Transition Time: Mountains to High Desert

We've had an incredible summer in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana but the time has come for our slow migration South and West towards San Diego for the holidays. It's going to be hard to leave behind the incredible wealth of wildlife we've witnessed this summer; the last month from Red Lodge, MT through Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming has been an endless bounty of wildlife sightings.

But move on we must, and our last stop in Wyoming was a couple of nights in tiny Boulder, WY allowing us one day to hike in the Wind River Mountains, a range we've heard lots of good things about.

The Wind River Range is part of the Central Rocky Mountain chain and has the largest system of glaciers (63) in the American portion of the Rockies. We chose to access the range from the Boulder Lake trailhead because it was close to our RV park in Boulder, WY. Very little information is available about the trail itself, so we just showed up and hoped for the best!

We hiked about four miles up Boulder Canyon. The trail is well marked and often follows Boulder Creek with dark granite canyon walls towering overhead, sometimes through thick forest, sometimes across rock outcroppings. It's a good idea to carry bear spray as grizzlies have moved into the range in the past few years.

Though we're still up at 7,000 feet the landscape has changed to sage covered hills.
We saw what we believe to be wild horses on the road to Boulder Lake.

A little fall color pressed up against dark granite canyon walls.

Pond covered with spent lily pads a couple of miles into the hike.

Boulder Creek

We stayed at Highline Trail RV Park, a nice private park with easy access to the Wind River Range from nearby Boulder Lake. We had a huge pull through site, and though there was noise from highway 191 right outside the park, it was very quiet at night. We had good 4G Verizon signal with our booster.

Site #1 at Highline Trail RV Park.

Moving on, we made the big transition from mountains to high desert and the fabulous sandstone formations of Utah. We're spending several nights in Vernal, UT at Steinaker State Park. Just a couple of miles from our park is the short but somewhat strenuous hike to Moonshine Arch, which we learned about from John and Pam who hiked it during a long day trip which you can read about here.

This vulture was waiting for one of us to keel over as we hiked to the arch!

The early morning light was terrible for photos, this one looks much better in black and white!

Great sandstone fins stand out above the juniper and sage desert.

A lone ponderosa pine thrived in a wash among the waves of petrified sand dunes.

Though we're sad to leave the cooler temps of the mountains behind, we're always happy to be in Utah's spectacular landscapes...despite their archaic liquor laws. We had dinner last night at Vernal Brewing Company and were reminded that any beer sold on tap cannot exceed 4% ABV.

Get ready for some sandstone hiking!

Grand Teton Part 2: Mad for Moose at Gros Ventre

We left the wet and cold behind the day we moved to Gros Ventre Campground in the southern half of Grand Teton National Park. With the sun making an appearance perhaps we'd finally get to see the Grand Teton range?

Our first afternoon was spent strolling the streets of nearby Jackson, WY and restocking the larder. Lucky's Market turned out to be one of the best grocery stores we've seen in quite a while. With a focus on natural and organic, excellent prices, and a fun vibe ($2 local pints  or glass of wine available to sip while you shop), we were hooked!

Obligatory photo under one of the impressive antler arches on the Jackson Hole Plaza.

Wyoming is cowboy country for sure, but Jackson is more of a wealthy tourist cowboy town.

Savor your grocery shopping experience with a local beer at Lucky's Market!

Gros Ventre Campground (and the Gros Ventre River corridor) is prime moose habitat so we were really looking forward to some wildlife watching...we were not disappointed! We saw moose every day, often several times a day, in the campground.

You have to be careful around these gentle-looking giants...they can be very dangerous and unpredictable.
It's recommended you always keep at least 25 yards away from them.

We saw at least three bucks and probably ten females and a yearling or two.
The bulls always seemed to be lying down and about all you could see was their antlers!
Photographers would set up and wait for HOURS to get good shots of the bucks.

There was plenty of other wildlife besides the moose.

Our first full day we drove out Gros Ventre Road to check out the Gros Ventre Slide, then on to hike to Grizzly Lake. At every turn we had to stop to oooh and aaah at the gorgeous scenery around us!

Old cabin with a perfect view of the now visible and snow capped Tetons.

After days and days of rain and clouds the Tetons were a treat to behold.

Rock outcroppings along Gros Ventre Road are good Bighorn Sheep habitat...but we spotted a black bear instead!

Red tinged hills along Gros Ventre Road.

A pocket of fall among the red hills.

From Grizzly Lake trail we had a view back down the valley we'd driven and a peak at the Tetons with a fringe of clouds.

The trail also offered a view into the Gros Ventre range.

We never made it to Grizzly Lake, the trail was lost among cow paths and we decided we'd had enough after 2.5 miles,
but the scenery more than made up for the missing lake.

Another stunning view from Gros Ventre Road.

Back at the campground we enjoyed more bull moose head and antlers. This guy had five females in his harem.

This had to be Rosie's favorite campground ever. We took her on very long walks (a quarter mile for a cat, on a leash, is a long walk) and she flushed out all sorts of critters: snakes, frogs, chipmunks, mice. But the best critter ever was this adorable short-tailed weasel!

Terrible lighting, but seriously, how often do you see short-tailed weasels in the wild?!?!?

We watched this cutie for several minutes.
It was just as curious about us as we (well, I) was about it!

The next morning I was determined to get out before sunrise to see what animals might be walking through the campground. I was especially interested in a beaver dam near our site that showed signs of potential habitation, and we'd seen what was likely a beaver swimming near it at dusk.

My preoccupation with the beaver dam put me in the perfect spot to witness two female moose crossing the river, covered in early morning steam, moments before sunrise! What an awesome way to start the day!

On this day we planned to hike the 7.2 mile Phelps Lake loop from the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve. Turns out a beautiful Sunday in September is a busy, busy time in Grand Teton National Park and we got one of the last parking spots at the Preserve at 10:30am.

Drive by coyote sighting on the way to our hike.

The new snow is already melting away.

Mountain reflections in Phelps Lake.

At the far end of Phelps Lake we accidentally walked within 10 feet of this guy and another young male moose...scary!
Fortunately when we stumbled upon them they were relaxing in the grass and had no interest in us!
Isn't he a beauty!

Campground Review

Wheeling It Nina recently did a comprehensive review of Gros Ventre Campground, so I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel, her reviews are the best!... please read her excellent review here.

Here is our experience: We arrived at this first come, first serve campground at 10am and got site C-144 in the generators-allowed loop. It was a huge level site that backs up to the river (not visible, about 40 yards away). Since the site is kind of on the bend in the road it was pie-shaped - it opened up to the forest, with only one near neighbor, who really didn't seem all that near. We had good 4G Verizon signal with our booster.

This is an excellent place to stay when visiting Grand Teton National Park, the wildlife viewing is phenomenal, there's tons of hiking and amazing scenery nearby and it's only about 10 miles to Jackson Hole, we'd stay here again in a heartbeat!

Site C-144. the forest/riparian area continues behind me to the river.

The beaver lodge I was so enamored with. I'd love to watch it evolve over a few years.
There's a substantial base infrastructure in place to build a very large pond in the coming years.

Rosie was in kitty heaven at this campground! 

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!