 18.2 miles and 2250 feet of elevation. Its roughly the length of the first epic hike I am planning - Half Dome at Yosemite, but its only half the elevation, so I have a lot of work to do to get ready for that.

Yellowstone to Grand Tetons

This post is from Wednesday, August 19.


My last day at Yellowstone. I decided to drive up through Madison and into West Yellowstone - two areas I had not seen yet. One disappointment was that one of the key roads completing the two loops that allow you to drive around most of Yellowstone was closed during my visit, so it was hard to get everywhere without doing a lot of back tracking, so I never did get to the Norris area at all.

At any rate, as I approached West Yellowstone, I noticed a line of cars backed up at least a mile going into the park. Everyone was stopping at a bald eagle area to take pictures and traffic was at a standstill. I also saw the flood of cars entering the park from the west entrance and decided then that I did not want to drive down to the Tetons through that mess.

So, I whipped out my map and found an alternate route through Montana (briefly) and Idaho back around into Jackson and then Grand Teton National Park. I don't know if it saved much time, but it was different and very little traffic.


My campsite at Signal Mountain Campground in the Tetons. Very rustic, no showers, but they do have a bathroom. Nice shaded area near Lake Jackson.


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This is the view I have twenty steps from my tent. Lake Jackson with the north end of the Teton range across the lake. Whereas in Yellowstone, you felt like you were in the middle of everything, with the Tetons its a bit different. You are in the "hole" of Jackson Hole, named because it is completely surrounded by mountains on all four sides. Instead of being in the mountains, you are looking at them, so you have better views but not quite the same feeling as Yellowstone.

After setting up camp, I headed down to Jenny Lake, a pretty little lake near the south end of the park. I decided to hike around the lake and stop at the two attractions along the way. Hidden Falls is the picture to the right and Inspiration Point is the picture below.

Here is a shot of Jenny Lake itself. Beautiful little lake with calm waters. No boats other than paddle boats or fishing boats with small motors.

All in all, the trip around the lake was about eight miles with more up and down than you might expect from a loop around a lake. Very nice short hike after a bit of a drive.

That night, I drove into Jackson and went to the Snake River Brewing Company. Sampled several of their beers and ate a Marguerita Pizza, since I needed to carbo-load for my hike the next day.

Mount Washburn and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

This post is for Tuesday, August 18.


Took this picture on my morning warm-up walk around the campgrounds at Grant Village. It shows the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone.











This was taken at some rapids (forget the name) where Cutthroat Trout are seen jumping up the rapids to reach their spawning grounds. I was too late in the year to see that - they travel up in June and July.








My destination for today was to hike Mount Washburn, the highest point in Yellowstone Park (at least the highest point you can hike to). The peak was at 10, 243 feet and the hike took me up 1400 feet from the trailhead, so that was a record for me. The views from the top were amazing with a great view of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I was tired when I got to the top, but quickly felt fantastic and the walk down was really nice. Downhill much more enjoyable than uphill.

After finishing with Mount Washburn, I headed up to Mammoth Hot Springs which is near the north end of the park. Overall, a bit of a disappointment. There are huge hot spring terraces (right), but very little water flowing at the moment, so it looked more like the moon than a hot spring. A lot of walking and climbing for just a few trickles of springs. This is when I decided I had seen enough geyser features.

Along the drive back from Mammoth, saw these mountain goats or sheep - I can't tell the difference.

Old Faithful and the Stupid Geyser

This post was intended to be posted on Monday, August 17.


I got up early this morning in Yellowstone and decided to head up to the Old Faithful area to beat the crowds. Along the way, stopped and took a picture of Kepler Cascades (left). Little did I know that Yellowstone is chock full of these types of rapids and waterfalls.

When I got to Old Faithful and parked my car, I had about thirty minutes until the next eruption, so I decided to hike up to Observation Point, which I had read gave you a good view of the eruption and away from the bleachers full of tourists. It was about 300 feet up, so it was a bit of a hike, but I made it with several minutes to spare. This picture shows the tail end of the eruption. It was the first opportunity I had to ask another person to take my picture. All in all, it was a nice view, but the eruption seemed a bit small from that high and far away, so I decided I would try and take in another one from ground level and amongst the thousands of others.

After Old Faithful, I started wandering through the rest of the geyser basin. Interesting, but I got geysered out pretty quickly. I came across the viewing area for the Grand Geyser, the tallest predictable (yeah, right) geyser in the world. It was predicted to go off at ten plus or minus two hours. I was now 11:15 and it hadn't gone off since early in the morning, so I figured I would have just a short wait. By the appointed hour of noon (ten plus two), nothing but minor eruptions. By 12:20 I had been sitting in the sun with no sunscreen (it was cloudy and twenty nine degrees when I left my campsite), so I decided to give up. Of course, ten minutes after I walked off, it erupted and I could hear the hoots and cheers of the crowd. This picture is the best I could get from where I was at the time. Stupid geyser!

