Drove to Jackson Hole, Wyoming (8 hours) and stayed in a nice though expensive hotel. Next morning, drove north.
View of Teton Mountain Range in Grand Teton National Park. Grand Teton is in the center of the park, and has a height of 13770 feet. Middle Teton is on the left and Mount Owen on the right. Jackson Lake can be seen. The photo on the left was taken at Jenny Lake Visitor Center.
View from the top of Signal Mountain (7725 feet).
Butterfly on Signal Mountain.
First sighting of the black bear. This was taken near the base of Signal Mountain. Many tourists were stopped causing a traffic jam, so we only drove by. Fortunately, we saw the bears twice more (probably the same momma and cub).
Entered Yellowstone Nation Park from the South. Lots of Lodgepole Pine, some beetle-kill, and plenty of fire damage from the 1988 fire (750,000 acres burned). This was taken near our first campsite, at Grant Village.
Next morning, we went to Old Faithful area (lodge is shown). Lots of rainbows in Yellowstone.
Old Faithful. Not the largest geyser, but one of the most regular (90 minutes when we were there).
Old Faithful Inn. Very impressive log work, which was completed in one summer!
We drove up to the North end of the park, near Mammoth Hot Springs. Pat, Robin and I rode horses (no pictures). We also went on an evening tour bus where we saw lots of animals and sights. The bus we took is one of the original Yellowstone tour buses from 1936 (150,000 dollars to restore). We saw hundreds of bison, and also Tower Falls.
We camped just outside Mammoth. The weather is warmer here than further south because the elevation is around 5000 feet (versus 7000). We put the tent up in the rain and wind, but it was a very nice night because the wind stopped.
We visited the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces in the morning, before heading south.
A collage of some of the creatures we saw on our vacation, including bison, squir-munk chip-mouses, proghorns, and a fox. We also saw two bald eagles and a momma and baby moose. We were near a pack of wolves, but did not actually see them.
Petrified tree.
Robin enjoying the snow for the first time this season.
On our way out of the park, we drove past the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and its Upper Falls.
Back in Grand Teton, Robin and I camped at Jenny Lake. This view over the lake was taken only a few steps from our tent. It was cold, but we had a nice big fire. A bear came strolling by, and remained within 50 yard of our campsite throughout dusk.
Next morning, as the sun rises.
We visited Signal Mountain again in the early morning, hoping to find some wildlife. We did see an unusual tree, shown here on the left. We could hear elk calls coming from the valley below.
Valley below.
On our drive back down Signal Mountain, we saw the black bears again.
Teton Range.