Bear Lake to Grand Teton

Wednesday August 3, 2011
Gros Ventre Campground Site 104
Grand Teton National Park Wyoming

 

**note this is the second post today.  Hope
you’ll want to read about our last day at Bear Lake,
which is after this.  I’m having a bit of internet
connectivity trouble here on the banks of the Gros Ventre River.
Comments gratefully appreciated.
Love to know you are out there
and what you have to say  :-)

 

The trip from Bear Lake to our campsite took the entire day
as we often do.  We left the dump station just after 10:30.
Took the only and slow road to St. Charles and then on to
Monticello, Idaho.

I’ve noticed in the west or maybe just in Utah and Idaho that
the towns like to put their initials in one way or another on the
mountain visible from Main Street.   There was a big K in Kanab Utah,
a big B in Beaver Utah, a big P in Provo, Utah and now the big M in Monticello.   Does anyone know what this is about or whether it is
all through the west??   Haven’t seen a big J for Jackson YET.

 

Monticello has one of the many
Oregon Trail Centers which sprang up
all around the vicinity of the route
during its anniversary year.
I’m personally not a celebrator of
”manifest destiny” so we didn’t stop
either time we were in Monticello.
But those who like to follow the trail
I’m sure would find this interesting.
It’s a great looking building but on the
wrong side of the street for me to get
a picture today.  It’s pretty much in
the center of town.

But I did get the highway sign.  Hope that will help. :-)

We took Route 89 all the way from St. Charles, UT
to Jackson, WY.  So that made the drive was easy in terms
of following the route.  No need for a map or GPS.

It was a lovely road with
steep grades
over Salt River Pass
elevation 7630

At the top of the pass I learned
something new.
I’d never heard of periodic springs.
For sure, if we hadn’t had to go
so far today I knew whether a 34’ motorhome
could get anywhere near here, I’d have gone for a look.
Maybe you can when you come.
It’s a short 3/4 mile trail.
Hope you can read this about it

 

Our farm in Virginia is located about 5 miles
outside of Batesville, Virginia
but it is in the Afton, Virginia postal zone
even though Afton is 12 miles away
and long distance from us.

 

ANYWAY………
had to get the town sign from Afton, Wyoming
showing greater population :-)
This is for you
  Bob and Nancy!!

We stopped here in Smoot
to mail a post card.
I think this is more the size of our Afton. 

HOWEVER
our Afton has nothing as cool as this over its main street.
Yes those are Elk Antlers.  We found that’s a big
decorating item out here.

 

We stopped at the Afton Subway,
(nothing like that in our Afton)
and stood in the noon lunch line
to pick up a black forest ham on honey oat bread.
I have to say, for fast food, on the road
Subway is hard to beat.

We drove on down the road a ways to
the Star Valley rest area and
had our lunch by the water, sort of.
Gorillapod had a hard time keeping a straight face.

But there was water….I just had to take the picture

Congratulations to Wyoming for their
Passive solar Star Valley Rest Area.

OK so we’ve now made 4 stops.  Think we’d
better stop this stopping thing or we’ll never get there.

 

Back on the road we began seeing the snake river.
 

 

And then stop #5, a line of traffic further than I
could see with a sign that
warned it could be a 20 minute wait.

 

The road follows the river all the way to Jackson.
River runners were out.
Doesn’t this look great??

 

We finally made it to Jackson.
Your typical tourist town.
Entering the park from the South,
you have to go through it.
But it wasn’t TOO bad.
The biggest problem was all the shoppers
crossing at every corner.

 

Both gateways to the town square are made of
elk antlers

 

 

 

The town reminded me some of Gatlinburg, TN
for those of you who have been there.
Ripley’s…..”antique photos” with Judge Roy Bean etc.

 

Just outside of town on the edge of the park is
The National Elk Refuge.  More about it in a later post.

 

 

And here they are or part of them
The Grand Tetons.
One of our first sightings.  Sorry for the glare.
There will be plenty more later.  :-)

 

And then we got stopped yet again.

 

 

We did finally make it to Gros Ventre Campground.
But I’ll save that for tomorrow.