Day 9 Part 2 - Grand Teton National Park, WY
Grand Teton National Park, WY
So the day started a little chilly but warmed up quickly. Upon opening the drapes the first thing we saw was fog - lots of fog and wondered what our 8am raft float would be like. But as I pondered about that here come 5 elk walking through the meadow below the lodge. I did get some pictures from the room but they may not be all that clear. Certainly could tell one was a very large bull.
So after all that we headed out with 12 others and our guide to raft the Snake River. Was it ever peaceful with just a little fog early on. Our guide was Jeff and he has been doing this for 7 years - 5 months of rafting (and fishing on his time off) with 7 months traveling the country and the world rafting. Another free spirit! Ok, so we immediately see ducks which is what you would expect. We had to go around and tell who we were and where we were from plus anything else you wanted to add. When it was our turn Jeff knew about Skyline and Graeters so we talked about that for awhile! And then we saw the eagles! Lots of juveniles and adult Bald Eagles. Absolutely beautiful! I tried to capture video of one in flight but missed. But I did get a lot of pictures of them sitting in the trees and on the bank. Really something special to see. I just hope my pictures turn out ok. We also saw a lot of Ospreys and even one crane. Up river on the bank ahead was a group of Pronghorn which are the fastest mammal in the western hemisphere. Unfortunately for us they took off before we were in camera range. That was the end of our river wildlife adventure - 10.5 miles in about 2.5 hours. If you ever get out here the raft float is a must?
So after returning to the lodge for some lunch we were sitting outside when in the meadow below a really big bull moose wandered by. It had a huge set of antlers and it did look like Bullwinkle! Of course since we were just going to eat l did not bring my camera and ended up trying to take pictures with my cell phone which didn't turn out very good at all. I won't leave the camera behind again!
Finally we spent some time in the Colter Bay campgrounds just north of our lodge for some laundry time and a 2 mile hike around some of the shorter trails in that area of the NP. You do get a different perspective of the mountains from that location.
That is about it for Grand Teton NP. Tomorrow we take the short drive north to Yellowstone. The adventure continues.