Tuesday, July 15, 2008

July 1 Grand Tetons Gros Ventre/Jenny Lake

This more like it - far fewer mosquitoes. We saw our first moose this morning walking through the Gros Ventre campsite. Today we are going hiking at Jenny Lake. We all pack up and ride the ferry boat across. It is beautiful. Hidden Falls is enormous and flowing fast. The water is very cold. This is truly snow melting after a record year of snow. We eat lunch at Inspiration Point (group picture opportunity). Then we separate into 2 groups – one group hiking up Cascade Canyon and one group going back to the campsite to move to a more scenic sight. Here the fun begins for both….
Hiking Group: the short hike ends up being about 10 miles. The views are spectacular – hiking at 8000 feet between 2 12,000 foot cliffs with waterfalls cascading from glaciers. Then on the return hike, the Thomas and Andrew run ahead right into a moose: literally. Drew said, “It’s a moose. Now what do we do?” Thomas said, “get your camera.” After taking a few pictures they walked a little more slowly and more cautiously about 100 yards further where they saw the Bull Moose eating a snack by the river. He then began prancing in the water seemingly to attract the female (you know how men are) but possibly to get the bugs off him. After they finished the hike they were stranded on the west side of Jenny Lake in a lightning and hail storm. They had to wait for the storm to pass before the boat would leave the dock. Once back, Thomas volunteered to get the car and was rewarded with a bolt of lightning that hit less than 100 yards from where he was standing in the Jenny Lake visitor center parking lot.

Meanwhile group 2 is driving to the campsite. One rainstorm had already hit the campsite and of course, I told Thomas not to worry about his fly on his tent (clothes and sleeping bags are wet inside the tent). We start to break down our campsite when we realize another storm is coming. We hurry to take down and put up the small tents. They are done – except the fly on Thomas’s. Then we get our big tent. We get it up and return to the campsite to get Thomas’s fly – the storm hits – a hail storm. Carol drives to pick us up. Pushing the button to open the back, she hits the sunroof button instead – “Not that button Mom” says Keith. Hail is pouring in the car now! We jump in the back to go to the campsite – our tent is blowing away! Marjory catches it. Carol sits in it to anchor it. I put the fly on Thomas’s tent (Why – it’s already totally soaked!) Jacob is soaked. Finally the rain ends – we decide to just walk the other tent (still up) over to the new campsite – yes strange looks by many. Rain comes again – we settle in the tents and play Bananagram and Hangman.
Then the guys call and we decide to meet at Dornan's Chuck Wagon for dinner. We laugh for the next 2 hours retelling tales of the day. It’s always fun with the Dixons!

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