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.

Bear, Moose, Son, Bison – A BIG Teton Day

Of all the animals we saw today on our visit to the Tetons, we only got pictures of two types.  Pulled into String Lake, just north of Jenny Lake…got out of the car to try and get a picture of the water with the mountains in the background, and as I started to walk by this lady she says in a whisper, “There is a bear down through those trees.”  Well, my timing could not have been better, because I was standing right at the spot the bear would eventually come out of the water and up the bank…shooting right through me if I stayed there.  In case he decided to turn and head through the parking lot, I tried to give Marcia a call (after I got the first series of pictures while he was still down in the water.)

   

He KNEW we were up there, he could smell us and he also saw us.  I say us, but after I turned around, it was just me there.  He looked right at me, kinda said with his eyes, “You are standing right where I am a headed…”, and I kindly moved on to a safer spot, trying to call Marcia, and missed his exit from the water.

   

After he hit the bank he ran a bit, got a shot of that, but it was too blurry.  He then just walked along up and over and through the woods, like it was nobody’s business except his (or her) own.

   

Well, the shot on the left is the one I was going for before the lady told me about the bear.  The shot on the right would have been a wonderful spot to get the bear crossing the river…but it all worked out ok.  Except, I never did get a hold of Marcia, and when I got back to the car she said, “What Bear?”  Makes up for her seeing the moose as we traveled over Teton Summit earlier.  As we entered the valley coming down from the summit, five dear ran across the road in front of us…kinda got the feeling the guy behind us was glad that he didn’t pass us earlier because there would have been a dead deer, and a dead Japanese car had he done that.  At first he looked a bit upset that I slowed as much as I did for the dear...until he saw more come out from the woods.  Later, we also saw Bison, but they were not very close, and after our close and personal visit with Bison back in 2012 in Yellowstone, well, nothing tops that as it goes with Bison.

After we left the Jenny Lake area headed south on the main park road, I get this text from my son Ryan.

“Where are you??”

“Tetons”, I reply.

“I'm like 99% sure I just passed you on the other side of the road.”

So I call him, and sure enough, he is at the Tetons too!  In between semesters at school each spring, he goes on an annual visit of America.  Last I heard he was in Seattle, but earlier today they went to Yellowstone, and at the very moment that we are leaving Jenny Lake, about a mile away from it, he is headed for Jenny Lake and sees us.  So we make a U-Turn and catch up with him and his two friends.  He had no idea where I was in our travels, and I had no idea where he was...ain't that something???

Derek, on the left, is also in the Cleveland Chiropractic College with Ryan at Overland Park, Kansas.  Matt, on the right, is a friend.  They were in Derek’s mother’s Chevy Suburban, which is bigger than the car that Ryan and two other guys took last year on a trip.  We said our hellos, and let them go do their hike while we continued our trip around the Tetons.  All I can say, that tops the bear any day!


FLASHBACK IN TIME – 2012

Our first visit and view of the Tetons is shrouded in smoke from the western fires of early August 2012.


TODAY – MAY 5, 2016

Yes, we could have asked for a clear blue sky…but wow, what a difference!  From this point on, I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story…and remember, clicking on a picture will let you see a larger version.

      

The Grand Tetons are sure a sight to see.  Like Yosemite and some of the other parks, I am sure one would have to visit during all four seasons to get the full grip on the beauty of the place.

       

And yes, we did get some bird pictures too.  All in all it was a great day, full of the majestic wonders the almighty has provided for our pleasure.