Grand Teton Part 1: Chillin' at Colter Bay

Yes, chillin'...as in low 40's during the day with light rain and grey skies accentuating every bit of color starting to pop as the temperatures drop. It may not actually be autumn quite yet, but in Grand Teton National Park is certainly feels like it!

We've spent the past few nights at Colter Bay Village RV Park, making little forays into the northern half of the park when weather permits, catching up on little things inside the RV when we feel the need to cozy up to the warmth that our full hookups offer.

Knowing that the weather was about to turn, we hiked Two Ocean Lake trail the afternoon we arrived at Grand Teton NP.
This is an easy 6.5 mile loop that had some lovely, early fall color.

Glowing Trumpeter Swan.

Color splashed the hillsides and meadows, elk bugled in the distance and the air was crisp...fall has arrived.

Cricket?

I love rainbow trees!

Mt Moran looms mysteriously in a light rain.

Snake River.

Jackson Lake was about 100 yards from our RV.

The entire beach consists of various sizes of these beautiful rocks.

We saw our first live porcupine on the beach at Jackson Lake!

We hiked a nice three mile loop right from our RV, through dripping green forest, along Jackson Lake, with lots of wildlife viewing opportunities.

With everything damp, the colors popped everywhere.

Each day we had different views of the mountains across the lakes.

This bald eagle seemed to pose just for me at String Lake.

The creek flowing into Jenny Lake with its first blush of fall color.

After a day of off and on light rain the clouds lifted just a bit off the Tetons giving us a hint of what lay underneath.

Campground Review

Colter Bay Village RV Park is the only full hookup RV park in Grand Teton National Park. Sites are gravel/dirt in pull through rows in a lodgepole forest. We had one of the best sites in the park, O-108, situated so we had a slice of Jackson Lake view and a direct path to the lake about 100 yards away.

Satellite service is very difficult here due to all the trees, but we were lucky to have a tiny slice of southern sky and get ours to connect. We had 4G Verizon signal using our booster. Though still quite busy, the park was quiet at night and wildlife walked through regularly.

This campground closes at the end of September and parts of the dry camping section had already closed during our stay. Attendance seemed to diminish daily at this time of year.

That's our Montana in site O-108, with only one rig between us and the path to the lake...
though it's easy to see our neighbor was not blocking our view. 

The path to the lake directly across from our site.
The mountains are hiding behind a bank of clouds.

We saw two foxes walking through the campground in the middle of the day.

Though a little skittish, they weren't too concerned about the watchers.

Today, under clearing skies, we head to the southern end of Grand Teton National Park and perhaps full views of the Grand Teton range...fingers crossed!