Grand Teton was high on our wish list. The plan was to get there during our weeklong base-camp stay in Big Sky. On the map, Grand Teton sits just below Yellowstone, a sort of little sister to the big park. What was not so obvious is that the only way to get into Grand Teton from the north is through Yellowstone. When we arrived in Big Sky, the Yellowstone park road to Grand Teton was closed due to bear activity. Fortunately for us, the road opened just before we were scheduled to leave Big Sky, so we were able to make the journey.
We had no idea what to expect on The Day The Road Opened, so we left early. We had to wind our way between Montana and Wyoming, through West Yellowstone, into Yellowstone Park, through bison traffic jams to Old Faithful and the geyser fields, through forests of crazed bears, up and over the Continental Divide, around frozen Lewis Lake and then out the south entrance.
This turned out to be the easy part! As we passed through the gates, we saw that those travelling the opposite direction were not so fortunate - there was a line about 5 miles long for those waiting to get into Yellowstone from the Grand Teton side. We tried not to think about the fact that we would be in that line later today when it was time to head home...
And then we were at the Colter Bay Visitor Center and we got our first glimpse of the Grand Teton. All was forgotten and forgiven.
There is nothing like this anywhere. To help describe, here is an excerpt from The Art of Making Mountains: "The spectacular Teton Range began to rise around ten million years ago when movement on the Teton fault generated a series of massive earthquakes. The block of bedrock west of the fault rotated skyward to form the mountains and the block east of the fault hinged downward to form the valley of Jackson Hole.... Beginning some two million years ago, a series of glaciers flowed down from the high peaks and south from Yellowstone. These glaciers ground and polished bedrock, carved canyons and dug out basins. Jackson Lake is more than 400 feet deep, evidence of the power of glaciers to change the landscape".
I think what makes the area particularly impressive is that there are no foot hills, only a dramatic 7000 foot rise of mountains. Nowhere in the park is the view as spectacular as it is from the edge of Jackson Lake if the sky is clear and the lake is calm. Although it was overcast most of the day, the clouds parted for us when we arrived at Jackson Lake, and I captured these amazing photos:
We drove up Signal Mountain and hiked out to a viewing spot where you can actually see the floor of the valley tipping down as the mountains push up. Very cool.
The day was simply beautiful, and we decided to continue driving south down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We wandered around the quaint, eclectic town, and found a nice park bench in Jackson Square to people-watch.
Finally, it was time to head home. We decided to try a zig-zag route through the mountains into Idaho, and not to go back through Yellowstone. This turned out to be a very insane plan, but, whatever. The mountain passes were dizzying. Idaho was beautiful. We wondered if we would EVER get home. We stopped for one last meal at a roadside picnic table somewhere in rural Idaho, and watched the sun set on the flat, endless farmland. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Car Talk
Distance: 450 miles
Driving Time: 10 hours, 33 minutes
Mileage: 35.1 mpg
Average Speed: 42 mph
Trip Total: 7,424.8 miles
Special Traffic Edition:
Morning Traffic Report from Yellowstone. Serious bison delay. Road clogged with bison moving at 3 mph. Major back-up. Linda is having flashbacks to driving in South Florida. The bison are staggering drunkenly from one side of the road to the other, stopping traffic in both directions. Patience is the order of the day!
Comentarios