Grand Tetons and Points South

Since I last posted, Lois and I left Salmon, ID, on Wednesday morning and followed the Lemhi River South through some beautiful farm country to Idaho Highway 33. At Idaho 33, we turned West and drove to Rexburg, ID. Rexburg has been a familiar place name in my family for years. When my brothers and I were young we all heard tales of Rexburg from our father, who worked a season in a sugar beet processing plant in Rexburg in the late 1920's. When I worked in Yellowstone in 1968, my mother and father came to visit. While there, daddy made a day trip to Rexburg. I remember his saying how little Rexburg had changed in the 40 years since he worked there. If daddy could see Rexburg now, after another 40 years, I don't believe that he would talk about how little it has changed. Today's Rexburg is a modern small city complete with a big WalMart and all the other trappings of modern life.

From Rexburg, we drove West, watching thunderstorms in the mountains, and crossed the Tetons just south of Jackson, WY. From Jackson, we drove north to Moose, WY. After a quick visit to the new Visitors Center (where I took this picture of the resident moose),we drove to the home of our friends Ann and Lee Izard, who live in the park. We got in to their place around 4:00 p.m. and set up our motor home in their driveway. We chatted with Lee for a while until Ann got home from work. We continued talking and bringing each other up to date on the events in our families since we saw Lee and Ann last year. Ann prepared a tasty dinner, and we chilled out for the rest of the evening.

Thursday morning we got a rather late start, and drove to the Death Canyon trail head. Although the name sounds ominous, the trail that we took was an easy 2-mile loop which lead to an overlook of Phelps Lake, one of the many alpine lakes at the base of the Tetons.
After our hike, we returned to Lee and Ann's for lunch, where we visited a few minutes with Carolyn Richard, a friend of ours from Grand Canyon days. Then we rested a while, and took a walk in the vicinity of their house. We had planned to take the newly opened ferry across the Snake River, but it wasn't operating.Instead, we walked to the new Visitor Center which had just opened. Even though we had been there the day before, we spent quite a while taking in all of the exhibits that we hadn't taken the time to enjoy on our first visit. I'll have to say, the new Visitors Center at Grand Teton is the most impressive visitors center of any National Park which I've visited. On the way back to their house, we got a chance for a short visit with Mallory and Patrick, old friends of ours from Grand Canyon.

Thursday evening we had an early dinner at Dornan's, across the river from their house and then took a drive to try to spot some wildlife and take some sunset pictures. We did see a few elk and some bison, but the sunset was the real star of the evening. There were enough clouds and some smoke from forest fires on the Idaho side to make for some really beautiful shots.

This morning, I got up early and walked to the Chapel of the Transfiguration (maybe 1/4 mile) from their house to get some shots of the chapel and the mountains at sunrise. I remember vividly the chapel from a trip that Lois and I made to Grand Teton when we worked at Yellowstone 40 years ago. It's no less beautiful and inspiring today than it was 40 years ago.

Lee and Ann are such dear friends and gracious hosts that we hated to leave, but we left Grand Teton around 9:30 a.m. and drove South along the Snake River and then East on U.S. 30. Around noon, we made a quick stop at Fossil Butte National Monument and were really impressed with the volume, variety and intricacy of the fossils that have been discovered in that area. From Fossil Butte, we continued West until we intersected with I-80 a little West of Green River, WY. After a short drive East on I-90 to Rock Springs, we turned South again on U.S. 191, skirting the East side of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. After climbing up to a high plateau, we continued South until we began our descent to the Flaming Gorge Dam. After crossing the dam, we climbed again over a pass until we descended to Vernal, UT, where we're spending the night.

Tomorrow, we plan on a short visit to Dinosaur National Monument and a drive into northwestern Colorado. We'll meander South, intersecting I-70 around Grand Junction. At that point, we'll make a decision whether we'll swing through Moab, UT on our way South or go down through Telluride and Dolores, CO. I don't think we can lose either way we go.

By the way, our daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Steven are in South Africa for a visit as I write this. We've had e-mail that they are well and having a great time. They are keeping a journal which is far more literate and artistic than mine. Take a look, and I'm sure you'll agree.
http://schindleradventures.blogspot.com/