Here's the obligatory shot of Old Faithful at its peak from ground level. After that, I was pretty sunbaked and decided to head back to camp. Ended up taking a nap and not doing a heck of a lot the rest of the day.

On the way back to camp, I crossed the Continental Divide and found this lake perched right on the divide at about 9000 feet covered in lily pads with frogs - not what I would have expected at this elevation. The interesting thing about this tiny lake (Lake Isa) is that water from it flows both east and west (since its on the Divide) and some ends up in the Pacific Ocean and the rest ends up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Black Hills to Yellowstone - August 16

This post was from Sunday August 16. Yellowstone is awesome except when it comes to cell phone and internet service...










Today started off a bit poorly - nothing worse than rolling out of a nice warm sleeping bag at 5:15 in the morning than to step out into a cold 40 degrees and wet. Luckily, I had packed up everything the night before so all I needed to do was get my sleeping bag and pad into the car, take down the tent and wrap up the tarp that I have underneath. All of that went into the car soaking wet, but I figured I could dry them all out when I got to Yellowstone. All in all, a successful exit from the Black Hills by about 5:40am to begin the journey west.

I had been dreading the drive to Yellowstone a bit - 450 miles on top of the 1100 I had already done to get north from Fort Worth. I expected to see some nice scenary along the way, but I never expected to see as much as I did. Never have 450 miles gone so fast. Words can't adequately describe nor can pictures, but I'll do what I can.

After leaving the Black Hills National Forest, you are pretty much into Wyoming already. Eastern Wyoming is pretty with rolling prairies and little unique volcano shaped pillars sticking up from the prairie. Nothing particularly large about these things, but their volcano shape made for an interesting landscape. This area must get a good bit of rain because everything was green. Didn't see too many cows, but this must be awesome grazing land.

I came up over a hill and off in the distance were a set of majestic mountains - too soon to be the Rockies, so I looked them up on the map and they were the Big Horn mountains. After a long and slow climb over these mountains, the decent was really steep with some really beautiful multi-colored rock formations along the way.

An hour or so of rolling prairie later and I rolled into Cody, Wyoming, named after Buffalo Bill Cody of course. It was immediately clear why the town of Cody existed as right in front of me were the mountains of the Shoshone National Forest and Cody stood right at a natural pass through these mountains that followed the Shoshone River. The road followed this river (pictures included) for several miles through some really breathtaking scenary. Once through the mountains, a short bit of flat earth followed before starting to make the ascent into Yellowstone.

Upon entering the park, I was immediately struck by the sign that said my campground (Grant) was 51 miles ahead. Yellowstone is a really, really, big park. I knew it was large, but that distance really struck me and Grant Village is not even on the far west edge of the park. As I entered the park, the rain started again - all day it had been absolutely beautiful and I was hoping for some clear weather after it rained a good bit in the Black Hills, but no. Forecast of 29 degrees with rain and some snow for tonight - doesn't Yellowstone know that its the middle of August? Hope my sleeping bag is sufficient for sub freezing weather. I'd have to go back to the Amazon web site to check that - I never dreamed I would need that in the middle of summer. And, I got to see my first elk, grazing between the road and Lake Yellowstone.

Don't know if I will bother to whip out the cooking gear tonight, since the rain has been pretty persistent. Might have to grab a meal at one of the restaurants here in Grant Village. One thing that I did learn was I lucked out in making a reservation at Grant. Its the only campsite that has a cell tower in the whole of Yellowstone. On top of that, it has coin operated showers - never used one of those before, but I take such quick showers, I might get in and out for a quarter. Last but not least, the campsite attendent told me the local Grizzly (a female) only comes into the camp every five or six days. Since I'm staying three, that gives me a 50/50 chance of being here when the bear decides to visit. Of course, there are over 400 campsites so the odds she'll pick mine are even more remote, but needless to say, I will be sleeping with my bear spray tonight.

All in all, the Black Hills were beautiful and quite unique. From dense pine forests (where the Black comes from), to really cool granite outcroppings, to beautiful rolling green prairies, the Black Hills were unlike anything I had seen before. Since it was my first stop, I can't compare it to anything, but it did have some of the most scenic and cool drives that I have ever experienced. The Needles and Iron Mountain by ways were simply amazing - not only in their beauty but in the engineering that went into building them. I read that the Needles Highway required 250,000 pounds of dynamite to build the road. Oh, and the buffalo were about the coolest thing I have ever seen.

Chaos in Custer!

