Teton Pass, The Tetons, Togwotee Pass ... Just a Nice Day of Driving

 

Indy's First...first picture from an Iconic place.  I am sure there will be more, and eventually I hope she will be able to stay, without leash, and look at the camera.  Skruffy did that a number of times.  Bubba...well he took off (ran away) so many times that I decided very early not to try with him.  

What a nice morning for a drive...but let's start at the beginning.

We head east on Highway 26 passing more farmlands, and then the Snake River with the morning sun beating down.

 

We turn on highway 31 and start a climb.  The trees at this new altitude have started to turn.  Soon we hit the town of Victor and turn on highway 33 and all sorts of warnings about Teton Pass.  Must be under 60,000 pounds.  No trailers between November and March.  We drive in second gear, even first gear for a small part of it, until we finally reach the 8,431 foot summit. 

Then we have 10% downward slope for six or seven miles in second gear, tapping the breaks to keep the speed down and the RPM down.  We stopped a few times at pullouts to allow cars to pass, and Marcia got this shot of the valley below.  I have been over many passes, and Teton Pass is not the hardest, nor the easiest.  It does climb over 2,000 feet in six miles, and back down again in six more miles.  Both Victor and Jackson are about the same altitude.  But with such a steep climb you don't want to loose momentum, and pulling over to let people pass is a total momentum loss.  It would be easier if there were more passing lanes, but it is that nature of this pass.

We glided through Jackson, except for a small area which has some road construction.  Soon we are through town and entering Teton National Park, which is our opening picture.

This our third time at the Tetons, my fifth or sixth.  Last time, in 2016, I got a text from my youngest son..."Dad, where are you at?"   "At the Tetons son!"   "Ya, I think we just passed you going the other way..."  I called, and we turned around and met up with Ryan and his buddies at Jenny Lake.  So today I sent him a text with a picture of the Grand Teton, "I am here looking for you"  He was jealous, but he and his wife Kaelyn are headed to Acadia later in the week.  Now I am jealous!

We did pull over a few times, and we sure enjoyed the right pass the Teton Range.  I am pretty sure we will be back through again some day...I sure hope so.

We saw many (like forty or more) Pronghorns on our trip today, a couple of deer, and a few Buffalo.  The Buffalo caused a small traffic jam, and with the motorhome and tow car, we had to cruise on through, but Marcia got two good pictures, albeit it was far from the roadway.  Had we been in just a car, we would have gotten better pictures...but you know, we have so many picture of buffalo from our visits to Yellowstone.  As we got near the end of our ride today, we also saw a small herd of buffalo on a farm...but that just isn't the same.

We got back on Highway 26 in the town of Jackson...and Highway 26 along with Highway 287 soon headed east away from the Tetons.  Marcia was tired and decided to lay down, leaving Indy to be my co-pilot for a good hour or more as we climb up and over Togwotee Pass. 

I had never been over Togwotee Pass.  Although the top of the pass is at 9,655 feet, it was easier to get over than Teton Pass earlier this morning...had to drop it into 2nd gear a few times, but never in first gear like Teton Pass.

It was just a wonderful and pretty drive.

As we came into Dubois, there was a reddish color to the mountains.  Between Dubois and Riverton the landscape was flatter, less scenic.  We pulled into the Wind River RV Park and called it a day by 3 pm.  Tomorrow, Buffalo, a place we have not been to since 2012.