2020 Condo Week 2.0: Saturday

This is part three of the posts for this year's Condo Trip. You really should read them in order. Here's a link to take you to Part One; then click on "Newer Post" at the bottom left when you get to the end.

We took a driving tour of the top photo spots in the park that we found on the Grand Teton National Park App. Well, we didn't quite make it there for sunrise, but we were close: We stopped for coffee at a convenience store on the highway, technically after sunrise, but before the sun got above the low mountain to the east. We watched fog rising from the bogs of Flat Creek across the road, then headed up into the park.

The first stop was along the Snake River, near where it passes in front of the Grand Teton (which is the name of the tallest mountain in the range, 13,770 feet high, and the prettiest). We were definitely not the first people out there this morning, but it wasn't too crowded. The small parking lot was full, and a few cars parked along the entry road. We made the easy hike out about a quarter of a mile along the riverbank -- supposedly to "a large beaver dam," but I never saw that. It was still in the high 30s; I had a windbreaker on but was wishing then that I'd also worn long sleeves

Grand Teton & the Snake River

underneath. We saw a couple of sandhill cranes in the distance, too far for a decent picture (though Sherry got a recording of their calls), and other birds, and the gorgeous mountains in the near distance. We stayed there a lot longer than we needed to, just taking one picture after another.

It's hard to decide which picture to post here.

the Ansel Adams shot

Next we drove up the road a ways to a place called the Snake River Overlook. This is the spot where Ansel Adams took his most famous picture of the park, back in 1942. I took the same picture. Mine is probably never going to be as famous as his, but the subject matter is as good.

Mt Moran

After that came the Oxbow Bend turnout, where a change in the course of the river left a segment stranded. As a result, it tends to be glassy-smooth and gives a nice reflection of Mount Moran.

Then we made the longish drive, not quite 20 miles (with a stop for breakfast at another convenience store) to the Jackson Lake overlook. This, I realized, is a place I've been twice before, once 15 years ago when we were here with Nancy & Jeff, and once on the way to Washington for another condo week. That second time I just stopped to take a picture of the fall foliage, but it still counts. It's a beautiful view (of course), but a pretty long drive, and it's right on the way to Yellowstone; so I was thinking, we should've skipped that particular stop on the Photo Trail, since we could stop there next time we passed.

Jackson Lake

Still, it's an iconic shot, the same one I took 15 years ago. But this time the weather was better.

Jenny Lake

After that, following the Photo Trail guide, we re-traced our route south until we reached Moran Junction, where another road branches off and runs through the park a little to the west of the highway. By this time it was getting warm and crowded. We stopped at the Jenny Lake Overlook, which gives a nice view of the glacial cut on the opposite side of the lake, and hiked along the lakeshore until we decided the path wasn't going to take us down to the water's edge. (We later learned that it just goes all the way around the lake, about 8 miles.)

The next place on our tour was Inspiration Point, which, it turns out, is on the other side of the lake. The road doesn't go there: you either hike 6 miles, or take the shuttle-boat and hike 4 miles. By this time, the Jenny Lake Visitors' Center, where the boat-dock is, was jammed with several thousand people. The parking lot was full and cars lined the road in. There were posses of children, and groups of people lined up (socially distant) for the ranger station and the park shop. We decided we would go to the Point, but not today. So I wanted to know (a) how much the boat costs, and (b) what their operating hours are. This is information you would expect to find easily, on conveniently placed signs like the ones directing you to the boat-dock. But no. It is, apparently, something of a secret.

So we hiked down to the boat dock, which is about a quarter of a mile down. When we got there, there was a long line of people blocking the way to the desk; they already had their tickets, I assume, or were waiting to buy them. I just went on down past them to a point where I couldn't get by safely; there was a bridge to the dock, divided into In and Out sides. The In side was full of people waiting; the Out side was full of people coming off an arriving boat. Once they were gone, I stood studying the layout, and finally decided that, yes, I could get to a person at the counter to ask. So I started down the Out side of the bridge. At that point, a girl who was just standing at the end of the bridge -- I'd assumed she was just waiting for someone -- asked if I had any questions she could answer (with a tone of voice like she was going to call security). Well, damn, girl, why didn't you ask me when I was standing there next to you for two minutes? Waste my time....

Anyway, so now we know how much the boat is, and that they start at 7:30 in the morning every day. So we'll be back, probably Monday or Tuesday, after the weekend crowds are gone (we hope). And at this point, we decided that we're not going to go to Yellowstone at all on this trip. We could change our minds again, but it's so far to that park that we'd have to leave at 5:30 AM just to get some early-morning pictures; and there are so many people ... and we've been there before anyway; it just doesn't seem worth going again. But, like I say, we might change our minds again. Maybe if the crowds in Grand Teton on Monday are vastly lessened, we might re-think the decision.

Chapel of the Transfiguration

Our last stop was at the Chapel of the Transfiguration and Menor Ferry. Everything in this area was closed because of the pandemic, but we walked around it, looking at the old buildings. The ferry is from the 19th Century, a double-hulled boat that was dragged back and forth across the river by the force of water, guided by traveller-gears on a cable. The captain would angle the hulls slightly so that the pressure from the river's flow was greater on one side than the other, which would push the boat toward the far side of the river, with the cable holding it in line for the opposite dock. As it approached the dock, he'd point the bows of the hulls directly into the flow, equalizing the pressure, and that would cause the boat to straighten in the river and nestle in against the dock. Very clever.

