Here Looking At The Grand Tetons

Well, we look at them when it’s not raining. The day we arrived the weather was perfect. The next two days had more clouds than sun. The clouds extend out into the Pacific. And so it goes. Not all bad. Dorothy is content and we have decided to stay here through the Fourth. The forecast is clear skies all next week and for the wind to lay down. The campground is pleasant enough and strangely quiet. Not at all like a Parks campground. I am sure it will be busier in the coming days.

We met some fine folks from Susanville, George and Linda. We enjoyed four evenings around their campfire solving world problems and enjoying the sunsets. We ate our first tri-tip beef that they cooked. Delightful. Also called bottom sirloin. Hope to see them again when head south on 395 in few months.

Sunset at our campsite

I have determined my next wife will like the Dead and drink beer. The new Jeep came with Sirius so I like to listen to the Dead channel. Dorothy screams. And I have no one to toss back a few drafts with in the local saloons.

Dorothy writes:

Wednesday, June 25 - We arrived at Gros Ventre (pronounced gro vont) and have been very pleased with this CG.  It is not a typical national park cg.  There is good separation between the sites so you don't have that closed in feeling.  Two of the volunteers at the office are from Montgomery, so we had a nice chat. We aren't very far from Jackson, WY.  I was here with my parents in 1965 - it's changed a little.  We love the view of mountains from our back window. Moose sometimes walk into the CG between 5:30 - 6:00 am.

Thursday, June 26 - The weather was gray and overcast.  We drove to another CG just to see if we were interested in moving.  The Tetons disappeared in the clouds, so we explored Jackson and had lunch at Bon Appetit, a good Thai restaurant.  Something we tend to forget is that when you are in an expensive resort touristy town, the food will also be expensive!  We were able to sit outside for a little while before dinner.  Then we visited with our neighbors, George & Linda from CA, and had a very nice campfire conversation.  They were able to keep us up until 10:30.

Friday, June 27 - Again overcast with 75% chance of rain in the afternoon, so we drove to Lake Atherton.  It's a picturesque CG on the lake.  The road is rough, so we will probably continue to stay at Gros Ventre.  The lake was formed by a huge landslide in 1925.  They said that it is the largest landslide in the world.  We want to go back when the weather is clear because the scenery looks fantastic, even on a cloudy day.  The weather forecast was correct, so we have stayed inside all afternoon.  Tomorrow starts a clearing and warming pattern - yea!

George and Linda invited us to go with them and paddle their yaks on String Lake. Quite enjoyable until after lunch when breeze picked up to 20.

We hiked the 3.2 mile RT to Tagget Lake. It did Dorothy in and I was not much better. Still a scenic lake. With a polarizing filter, I was able to get a good reflection.

Not all the mosquitoes in Wyoming are this big, but some are.

In a recent post, I wrote about the increasing number of wilderness areas. In the Grand Teton newsletter, published by the Park Service, the lead “story” celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The story reveals that areas that are either proposed or recommended as wilderness areas receive the same protection as those areas that Congress has approved as wilderness areas. That’s getting the cart before the horse. So all an attorney for the Sierra Club needs to do is to get the Forest Service to undertake a study of tract of land they control and then propose it as a wilderness area. It can stay in that category until the end of time, fully protected, and Congress never needs to vote on it. Sweet, an area forever closed to all activity except hiking. I think accommodations should be made for the handicap. Dorothy suggests having SEALS take her into the wilderness areas via a sedan chair.

If I had a few million extra I would love to sue to overturn closing land without congressional approval. Then again the sedan chair might be fun.

Wednesday – July 2 – The last two days were glorious days weather wise. Today, we planned to photograph some colored hillsides. But at 8am the haze looked like we were in LA in all directions. It partially cleared in the afternoon. The haze is actually smoke from distant fires in Canada. That’s along way off.

Grump, grump. It has been quiet a week in the campground. Late this afternoon, a fiver moved in next to us with two Honda generators in the truck bed. They were cranked on arrival to run the ac. Now they are not loud and we can barely hear them inside. Still I hope eagles rip their eyeballs out. I guess they did not want to pay the $48 rate in the electric section. The government pays wind and solar farms so they will be on a par with other forms of electrical generation. How about paying us for the solar panels on our roof? We have gone over 90 days twice without hookups. It’s really no big deal for us.

We are seeing more 32-34 foot C’s built on the E450 chassis. The same one our 24-foot is built on. Our going down the road weight, GVWR, with full water and gas is 13,800. That’s just inside the 14,500 maximum. Add 8 feet and two slides and those suckers are overweight dry. Of course, that is not news for anything built in Elkhardt.

The Fourth – we celebrated by being lazy and eating another rack of ribs. Most of the smoke is gone, so we will try photography in the morning.

Next week, we cross Idaho and Oregon to get to the coast. There is a heat wave so will we not dally and get electricity each night for ac. Only one pleasure stop planned at the Cowboy Dinner Tree.