Grand Teton

This is the last of my catch-up posts. If you missed the others, just scroll through the last few posts to see what we've been up to the last few days.

Yesterday afternoon, we left Yellowstone and made the short drive down to our campground on the north side of Grand Teton National Park. After a short rest, we headed out on a hike on the Flagg Canyon Trail, along the Snake River. As Clay said, "It was a good hike, except for one thing: the bugs!" The mosquitoes were really bad. Consequently, what should have been a two hour hike was accomplished in an hour and a half.

Little waterfall in Flagg Canyon

Snake River

This morning, we got up early and drove through the rest of the beautiful Grand Teton park. Our goal was to get to Jackson Hole, WY by 9:00, take the aerial tram up to the top of Rendezvous Peak, and have waffles at Corbet's Cabin, and that's just what we did. Jackson Hole is a lovely ski resort town, and we wished we could have stayed longer. But, we still had several driving hours ahead of us to get to Park City, UT, so we left after breakfast and vowed to try to come back someday. We stopped for a mid-afternoon meal in Park City and then headed to our campground, where a playground and rec room were our reward for a long day in the car.

The Tetons at Jackson Lake

Buffalo herd in front of the Tetons

A curious onlooker

Jackson Hole

Corbet's Cabin

View of the valley from Rendezvous Peak

View of the Grand Tetons

Here comes our ride

Welcome to Utah

99 bottles of beer on the wall and a nod
 to Texas at Davanza's Pizza in Park City

From the Yukon to British Columbia

Yesterday morning was spent driving through the rain across many uninhabited, but beautiful, kilometers in the Yukon. We stopped for lunch in Watson Lake and also took the time to see the town's interesting and extensive Sign Post Forest. We briefly considered ending our journey for the day and staying the night in the small town, but everyone voted to just keep moving down the road, which on the Alaska Highway is a commitment. So three hours, one male moose, one fox, a herd of bison, and a couple of black bears later, we settled into an RV park outside the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park in British Columbia, where there is no such thing as Wi-Fi or cell phone service. This turned out to be a good thing, as we spent our evening playing games, drinking warm beverages, and thoroughly enjoying each other's company. We stayed up late and were thrilled to discover that, at some point, maybe around 11 or 11:30, it actually got dark outside. We loved the Land of the Midnight Sun but found it a little difficult to sleep at night.

Sign Post Forest

A sign that my people have
passed this way before.

Clay love the big machinery graveyard
 in the middle of the Sign Post Forest.

Our first male moose spotting

Fox

We brake for black bears!

A small portion of the herd

This morning we let everyone sleep in and then had a hearty breakfast at the little onsite cafe. Once our bellies were full, we were off to check out the hot springs. We followed a long boardwalk through a swampy forest, stopping once to photograph a moose drinking in a nearby pond. At the end of the path, we found the steamy and perfectly pristine Liard River and its natural hotsprings. The area has been built up to accommodate visitors, with decking, changing rooms, and stone benches set down inside the water. It was absolutely lovely and a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours on a cool day. After our soak, the open road beckoned, and off we went, with our newest driver behind the wheel. It was a beautiful drive through the northernmost stretch of the Rocky Mountains. Our favorite sight of the day was a mama bear and her two cubs up in a tree. We also saw several other black bears, a bison, a porcupine, and a few Dall sheep. When we set out on this journey, someone told us we would see so much wildlife that we would get tired of it, but we definitely haven't gotten to that point yet.

Warming up in the river

Liard River Hot Springs

Why did the buffalo cross the road?

Bears in a tree

Dall Sheep

Rocky Mountain High

Our hook-up hero