Tetons

This morning we awoke after a night of 30 degree weather – we froze our hoo-hoos off. But we were still refreshed and ready for some hiking. Last time we were here we went to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. This time we ended up doing the same thing but going even further beyond! So, we bought our round-trip boat shuttle tickets ($15.00 for two) and headed to the Cascade Canyon Trail. We ended up doing a nice 9-mile hike this time – going to Canyon Junction. You get all of the elevation out of the way getting up to Inspiration Point. We followed Cascade creek the whole way, which remains pretty level, saw the amazing Tetons from various angles – and even saw a bull mouse chomping away in the river! He had a big rack! We also saw another marmot bathing on the rocks.

Tetons Bull Moose

The Tetons are quite remarkable – they are so pointy, with such definite peaks, and so scraggly with patches of snow/glaciers here and there.

After the hike, we headed north to Yellowstone, another park we visited a few years back. We decided to go via the Eastern route so we could see the waterfalls that we had somehow skipped on our last Yellowstone visit. I am so glad we didn’t skip them again. We saw Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon and Artist’s Point – with Upper and Lower Falls. A huge canyon of yellow, orange, red funky rock formations – it was wild. Lower falls is huge and we got to see Upper Falls at its brink – at the top as it fell down over the edge. Very cool.

On our way to the campground for the night, we got stuck in some traffic – bison traffic! These guys were within 2 feet of the car. It is quite unnerving when a creature nearly as big as a small car looks you in the eye from 2 feet away. It stalled us for at least 10 minutes, as they didn’t have a care in the world as people flashed pictures. The bison would just stand there in front of the car until they felt like moving!

We got a campsite at Indian Creek, as night fell, and set up site in the dark - $12.00.