As we drove into Grand Teton National Park, Liam asked "So what's this park have?" So far, most of our national park visits have sort of had a theme: tall trees, fat trees, cliff dwellings, geysers. I told him that this one was mostly about the amazing mountain views. The problem with that is that there is currently so much smoke in the northwest that we really could barely even see those amazing mountains. It made for a fairly disappointing trip. Or at least it felt that way. But I am hanging on to a few great experiences we did have despite the smoke filled skies that blocked out those mountain backdrops that I know were there!
We entered the park through an unmanned backdoor just north of Jackson and drove basically a counter clockwise loop around the park with slight detours from that main loop. There were lots of pullouts to stop and see and photograph the views, but the views were mostly obscured by that smoke. We did eventually go through an actual entrance and have to show our pass, but that wasn't until halfway through the day. Still, we did get to see some pretty great things.
The first pretty great thing we saw that day was the Mormon Row Barns. I think I have already demonstrated that I am pretty taken with abandoned buildings, and these did not disappoint, even though the magnificent mountains that stand beyond them were mostly invisible. There are houses in addition to barns but the barns are definitely the main attraction. The birds everywhere were a bonus.
At the Schwabacher Landing beaver ponds we saw a mama and baby (okay, adolescent?) moose. Everyone watched them for a really long time. In fact we would have missed the baby if we hadn't stuck around as he emerged from the grass after we had been watching his mama for a good thirty minutes. Animal sightings in the parks are a real favorite, though we still haven't seen any bears.
Next was a short walk near Jackson Lake at Colter Bay. Whenever we let the kids out of the car at a big body of water, well any sized body of water, they always, always start throwing rocks in.
The best view of the mountains all day was at Jenny Lake. It was beautiful, if still a little hazy.
And then we drove out through Teton Village. It really wasn't a bad day, I mean you really can't call a day in which you saw a baby moose a bad day.
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