Wednesday, July 31st - We drove from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Highway 26 worked well and there was very little traffic as we followed the Snake River and Palisades Lake. When we transitioned to Highway 89, we drove along the wild portion of the Snake River and there were lots of white-water rafters and kayakers on the river. The drive through Jackson Hole was a little challenging as the funnel all traffic right through town. Town is congested with lots of walkers and cars. There is one turn right in the middle of town that challenge my driving skills not to clobber another car. It all worked well as we moved through town to the Gros Ventre (French and pronounced; "grow-vont") National Park Campground. It worked out perfectly that there were two slots we could try. The second one worked okay as there was a disabled slot across from us that I could use to help back in. Power, but no water or sewage; we are dry camping with power! We took and evening drive to Jenny Lake for a short hike. We saw a brown bear and her two cubs, and also a deer that we followed on the trail. (See photos)

Today is Thursday, August 1st. We went to Starbucks to get some internet coverage. Lisa worked and I uploaded photos to our blog. We stay there for about three hours. After working on the blog and Lisa was done at work, we went to the Jackson Hole Visitor Center and planned our activities for the next few days. We planned the Chuckwagon dinner, the guided fly-fishing trip, and an early morning nature float down the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. It takes some time to make the calls and get the arrangements made. We arrived back at the RV at about 3:30, so we decided to do a bike ride to Jenny Lake. It was a beautiful ride with lots of flowers and the backdrop of the Tetons in front of us or to our left. As we returned to the RV camp, we stopped to relax about five miles out. As we were taking in the glory of the Tetons, the wind went from about five miles per hour to 35 miles per hour; we had some thunderstorms in the area. It was a direct headwind. We had already ridden 35 miles, but that last five was as hard as 35 miles. Luckily, we stopped at about halfway back to join a bunch of tourists watching some moose. Then we finished the 40 mile ride and sat for quite a while. This culminated our first day in the Teton area.

Today is Friday, August 2nd and we are at the campsite in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Lisa has to work, so I spent the morning getting caught up on the blog for the last week. I downloaded photos and videos and then wrote the text for our activities up to getting to Jackson Hole. We loaded the kayaks on the truck for our kayaking trip on Jackson Lake tomorrow. In the evening, we drove the truck to a ranch south of Jackson Hole for a Chuckwagon Dinner and Old West Music Show. The food was excellent and “slopped” on an aluminum tray like for the old cowboys. Then the services took to the stage and sang for about one hour and fifteen minutes. The singer’s voices and musical skills were excellent. It was a great show with many songs from the old west like “Rawhide.” We did this on our last trip to Jackson Hole, and we wanted to make sure that we did not miss it this time through. 

Today is Friday, August 2nd. It is time to go kayak on Jackson Lake. This is a little bit of a challenge as you need three separate permits to put any boat on water in Wyoming. There is a parasitic clam that they are trying to keep out of the state. It can attach to a boat from another state and then enter Wyoming with that boat. Wyoming is the only state that has been able to keep this clam out, so far. #1; A separate permit for Grand Teton National Park ($12). #2; A Wyoming state inspection permit ($12) #3: An inspection before the kayaks can be put into the water. No charge, but another inspection tag. What is funny, is that the kayaks were not actually inspected once; they just asked where we had used them last.

Today is Sunday, August 4th and we are going on an all-day, guided, fly fishing trip on the Snake River. It was Marc, our guides, 38th birthday on this day. He was super nice and displayed fantastic patience with both Lisa and me. He had been a guide for Dick Cheney, Eric and Lara Trump, and a host of other celebrities, besides us. We rode a drift boat that he was able to maneuver easily into the tight spots where we could cast into the best places. I have fly fished before, but not like this. Once you cast, you have to take the slack out of the line immediately, and not with the pole, but by pulling your line in. The fish often hit right away, and if you have any slack in the line, they will spit it out and then turn and laugh at you as they swim away. They rarely strike twice. I caught two; one about 16 inches and then a small one. Lisa had a 20 incher on, but it got off at the side of the boat. She also caught two whitefish.  Overall, it was a great experience, but somewhat frustrating. There is so much more to fly fishing and understanding what the fish are eating. Technique is essential and ours improved throughout the day, but we still “sucked’ at it. We saw lots of bald eagles and one golden eagle. The scenery was also fantastic, so we considered it a successful day. 

Today is Monday, August 5th. We started the day with a 4:00 wakeup for an early morning rafting float trip. We had arranged to float for ten miles with the Triangle X Dude Ranch. They are the only company that provides a “sunrise float” with the opportunity to see more animal life. It was a beautiful trip. We arrived at the Triangle X Dude Ranch just below Jackson Lake at 5:30. From there, we were taken to “Deadman’s Bar” where we put in. They have a system where you get in and out of the raft without getting wet at all. Pretty cool. We floated with ten other people and it was a pretty gentle ride. The ride fell short as far as animals were concerned. Seemed that they all slept in, except for a couple of bald eagles. The ride was beautiful though, and we enjoyed meeting some new people; two of whom were from Visalia, California and enjoying their 25th wedding anniversary. 

