Monday, June 28, 2010

Grand Teton National Park, WY

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Saturday we did something we never do anymore, and that is drive 250 miles in one day. We wanted to break up our trip and stay in an RV park in Boulder, WY, 150 miles from Flaming Gorge but it was full and there really weren’t any other options so I called to be sure we could get a site here and we continued driving to Grand Teton National Park. We are staying in the Gros Ventre (pronounced Grow Vont)  Campground 10 miles from Jackson. We visited the Tetons and Yellowstone years ago, and remembered Jackson as a quaint little town, but we barely recognized it now. Crowds of people filled the sidewalks along the main street lined with shops and restaurants. It reminded us of Gatlinburg, which isn’t a good thing. We will have to go back and check out the town on another day, not on a Saturday night.
Gros Ventre Campground has 350 sites, so it rarely fills and they don’t take reservations. There are no hookups but they have a dump station and water for $20/night. You really get to pay for the privilege of staying in a national park, but it is worth it here. We got a fairly decent site Saturday, but it was on the main road, so we moved to a much better one yesterday after the masses cleared out from the weekend. This is our view and we are loving it.
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There are two other Lazy Daze couples here, Ron and Jane, and Frank and Cookie, who we met at the southwest get- togethers, and we sat by their fire Saturday evening. On the way back to our site, we spotted several people with binoculars and cameras looking up into the trees. There is a family of great horned owls living in the campground, right behind our first site. This is the only time we’ve ever seen one not in captivity. We even got to watch the mother fly off to a different tree. Incredible and cute!
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We passed through the edge of a thunderstorm Saturday, so the car and rig were covered in gray mud. It was even too much for Jim to look at, so we spent yesterday morning cleaning the rig. Then we rode our bikes on the multi-use paved 8 mile trail to Jenny Lake. It was a perfect day and the scenery was beautiful. We hate the overuse of the word “awesome”, but Jim said this is a place where it is appropriate to actually call it awesome. And he is right.
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Last night Ron and his grandaughter came by to see if we wanted to go down to the Gros Ventre River and look for beavers. We didn’t realize there was a trail to the water right behind our site. They are building a huge dam in the river, and sure enough we spotted one a few minutes after we got there. That was another first for us.
And one more first. We found a mouse in the cabinet under our stove last night. We really would rather keep the wildlife out of our house, but that will be a project for today after a trip to Jackson for a trap. We were hoping the cats got hold of it during the night, but no such luck. It is always something!

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