The Uncertain Journey to Grand Teton

Our plan to hit Grand Teton National Park after 5 wonderful nights in Yellowstone was almost foiled by the Berry wildfire that closed the Southern entrance of Yellowstone and the Northern entrance into Grand Teton National Park.  By some great luck of ours, it only reopened the morning we had scheduled ourselves to leave Yellowstone (phew!).  What was an hour and a half drive into the park could have been a solid five hours (possibly more) had we been forced to leave from the western entrance of Yellowstone (which was north of our last campsite) and then travel southward, then back east and up through a more southern entrance of Grand Teton.  But again, we were lucky.

Fires in the Parks

A bit of a sidebar- when we were in Yellowstone we learned a lot about fires in the parks.  In particular, the National Park Service’s attitude toward fires has changed over time.  Initially NPS tried to extinguish all fires in Yellowstone in attempt to save the forests.  However, it was unclear whether all fire suppression efforts were successful.  Also, there are some beneficial aspects of fires, including bringing additional nutrients to the soil and also helping trees repopulate.  For example, the lodgecone pine tree relies on fire to open up its pine cones (which contain its seeds).  Many fires are started from natural causes (e.g., a lightning strike) and can extinguish themselves naturally through precipitation.  Today, NPS monitors fires ignited through natural causes and often allows them to burn, unless they pose a hazard to infrastructure or human/animal safety.  The start of the Berry fire was indeed a lightning strike on July 25th; the fire was monitored but spread during dry and windy conditions at the end of August, prompting additional road closures.  Even though the road into Grand Teton NP was reopened, firefighters remained on the scene monitoring the conditions of this fire.

Camping Out!

We stayed at Colter Bay Campground in the northern area of the park for 2 nights, which really wasn’t anywhere near enough time.  There is a ton of great hiking in this park, and we didn’t even scratch the surface of that.  Additionally, after filling our days in Yellowstone, we had some work to catch up on.  This resulted in us spending a decent amount of time in Jackson Hole, WY, the closet town where we could reliably get some cell service, internet, and electricity to power up the computers and fulfill our work obligations.  We did however, get in some hiking in the park, and of course acquired some new stamps for our national park passport!

Working in Jackson Hole, WY

Jackson Hole, WY was an excellent location to work from.  It’s a cute town full of quaint shops, coffee houses, a brewery, and a pretty freaking nice library where we spent a ton of time.  We totally get the new stickers they printed; we would have stayed longer, for both the park, and the library, had we not had to bolt to Salt Lake City to meet up with some friends for Labor Day Weekend.

A little plug for Cowboy Coffee, another one of our working spots.  I can’t vouch for their coffee (as I have still not developed the taste for it), but I can say that their croissants were among the best I’ve ever tasted.  Croissants aren’t always worth the extra calories, but these bundles of light, flaky, and buttery goodness definitely were!

When we needed a break from working, we would meander around Jackson Hole to get some sun and scope out the town.

Hike Around Jenny Lake

On our last morning in the park, we went on a long hike starting at Jenny Lake.  The goal was clear – we really wanted to see a moose, and we were not going to stop until that happened.  Every time we passed people along the trail we would ask them if they had spotted a moose, and, with one exception, they pretty much all laughed at us.  We hiked around the lake, up to Inspiration Point, and along the Cascade Canyon trail.  We started encountering people who gave us a heads-up that a moose family was close.  And indeed these hikers were not pulling our chain; there were moose!  Admittedly we probably would have missed them, had there not been a number of hikers with huge cameras stopped, patiently waiting along the trail.  There were three moose – the mom, dad, and baby.  They were resting and largely laying down not too far from the trail but not so close to allow me any good pictures from my camera (see the tiny blob below!).  The baby was often the most visible, popping its head up and down from time to time.  We were, however, ecstatic just to see the moose, and waited with the crowds, hoping that the moose would come closer, move around, or just generally become more visible.  But alas, we did not have all day (we needed to head toward Salt Lake City), and it was starting to drizzle as well.  With our goal of seeing a moose accomplished, we turned around and hiked back toward the trail head.  We took a boat across Jenny Lake on the way back to shorten the trek, but we still got in a solid 9 miles by foot.