A Night "Unplugged"

We spent a night “unplugged” (no cell phone, no internet, no satellite signal for DirecTV) in the Grand Tetons’ Colter Bay Park. It was quiet, remote and all the things you’d expect in a national park. It’s good to get back to the basics and what better place to do that than a national park! We were actually shocked to see so many huge motorhomes situated on postage stamp sites. We expected small units with lots of kids. On the contrary, it seemed to be an older crowd. Guess they can afford to travel right now. Speaking of travel, we heard a park ranger tell a group yesterday that attendance is up and they are expecting between 3.4 and 3.5 million visitors this year in Yellowstone. We were pretty certain that the price of gas would have deterred most from traveling. Just shows what we know.
After fuel injecting our bloodstream with hot coffee, we decided to head over to the camp store to look at postcards. It’s always a good idea to look at images others have taken when visiting a place like Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons. The gift shop portion of the store wasn’t open at 7:00 AM, but the bakery was. We indulged in a homemade cinnamon roll for breakfast. They were warm! We noticed a sign outside the store pointing to the Visitors’ Center 900 ft. away. We failed to see it last night but luckily they had “coffee with the ranger” this morning and we were able to get a map of the park and ask a couple questions. Despite their close proximity to each other, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are relatively independent of one another. The John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway separates them by eight miles. Rockefeller donated millions to the parks and park land in general. We needed to wait until we entered the Grand Tetons to get maps, brochures, etc.
The ranger was very friendly (his daughter-in-law is from the Thumb of Michigan so that made it even better) and gave us the best of the best things to see in the Tetons. We knew of some classic shots we wanted to get, but he made the task of finding them so much easier.
Off we went. The weather looked a bit iffy, but we hoped that when we would arrive at a specific spot, the weather would improve. It worked! We started with some beautiful views of the Tetons with Jackson Lake in the foreground. We then ascended via Signal Mountain and got some incredible panoramic views of the surrounding land. It was less than 50 degrees and the wind was pretty strong on the mountain, but it was worth the drive.
We stopped at several pull outs along the way, each one providing a different viewpoint of the magnificent Tetons. By the way, the word “Tetons” comes from the Indian word, “Tetonwan”.
It was my goal to photograph the Tetons at Jenny Lake. We drove to the visitors’ center there and got the information about the area surrounding the lake. A short boat ride was offered that took you across the lake for hiking and a waterfall area. We decided to take the short jaunt round trip, in hopes of getting some great shots from the water level. We did get a few, but for the most part it was just a nice ride. We did catch a glimpse of folks in a canoe or two and that made for some pretty pictures.
After leaving the visitors’ area, our next stop was a place called “Mormon Row”. On this road is an old barn which has been featured in many photos over the years. It is a classic. Leaving the road, we came upon a lone buffalo that seemed to be content to pose for everyone in front of a magnificent backdrop. He had “stage presence” and when he became bored with his audience, he simply walked across the road in front of us.
Our final goal for the day was to photograph an area made famous by Ansel Adams. It is a photograph with the Grand Tetons and the Snake River. We found the spot. It looked somewhat different than it did when Ansel took the photo. Now there were fifty foot fir trees obscuring an elbow in the Snake River which to some degree took away from the original beauty of the photograph. It was breathtaking, nevertheless.
On our way back to our campsite in Yellowstone, we stopped to look at the remnants of a fire that took place in 2009. The fire was caused by lightning and was relatively small. It was striking to see the charred, dead trees and lovely and colorful flowers beginning to cultivate. Fire is a part of nature’s cycle and the park ranger told us that there have already been four lightning fires this year. She mentioned a devastating fire in 1988 that burned countless acres of forest. Dennis and I remember that well, as we had been in Yellowstone the following year.
We were ecstatic at the end of our day’s journey. We enjoyed beautiful weather, glorious vistas and a great trip in our little motorhome. Life IS good. 