Monday September 18th
In the morning, I set off early to give the Old Faithful geyser one more try before visiting Grand Teton National Park. My route took me back through Grand Prismatic Springs.
The rivers were spectacular in the early morning, with mist coming off them. They were probably quite warm. I didn’t visit the springs again, but got some great photos of the steam coming off them in the early morning as I went through.
I got to Old Faithful a bit before 8, and wouldn’t you know it, I just missed it again. I had found out you could check online when they expected the next eruption, but I had no phone service, so couldn’t check. Old Faithful didn't seem very faithful – it wasn’t meant to be apparently.
Back through West Thumb I went, then off to the south this time, to Jackson Lake, which was a beautiful sight with hills and mountains in the background, and more autumn colours in the foreground, especially yellow grasses and bushes. One of the amazing things about autumn colours in North America is that everything changes colour, not just the trees, but grass and bushes too.
I stopped again near Willow Flats, admiring the colours with the mountains behind. There were two roads that went through Grand Teton, one the main highway, and the other a smaller, more scenic route. They both started and ended at the same place, but took different routes between.
I had decided to have a look a little way down the main highway one way, then double back to the scenic route, then go back up the main highway from the southern end, about half an hour, to some scenic spots there. So my northern destination on the highway was a place called Oxbow Bend, on the Snake River, which I think is quite long, and goes through several states. It was an amazingly beautiful place, with a good sized lake, which was very still. There were more lovely red and yellow autumn colours in front, and then the mountains reflected in the lake. It was one of the most scenic places I’d been, and I spent quite a while enjoying it and taking lots of photos. There weren’t too many people there.
From there I drove back to the main entrance to the park on the scenic route. The mountains were very impressive along the route. I had planned to drive up Signal Mountain if I could. When I’d booked the 18’ campervan, I’d found something on the website about RVs not being allowed, and I emailed the park people asking if I could take the van up there. A nice lady replied, saying it was a bit of grey area with that size, and I think she said there had been a 19’ van made it up, so I could be ok. It seems that there were sharp switchbacks. With the 20’ van I’d been upgraded to, I decided it would probably be a bad idea to try.
I turned off along the Jenny Lake Scenic Drive, to get to to String Lake, where I’d planned a hike. I found a park, and set off. The hike was scenic indeed, with reflections of the high mountains, with some autumn foliage at the bottom of them, in the distance. I hiked up from String Lake to the larger Leigh Lake, then back, probably less than an hour. I followed the scenic drive further along – it was one way, and had to pass by one of the beautiful overlooks, because the car park was full. I’d wanted to have lunch at Jenny Lake. Well, that was a nice idea, but not only was the car park full, there were cars parked along the road for maybe 1km! I think it was the longest stretch of road parking I’d ever seen!
I wasn’t about to walk back 1km to see it, so I drove on a bit further and found another picnic area, with parking available. There was someone who had set up a camera on a big tripod next to a table, but it was otherwise unoccupied. It looked like the only free table, and I asked if he minded if I used it, and he was ok with that. I had a beautiful view of the mountains as I ate my sandwich.
After lunch I took the Taggart Lake Loop hike for about an hour and a half, up into the mountains a bit, which was also lovely, with more foliage, and a lake with mountain reflections.
Afterwards I thought I would give Jenny Lake another try. This time the car park still looked full, but parking was available on the road, not far from the car park, so I parked and walked down there. It was a very pretty spot, with the high mountains looming right behind it. There were light showers coming and going, with a bit of sun, which made for some beautiful light effects on the mountains. I stopped on the shore for a while and admired the view. There was a ferry running regularly across the lake for hikers to start hikes on the other side. I had been originally planning to take one of the hikes, but it was getting later in the day now, and I didn’t think I would have time.
I took a walk along the shores of the lake instead. There were picturesque steps going up a small hill next to the lake, with birches changing colour, and also colourful undergrowth. It was lovely to walk along the lake and admire the views.
From there I headed out of the park, joining the main highway again at a small town rather quaintly named Moose. I drove north up the highway to see a couple of viewpoints from that side. There was an overlook of the chain of mountains off into the distance, with sun rays shining on them. I wanted to see Schwabacher Landing. There was a quite badly maintained dirt road going down to it, and with some trepidation I manoeuvred the van down it.
I was rewarded with an amazing sight – everything seemed to be yellow! Yellow bushes, yellow grasses, yellow trees, next to a stream. The sun shone on it at times, and it looked spectacular with the dark mountains in the background. I spent a while there. I had planned to go a bit further, but time was starting to get on a bit, and I still had a couple of hours of driving from there to get to my RV park.
The route took me through Jackson, a fair sized town, and along the Snake River again. I stopped on the side of the road after a while, just before the small town of Alpine, to look down at the river, which seemed to have green water! I was seeing more and more autumn colour. There was a stand of trees along the river with yellows and oranges and reds, so beautiful! The road led down into fairly flat country, with houses and businesses here and there, and mountains in the far distance. Wolf Den RV Park came up a bit after 7, still in Wyoming, near the border with Idaho. I checked in – someone was still there at what I think was a store as well as the office.
The RV park wasn’t far from the main road, and was fairly open. I think there were mainly cabins, but a few spots for RVs, just parked next to one another without much privacy, but I was only there for the night. I cooked my dinner, and ate it with some views of the mountains in the distance. At the front of the campground was the front of a kind of stylised wild west street – just the front of a few buildings like a bank and saloon, with models of a couple of people, one an Indian in traditional dress. I admired a nice sunset before heading to bed. Sunset was getting earlier as I headed south and east, and the season was getting later, and was around 7.30pm by that time.
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