The little blue Hundai was our rental car. We were surprised it did make it through the pass!
A herd of elk were grazing in the pasture at the base of the Grand Tetons. It was a small hike we took to see the remanents of a homestead that once existed in the area.
Here is the house on the trail.
This is what I call a picture Postcard! We stopped at this overlook because you are supposed to see beavers and otters. Instead, we caught this beautiful view!
We took a short 1.5 mile hike along another lakeshore to enjoy the views. It was breath taking.
We even spied a deer.
A family heading back our way from the second lake showed us their video of a black bear getting out of the lake and following them. Clif and I decided to head back to the car. This was the lake the bear was video taped at.
Had Clif and I had more time, we would have rented kayaks and navigated the two lakes. There were many kayakers doing so, and it looked like so much fun.
On our way to our next stop, we spied some moose!
Next, we ventured to the top of Rendezvous Mountain via the Air Tram. This is the south view of the Tetons.
This is the north view.
While waiting for our ride down the mountain, we got our call. The car is ready!!!!
Finally, we headed off for our original destination...Yellowstone! We spent 4 nights in West Yellowstone going into the park daily. After the first day, we were wondering if this was all to Yellowstone. At first, rather disappointed with the road construction, sights to see were barricaded because of the construction, advice on hiking trails were the most congested ones, etc. Clif finally broke down and bought a hiking book. This was a gem because it gave recommended hikes. We found several, and took advantage of them. They were not so used, therefore, they were more tranquil.
I wasn't too keen in sleeping in a tent in grizzly bear country, so Clif agreed to splurge. We got a deal on a 2 bedroom condo that was cheaper than the nightly rate at the Comfort Inn! Of course the decor was Northwoods, so I was excited to get some more decorating ideas.
On our way to the North Loop, we immediately spotted elk. Those who know me, know I can't resist a picture.
For those of you who haven't yet been to Yellowstone, know that the west side of the park is mainly volcanic activity via "hot" spots of all sorts; mud pots, hot springs, geysers, etc. As for me, there are only so many of these to look at.
I do however LOVE waterfalls! The first few, I was frustrated because they are on the main road. Therefore, there were too many people. But after Clif bought the hiking book, we found some less crowded Falls to see. Tower Fall is located on the NE side of the park.
Clif and I decided to hike down to Yellowstone River. What a slippery steep slope it was that last 50 feet! Well worth the slip and slide though. :)
We decided to see the Canyon Falls before heading back to our condo as it was just south of the cut through back to West Yellowstone.
The Lower Falls offered us a much better view. We didn't hike down the 380 something stairs to get the best view of the Upper Falls. Seeing how many people were on the stairs was deterent enough for us.
These next 2 falls are located on the Southwest Loop of the park.
Fairy Falls
FireHole Falls
We did stop and see Old Faithful. You can't go to Yellowstone and not see it. One word of caution though. Traveling to that area from West Yellowstone before 7:00am is quite foggy. It never occurred to us that 41 degree air temperature that meets steaming springs and geysers makes for thick fog. Our intention was to get there to see her blow before the crowds gathered. It worked. Not many people were around for the first viewing.
The Fog....
Old Faithful
We took one grand hike to Mt. Washburn. This is an area know for Bear Management. So I told Clif I wasn't going to hike unless we talked to a Ranger first. The Ranger let us know it is open for hiking, the bears are staying in the valley on the east side of the mountain. We were hiking up from the west. Whew, but Clif took the bear spray just to be safe. This hike is 6.4 round trip and strenuous because of the incline. I am happy to report, I made it up and back in the recommended amount of time. The view was well worth the huff and puff to get up. The temperature when we started was 40 degrees. We shed our first layer before we cleared the first bend. The last of the layers were off by the 3 bend. By the time we reached the top, I had to put it all back on. It was freezing there!
We're hiking up to that Fire Tower at the peak of Mt Washburn. This was taken after about 4 bends before we could see it in view.
The View, simply amazing on a clear day. :)
You can see the Grand Tetons in the background.
We did hike to Cascade Lake before heading East toward home. I was nervous hiking because we were the first on the trail. How many are out hiking at 7:30 in the morning? Then as we got a mile into the hike (which was a 5 mile roundtrip hike), there were warning signs of bear activity in the area. This only heightened our senses. Clif had his bear spray, so we felt good to go. Usually Clif and I are silent when we hike so we can see wildlife. Not on this morning. We were chanting, singing, and saying all kinds of silly stuff of nervous chatter. My first puzzlement was this loan beast....
I know there are buffalo in the park, but this was not in the typical area we had been seeing them. As a matter of fact, far from those places. This buffalo kept a watchful eye as we passed by speaking sweet sounds to its ears.
The next wildlife encounter, I thought was a bear out of shear startlement, but when I calmed myself, and found the head, it was a humungous bull moose who was equally as startled as I was. It pranced into the woods, but in the clearing was its family. It was then I was calm enough to take out the camera a snap a shot.
We finally arrived at out destination, Cascade Lake. I would like to know how it got its name because there was no cascade in the area. I was just thankful I didn't see a bear. Although, we did run into an overnight hiker who said a bear was at the lake the evening before.
On our way back to the car, we ran into a Park Ranger. He asked us if we saw any bear. We let him know although we didn't see one, an overnighter saw one last night. He said to just keep vigilant watch on our way out as a precaution. His duty today was to scout the trails for bear activity. Hmm.
It was a productive 4 days. So much to do and see. :)
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