Peggy and I are reluctantly leaving this area tomorrow due to scheduling issues regarding RV sites available on the 4th of July weekend. We will leave Flagg Ranch which is almost ideally located between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We will head for West Yellowstone, passing through the southwestern part of the Yellowstone loop road and crossing the Continental Divide three times on the way.
We really like the Tetons and the area around the Gros Ventre slide east of Jackson Hole. Today we took our final drive for this year through this magnificent country and were again rewarded with great views of deer, bison, little scurrying things crossing the road, Jenny Lake, the Grand Teton range, the enormous Gros Ventre slide and an area near the slide called the Red Hills. The lake behind the slide where it blocked the Gros Ventre River is beautiful and the surrounding countryside is gorgeous, as well. We took a side excursion to attempt to find the cabin at Colter Bay where we spent the second night of our honeymoon back when saber-toothed cats roamed the area but our memories are so lousy we are not sure if we found the right cabin or not.
We were rewarded with magnificent views of the Teton range from a nice, one-lane road that took us right down to the east edge of the lake. From this vantage point, we got some views and pictures of an azure blue lake in the foreground with the Teton range arising out of the opposite bank, rising some 5,000 feet to their lofty peaks. Above about 10,000 feet, there is almost no vegetation, just jagged rock. Water courses with multiple waterfalls cascade from glaciers down the sides Tetons for a couple thousand feet and are visible all the way.
Most of the roads in Jackson Hole are paved but once we headed for the town of Kelly and the Gros Ventre slide, the roads go from nice to narrower to lumpy to gravel to dirt and the surfaces degrade as you go further from the Hole. Nevertheless, the view of the giant, 50 million cubic yard slide is great and the Red Hills beyond, but visible from the Gros Ventre, is almost surreal.
We had spent about six hours fooling around in Jackson Hole when we started our last pass north through the Teton National Forest and Grand Teton National Park. This drive through glacial moraines, green forests, sage prairie, aspen groves and herds of bison always seems quite unique to me and today’s strange weather with clear spots and periodic thundershowers lent a constantly changing variety to today’s scenery. This place is gorgeous.
A word of caution: many distracted drivers are everywhere and they will veer into your lane despite having a closing speed around 90 miles per hour. They rarely find the way back into their lane before you will zip by them with upraised middle fingers and shrieks of terror filling the cab. These same drivers will also stop, without warning, if they see any form of wildlife, even deer. Sometimes, they mistake strangely shaped clumps of dirt or brush as real fauna and will slam on the brakes despite driving on US-89, a 1500 mile long federal highway. They do this in the travel lanes. I am surprised there are not more wrecks here. Be aware and cautious when discovering this area because you can never count on other drivers having been issued a brain.
We were not killed by any rotten drivers so we returned with some pictures which you can see if you click here