Yesterday's buffalo encounter was definitely impressive, but today on the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park had all the elements of a disaster. Lots of cars, even more buffalo, a town, traffic signals. Rush hour at its worst! Buffalo definitely do not abide by traffic lights nor do they yield the right of way to anyone - they just go where they please. Fortunately, the cars weren't in any hurry moving slowly through the gridlock (or should that be hooflock) taking pictures and letting the buffs do their thing.

Then a nasty park ranger in a picnic came through, treated the buffalo badly and urged them out of the road with their bumper - what a party pooper.













Also saw antelope and wild horses along that road, but didn't see what I was hoping to see - elk and big horn sheep. Oh well.























I started the day off more slowly than usual, getting up at about 6:30. Things were a bit damp in the tent from the rain yesterday and the dew overnight, so I hung everything out to dry in the morning sun and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs.

After breakfast, I headed to Sylvan Lake, a beautiful lake in the middle of Custer State Park. Walked around the lake a bit and then took the Sunday Gulch hike. It was about three miles through some very beautiful country. It had about 600 feet of elevation change, with some additional up and down, so I got in some decent climbing training. It wasn't the Grand Canyon and I had to pause several times to catch my breath, but overall it went pretty well and I got some neat pictures, though they never turn out as good as the real thing.





































If the weather permits (and it looks like it won't) I might head back to Mount Rushmore this evening to watch them light up the statues. I've heard that is pretty neat, but right now its starting to rain again and the air has turned downright cold. After Texas though, it feels great. Tomorrow, I am off to Yellowstone Park and another fairly long drive to get there.

Images that Didn't Post Yesterday

Buffalo, Stone Presidents, Windy Caves, and Rain!

The day started off well enough - up with the Sun, ate a quick breakfast and headed off to Mount Rushmore to beat the crowds. Did the simple President's Trail up under the statue and got some decent pictures, but the sky was cloudy and they were doing some maintenance so they had a high wire crossing George and Tom's faces which marred the picture a bit. Too bad they weren't offering zipline rides down from the top - I would have signed up in a heartbeat.

After leaving Rushmore, took a scenic drive down the Iron Mountain road, a windy, hilly 15-20 mph road that was beautiful with several one way bridges and tunnels - amazing that roads can be built through this terrain. After stopping and taking pictures at a few scenic overlooks, the road broke into praire and I was thinking about where I might have to go to see some buffalo when I noticed the car in front of me had stopped in the middle of the road and two girls were sticking out of the sunroof. About then I noticed a decent sized herd of these same buffalo grazing their way down the highway and completely blocking the road. I whipped out my camera and started to take a few pics as they moved closer to me. As they got close, I got back into the car and could have petted them as they walked by, practically rubbing the car. That was certainly the highlight of the day without question. Stone presidents are one thing, but they are not huge and hairy and walking right by me - if they had, they might have gotten top billing on this post, but they didn't, so its all about the buffalo today.

After the buffs passed, I continued on the drive into Custer State Park. About then it started to lightly rain. Today I learned what isn't the first and won't be my last lesson about camping. Regardless of how nice it is when you leave your camp, always put the rainfly on the tent anyway. I didn't and thought I'd better head back and fix that before the rain got too heavy. Things were a bit damp inside the tent but not too bad. Shortly after that, it started to rain pretty hard, so I got there just in time.

I decided to forgo my hike through Custer State Park due to the rain and instead headed to Wind Cave. Of course, as I approached Wind Cave, the rain stopped, but I was committed at that point. Wind Cave was pretty cool, but its a different kind of cave and wasn't formed by water running through it like most caves, so it lacked some of the more colorful and exotic formations, but it was unique and really long, deep and is probably a caver's dream to explore. They believe that of the 193 miles of caves they have mapped, that is probably only 10% of the cave and all of that is crammed into one square mile. Our tour went by the original and only natural opening to the cave. Only the very skinny can get through that, but we did put our hand and face down into the opening to feel the wind blowing out of it. Today it was pretty light, but its been measured at 70mph before. Sometimes it blows in too. The legend is that it was discovered when a cowboy's hat got whipped off his head and sucked into the cave.

As I headed back to Custer, the rain started again pretty heavily, so I decided to head back to camp and try and take a nap - it worked and the tent wasn't too uncomfortable from the rain. After a couple of hours, the rain quit and I ventured out once again to get some food and to upload my pics and post this entry. My air card is pretty spotty here, but the campsite has DSL in their office, so I am here.

Park Rangers at Rushmore
Four dudes in granite. They were supposed to have hands too, but the granite was unsuitable. Pretty amazing how they took a one tenth scale model and with dynamite and jack hammers made something that looks so darned real.

My home for the next eight weeks - looked bigger on the web site, but it will work.
Another fine meal cooked with propane and propane accessories. Hank Hill would be proud!