Here, once again, is a link to the picture album for this trip.

And again: if you're reading this in your email, please click on the link to the actual blog before you delete it, so it'll register as having been seen. My blog visitor numbers are pathetic, and you have it in your power to do something completely altruistic that will make a certain someone happy. You don't have to actually read it again when you visit the blog; though I think it's always worth reading again....

2020 Condo Trip 2.0: Jackson Hole

This is part two of the posts for this year's Condo Trip. You really should read them in order. Here's a link to take you to Part One; then click on "Newer Post" at the bottom left when you get to the end.

 

Jackson Hole

So the drive up from Laramie to Jackson was pretty uneventful. The governor of Wyoming, in a misguided effort to save money after having to deal with the costs to state revenues of Corona Virus, ordered a bunch of highway rest areas closed. Today's newspaper featured a story about residents who live along highways having to deal with human feces along their driveways, and of course the expense of cleanup is going to be borne by the state.

I just thought that was kind of funny. I feel sorry for the highway travellers who just reach the point of having to take a dump out in the open because the state's trying to save a buck. Do rest areas really cost that much to operate?

Anyway. While I was planning this trip I found a web site called Only In Your State with all kinds of state-specific clickbait. I checked the page on Best Burgers in Each State, and found Broadway Burgers, a place in Rock Springs, listed. Since we would be passing through around lunch time, we went there. They were open only for curbside service, but they did have a couple of outside tables, so we ate there: basic burgers with all the trimming. We split a basket of fries, and we each ordered a milkshake (that being another specialty of the house). Everything -- I mean everything -- was great. The basket of fries was so big even I couldn't finish it. The burger was perfectly prepared, completely old-fashioned, with the shredded lettuce and sliced tomatoes and chopped onion on a nice big, soft bun. So, so good. And the shakes were the old-fashioned kind: delivered in a parfait glass, whipped cream and cherry on top, and on the side, the metal mixing cup half-full of seconds.

It was, after all, National Vanilla Ice Cream day, and we celebrated in appropriate style.

We cruised up alongside the Wind River and Gros Ventre mountain ranges. When I was new to Wyoming, and travelling back and forth along I-80, I couldn't wait to get up and see this part of the state. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the USA, but now, as you approach Jackson and the National Parks, it becomes congested with vacation traffic.

That's the biggest change I've noticed here. When I came to the mountains of Wyoming 35 years ago, I was pretty much assured of being the only car on the road most of the time. The last time I was here, 15 years ago, it was much busier (in October, after the season), but even the town of Jackson was small and quaint. Our condo was at the edge of town, two blocks from the main square.

The last decade and a half has seen Jackson prosper in many ways. It's a large city now, by Wyoming standards, something like 10,000 people, and according to yesterday's paper, despite the pandemic, this year's tourism is setting records. The vacant lots have all been built into lodging, and there are no vacancies in any of them; the highway into town is lined with trendy new businesses for several miles (heading south, that is; to the north Jackson Hole is all protected land, as you can see from the photo at the top of this post). Jackson is crowded, and its ambience is exactly the same as what I experienced last year at Tahoe: Western American Vacationland, sort of Disneyesque.

The city of Jackson passed a mask ordinance very early on in the pandemic; Teton County, where Jackson sits, adopted the same ordinance soon after. This pissed off Wyoming's governor, he of the rest-area fiasco, but the city and county blew off his blustering and kept their ordinance in place. While Teton County has a number of cases (72 by today's count), it's fairly well controlled. All the shops in town require masks, most give them away, many limit the number of people in their shops, and most people on the street wear masks routinely, even when they are maintaining social distancing.

This morning we went for a short hike up Shade Monkey Trail and Sink or Swim Trail, on Snow King Mountain just a few blocks from our apartment. Very nice, especially the shady parts. The idea was, a short hike in the morning, then get cleaned up and go to the National Wildlife Museum of Art a couple of miles north of town. Instead, we walked through downtown, shopping for T-shirts and such. We picked up lunch from a take-away bagel place around the corner and ate in the apartment. Sherry turned the TV on and started knitting, and before you knew it, it was too late to go to the museum, which closes fairly early. So we watched movies on TV (The Bourne Supremacy and  The Bourne Ultimatum, with their excellent fight scenes and car chases) until it was time for dinner; which we ordered from the Nepali restaurant half a block down the street. Like I said, the town is full of trendy new businesses.

The plan for tomorrow is to head up the road for a photo excursion around Grand Teton National Park. I'm hoping for an early start, both to beat the weekend crowds and to get the early-morning low sun. We'll just see how that works out.

And here's a link to the picture album for this trip.

By the way, if you're reading this in your email, please click the link to the actual blog before you delete it, so it'll register as having been seen. My blog visitor numbers are pathetic, and you have it in your power to do something completely altruistic that will make somebody happy. You don't have to actually read it again when you visit; though I think it's always worth reading again....