Day 12

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Saturday 12th May 2007

 

Mary had another bad night, so we were late up, despite chambermaids regularly knocking our door from 8:00 onwards, till I belatedly put out the Do Not Disturb sign.  For one our bed wasn’t really big enough and the room was too warm, even with the window open.  There was a heater but no air-conditioning.  There was also a small fan in a closet that we didn’t deign to deploy.  After breakfasting in the General Store café across the way, on fruit salads and a disgraceful hot cinnamon roll, we eventually hit the road again at midday.  This time we took it easy, with regular and frequent stops to admire points of interest such as the Kepler Cascade and Lewis Falls, where I saw something that originally looked like a bushy tailed baboon.   I decided it was probably a wolverine or close relative. We headed South out of Yellowstone Park and along the JD Rockefeller Highway into Grand Teton NP, following the Snake River valley alongside the Teton Range, which were spectacular in their coats of snow and glaciers.  Jackson and Jenny Lakes provided excellent views and there were frequent “Turnouts”, with informative notices about the geology of the range and the wildlife, which was mostly notable by its absence (ie we didn’t see a bear, elk or moose all day and only spotted one bison).  At the Southern end of the Grand Teton NP is Jackson Hole, a lush valley caused by the same tectonic shifts that are causing the Tetons to rise (the “restless teenagers of the Rockies”, as one board described them).  Jackson, Wyoming, is a charming little town retaining its 19th century wooden architecture and atmosphere, with plentiful historical notices explaining its past and present.  Its local corvids were ravens, which were in full throaty cry as they flittered around the town square.  At all four entrances to their little park there were elk antler arches.  Apparently they shed these at the end of the season and local scouts go around collecting them and selling them, and then people make arches out of them (we saw some evidence of this as we drove past peoples houses later in the day).

 

After a brief wander around this town, we set off down US Route 89, down the Snake River Canyon, which offered many more spectacular views of the teeming river and the tall canyon walls – much greener than I had imagined it.  Given its full name “The Grand Canyon of the Snake River” according to my map, it was surprisingly ordinary but nevertheless beautiful.  It eventually emerged from the canyon into a flood plain where it is joined by the Salt River and where Palisades Lake lies beneath the Palisade mountains – less spectacular than the Tetons but snowy all the same.  At the top end of the reservoir, there was a bird hide, covering the marshes and willow scrub around the Salt River.  I finally got out my telescope and we enjoyed good views of a Great Blue Heron, some Pelicans, Cinnamon Teal, Canada Geese, Red-Winged Blackbirds, martins, willow flycatchers etc.  The notice by the hide stated that Bald Eagles and Ospreys nested there but we didn’t see any until we drove further south, when I spotted an osprey in a nest on top of a telegraph pole.  A bit further on, another osprey was eating a fish atop another pole.  The Salt River flowed on through a lush green valley called Star valley, according to all the adverts we passed.  We followed it for nearly all its length, rising about 400 feet in theprocess, though this was not noticeable except by reference to the town welcome signs that proudly state population and elevation above sea level: these were all above 6,000 feet and rising.   Temperature was between 70 and 76 most of the time.

 

Eventually the road left Star Valley, climbing up into Bridger National Forest, providing a spectacular view back over the valley and then we crossed into Idaho and descended through several canyons and valleys, alongside small creeks such as Salt Creek and Water Creek.  Much of this terrain reminded me of the A7 along the borders between Edinburgh and Carlisle: big grassy hills and wooded ravines, with the road winding through the bottom of the valley.  We encountered more roadworks where it appeared that one of the hills had slid over the road, and then came into Montpelier, where we found another Super 8, whose car park contained two enormous transporters carrying the seal-wrapped top and bottom halves of a luxury yacht.  The trucks were from Dallas, the escort vehicles from Illinois, California, South Dakota and Texas.  If the trucks are going to try proceeding N up the 89 tomorrow they’ll have serious difficulty.

 

We ate in the Montpelier Grill, where we were served by an 18 year old girl who is about to travel to London.  She didn’t use the word “awesome” once, which was something of a record for our servers.  I did, however, use it appropriately earlier today for some of the views we had of the Tetons.  No wine was available, but we settled for Coors (made from natural Rocky Mountain Water in Golden, Colorado, according to the bottle) for me and Apple Smirnoff for Mary.  She had the chicken platter and I had another buffalo burger.