After the float, Lisa and I went to look at the historic Cunningham Ranch; just up the road towards Jackson Lake Lodge. Basically, two old rooms in a ranch house from the late 1900s. A very tough life to live. We then continued to the lodge for breakfast and just as we arrive near the lodge, we came upon a herd of about 50 elk. One adult male, lots of females, and many young of both sexes. I took about a million photos, and we were excited since we had been looking for elk for the whole trip. We need to let the camera “cool down,” so we “moseyed” over to the lodge for breakfast. This was a great start to the day.

As we returned home, we stopped at the Chapel of the Transfiguration, near Moose Junction and Dornan’s. There is a historic general store there and the remnants of a ferry that was used in the late 1900s to take people from the east to the west side of the river; this was not an easy feat with no bridges or ferries. They also have a beautiful, rustic church that is active and you can attend services on Sundays. We even got to ring the church bell. We went inside and took the time to relax and say some prayers about the fantastic country we are seeing and to ask for God to watch over us on our journey. After this, we went back to the RV at Gros Ventre National Park Campground.

Lisa has to work four hours a day, so she went to work. I put my riding gear on and headed out on a 47 mile ride taking a rather long, but beautiful, route to Jackson Hole. What a gorgeous ride. Flowers every where and the Tetons as a backdrop. I rode 24 miles to town, but quickly found that there was not much there for me to see on bike and the traffic was, let me say, “congested.”  On the way home, I was riding on a paved trail that runs along Highway 89 and parallel to the Tetons. Another cyclist turned around just ahead of me, and I noticed that we was extremely fit and riding a fantastic time-trial bike. I stayed behind him, but noticed that I could push hard and overtake him if I chose to do so. I stayed behind him, wondering why he did not just take off and leave me “in the dust.” The I remembered that Lisa and I had seen him earlier in the day; he had been out here for a long time, so I pulled up and matched his pace and asked why he did not drop me. It turns out that he is Will Turner, and he holds the world record for the most, “full” (like the one in Hawaii) Ironman Triathlons in one year. The record had been 44, but Will had 60 and planning to get 61. He had already swum 3.5 miles in Jackson Lake to start the day. He was now riding 112 miles on his bike, after which he was planning to run a full marathon; I asked him if he had seen a therapist lately and recommended my son Will. Turns out he is super friendly, constantly smiling as we rode, and willing to talk to an “old fart” cyclist like me as he was working on this triathlon. His favorite triathlon is in Grand Teton National Park. He is also trying to ride in as many national parks as possible to bring attention to the need to maintain these beautiful parks and their wildlife. He is a super-human guy at 60 years of age.

The bottom line is that we meet some pretty nice and interesting people on these trips. We just have to stop and say “Hi.” 

Today is Tuesday, August 6th. We packed up the kayaks and headed for the dam on Jackson Lake. The headwaters of the Snake River flow into Jackson Lake. A dam was installed to control the flow of the water leaving the lake. Right now, the flow is at 3,800 cfs (cubic feet per second). Not too long ago, it was at 10,000 cfs; quite a bit more water and faster. What is amazing is that this is basically a flat water trip. No major rapids were encounter and most was in still water. There was a “hatch,” so the surface of the water was covered with small flies that were being gobbled up by a lot of small trout. We also saw large schools of whitefish that were about 20 to 24 inches long. Would have been fun to catch, but you can not use bait on this portion of the river. Lisa also saw a spinning (fishing) rod in about five feet of water. Diving for it was possible, but the water was pretty cold. I was able to retrieve it with my paddle; pretty cool. We saw several bald eagles and some of them remained perched at the top of some trees for my photo shoot. We saw two bald eagles fly down to the water and the first one took a fish from the river. Later, we saw and Osprey slam into the water right next to us to take a fish; that was a big splash. We had been looking for river otters all day to no avail. As we were drifting back to the main channel, we notice an “otter-like” critter swimming across the channel. We were on a perfect course to meet in the middle. It did not seem to notice us until it was at my paddle; it beat a hasty dive for cover; a muskrat. We also saw several pelicans with a host of mergansers around them. We also saw lots of geese and even a few tourists who were watching us glide through the “Oxbow Bend” of the Snake River.

When we finally reached our exit point at the Moran river access, I prepared myself to “hitchhike” back to get the truck. A mother and daughter had just done the same trip and the father and son were now in their kayak to proceed farther down the river. The mother and daughter offered to give me a ride to the truck; boy, that worked out well. The young girl, who is a fifth-grader, is named Julip. They made our day even better. 

Overall, this was a really great kayak trip and I would recommend it for anyone traveling to the park. We have some great pictures and will add them to the blog soon.