Day 15 - HEADING TO TETON NP

It was time to say goodbye to Yellowstone.  We had seen so much, but it's obvious that a few days here is only enough to scratch the surface of things to do and see.  This is the kind of place that deserves more than one visit, so I suspect we will be back at some time. 

But...we had one more thing to check off our list.  As we were leaving Grant Campground, we saw a big bull elk in the trees.  Elk were in rut so they were bugling and pretty active chasing the cows.  This big guy had a few cows around but he was busy rubbing the velvet off his antlers. It was really special to get to watch him beat the tar out of this tree.





Bull Elk from J Diepenbruck on Vimeo.


We headed on south and soon entered Grand Teton National Park.  Grand Teton and Yellowstone are attached...drive out of one and into the other.  Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th-century French speaking trappers—"les trois tetons" (the three teats) was later anglicized and shortened to Tetons. 




There are a number of points of interest along the highway as we head south toward Jackson, WY. This is Cunningham Cabin with a sod roof. It's dry now but is full green in the spring and during times of higher rainfall. John Cunningham homesteaded this land and built the cabin in the 1880's. He was a successful cattle rancher until drought ruined pasture and he abandoned the ranch. 

Carolyn was taking a walk near the Cunningham Cabin but decided to cut her walk short when I reminded her to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes!

The view from Visitor Center was special.

A late lunch.  The bison burger was tasty.



It was time to find a campground and set up for the night.  We decided on Gros Verde Campgound which is one of the national park campgrounds.  Like Mammoth Campgound in Yellowstone, our site was level and had a fire ring, but there is no electrical, water, nor sewer hookup.  That's OK since our Roadtrek is self contained. 

We decided to take a late afternoon drive to Jackson, WY which [after the mountains] is the biggest attraction around the national park. 

Jackson Hole is the valley around Jackson, WY and is known as one of the premier skiing areas in the Rockies.  The ski slopes are straight ahead when driving into town on the main highway.  Our plans included a stop at Great Harvest Bread Company for a loaf of "home-made" bread, but there was a festival going on and the traffic was NUTS, so we just took a quick drive through town and headed back to our campground.

On our way back to our campsite, the side of the road was full of cars and people had their cameras going.  That could only mean some sort of critter was close by.  This moose wasn't as big as the two monsters we saw on our Big Horn drive but moose aren't something we see every day so we will take our share of pictures too.

A cow and twins were on the other side of the trees.

Soon, the family decided to head off for the night...

and the bull took one last pose for the cameras.

The day started with watching a big elk in the trees and ended with a family of moose.  In between, there were some spectacular views of the Tetons mixed with some fun stops and a homestead cabin with sod roof.  Give us a checkmark for another successful day.