15.5.2012 – 15.5.2012  19 °C

Today is WILDLIFE day! No kidding, we saw more animals today than we have seen any day so far on our trip!! At the rate we’re going we’re going to have nothing new to see in Yellowstone!!

Ok, so my day started very early at 5.20am. I watched the sun rise (and took more photos of the lake and the Tetons) and we all piled in the car just before 6am to go bear-watching (after first wiping the windscreen to get the ice off—geez its cold this morning)! First stop was again at Willow Flat where we saw more deer-like creatures (I’m starting to suspect they are Elk..) and some Bison (I found out today that they aren’t Buffalo, they are Bison—Buffalo live in water and are found in Asia and Africa, Bison live in America and live on the prairies)!! Gosh the Bison are amazing to see up close, they have huge heads and they are so shaggy…. They really remind me of the Yaks I saw in Mongolia!

A little further down the road and we ran into Mummy Grizzly with her three cubs!! I just couldn’t believe it. There they were just standing next to the road in the grass eating stuff. At one point, Mummy Grizzly would have only been ten metres away from the car! She just kept walking towards the road… Incredible, but just slightly nervy… One of the bubbies actually crossed the road and was wandering on the other side for a while. We stayed watching the four of them for probably ten minutes before we decided we should let others take a look and kept slowly driving on… To see a bear that close is pretty special (The closest we got to a Polar Bear would have been just under a mile so this was UP CLOSE) and I would think fairly uncommon as they don’t normally come anywhere near humans. We found out later in the day, that the Grizzly we saw is the daughter of another local bear who has learnt that if they bring up their cubs close to the roadways the male Grizzly’s won’t attack the cubs.. The males don’t like coming anywhere near humans so if the Mum’s keep the babies near the roadways they won’t have any issues from the more dominant males. What a morning (and we haven’t even had brekky yet!)???

Breakfast was our usual affair on the front verandah of our cabin watching the lake.. Aah! We spent a bit of the morning up at the lodge internetting and booking our evening float cruise (here in the Tetons you can float down the river that runs thru the valley—here’s hoping we can see some more wildlife) before we headed out to explore more of the park.

We spent this morning driving down the Jenny Lake loop road to Jackson. The road parallels the beautiful Tetons and gives you the best up close view of the mountains. The highest peak is 14000 ft and is usually covered in snow all year round. This time of the year the whole park is normally covered in snow, but it has been unseasonably warm so we are pretty lucky to be able to go all the way around and see the sites. We’re also lucky because it is a very clear day to day so my photos of the mountains are pretty specky.. I think I said yesterday I’d taken the best photo ever… Mmm I may need to revise that thought….

Our trip down to Jenny Lake was fairly mundane.. I say that because although the roads in the park are open, most of the activities are not (actually we are lucky we can float this arvo.. our lodge is the only place offering it!).. The rangers are not on duty at the visitor centres so there are no ranger walks or anything of that nature.. A bit disappointing all round… From Jenny Lake we decided to take the back way into Jackson thru Teton Village. The back road is really pretty as it winds its way thru heavy forest. At one open area we saw our first Moose! Thank goodness, there was a line up of cars looking at the Moose or I’m sure we would have missed it.. the old Moosey sure blends in well with its surrounds!!

Teton Village is actually the ski resort town of Jackson Hole (we didn’t work that out til we got there). Looking at the ski slopes I’m not sure I’m up for tackling this ski resort! The runs down the front valley are pretty damn steep.. Black all the way…. The town appeared to be largely closed for the season (the ski resort is closed) so we continued our drive south towards the city of Jackson for some morning tea and to grab some lunch.

The town of Jackson looks pretty swanky and appears to be a modern day version of a western movie. We actually only took a quick drive thru the town as our morning escapades meant that the time was now well after 2pm and we were due to be on the river at 5pm! The main issue is the fact that although Jackson isn’t that far from our hotel (about 25 miles) the speed limit is very low thru the park (to avoid animals) so it takes quite a time to get from anywhere to anywhere.. The drive back was uneventful and lunch was a huge hit as we had cooked lamb chops and salad out on the verandah of our wonderful log cabin. It’s the first time we’ve been able to find lamb chops in a supermarket here and did we pay for it!! Well over 20 dollars for 6 chops!

5pm rolled around and we headed down to the front desk of the hotel to meet our driver and boat navigator (Pete and Mark respectively). The float trip was one of the highlights of our tour so far. The float took us along the Snake River. The river is quite full at the moment, because of the snow melt, so our float was more like a quick river cruise but boy it was worth it. I had started the float declaring that my goal was to see a Beaver, one of the other girls on the float wanted to see a Moose.. So our challenge was to see both animals.. Well our animal count was pretty high! FOUR beavers and two bald eagles!!! (and lots of other types of birds).. No Moosey’s though… The beavers are pretty cute little critters. They are about the size of a small dog but are very fat and of course furry. We found out some interesting facts about Beavers today, they do chew thru whole trees (our guide showed us the evidence)! Not only do they chew thru the trunks of whole trees they do it in such a way as the tree falls to the land side away from the Beaver!! Beavers eat willow trees and cottonwoods so are unlikely to be found in pine forests. They prefer to live in slow flowing streams but if they have to live next to fast flowing rivers (like the Snake) they will build half dome houses instead of the full beaver domey thing (that you’ve seen on tv).. All in all, Beavers are super cute so have become one of my favourite animals… Chewing thru whole trees though.. Holy smokes! Our trip was topped off when on the way back to our digs we saw yet another Grizzly wandering along the road!! Two sightings in one day!!!!!

Song of the Day– Tears for Fears, Floating down the river