JACKSON HOLE to YELLOWSTONE – mountains to geysers

Friday – OK – let’s see how keen we are to see wildlife.  Remember yesterday when the Ranger told us to come back out early in the morning and we could see elk and/or moose?  Well here we are after being woken by the alarm at 5.00am. 

Begrudgingly lifting our heads off the pillows we get dressed and forward ho into the park.  It is still relatively dark when we arrive at Windy Point and as we scour the countryside for signs of our four footed friends – we see – nothing.  Of course I would have bet London to a brick that our little hooved creatures would be somewhere else.

We drive around to some other spots but alas – nothing until I spy in the dark shadows – something I think maybe elk.  So I take a picture – I cannot see anything – but let’s just get a picture anyway. What a wonder Photoshop is.  The inky black photo taken originally now shows signs of life – not much life – but life just the same.  Here’s the two pictures – before and after.

You can just make out the little white bottoms in the photo on the right.  Time is about 7.15am and the sun is coming up.  Still rather cool in the shade but looks like it is going to be a glorious day.  Where was this weather in the earlier days of the trip? 

This is the only wildlife we see so it’s back to our cabin to have breakfast and load the car for our journey to Yellowstone.

On the way back we do get a couple of photo opportunities and with the sun coming up, the mountains look great –

Breakfast is alarm-free this morning so after enjoying our barbie and coffee and a nice hot shower, we clean up the cabin, load the car, check out and are on our way.

We decide to go into Jackson for a quick look around and maybe do a bit of shopping.  We didn’t spend time in Jackson except on the first night to do some shopping for food so today we’ll get a better idea of what is here.  Finding a parking spot, the town is just getting up for the day and some of the shops are not open.  However, as we walk around more shops open up for the day’s trading.  Looking into a few of them we get the usual tourist items plus Kylie acquires a pair of ‘cowboy’ boots.  There is a shop that is closing down and they have some great specials so of course, not one to miss an opportunity, Kylie dives right in!

After putting our purchases in the car we head on over to a large park.  At every gateway there is a huge archway made of elk antlers.  Kylie is appalled to think that elk were killed for their antlers until she reads the sign that says bull elk drop their antlers every year and these have come from the elk sanctuary not so far away from Jackson. 

She feels better with that thought and I must admit the antlers are magnificent.

After about an hour wandering around we commence our journey to Yellowstone – which let’s face it is not that far away.  Once again we are caught up in the road works brigade.  This is going to take a trying toll on each of us as we are keen to get to our hotel in West Yellowstone. 

We pass over the Continental Divide and of course another sign photo opportunity and another little lesson for you.

The Continental Divide of the Americas is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean (including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and along the northernmost reaches of the Divide, those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean. There are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, however the Great Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other divides.

Through the park, we arrive at the West Entrance and then our hotel.  The Holiday Inn looks the same but on entering we decide it has changed and not for the better.  Maybe our memories gave it a better look, who knows but something seems to be lacking.

We are given our room which is not overlooking the park like last time – that’s a bummer.  We are told that we have a really large room – that’s nice – then we find out that it is a room used for wheelchair access.  Apparently there is a photography conference going on here (read maybe learn a few things and follow them around) OK – let’s have a look.  The entrance hall is wide, the shower is huge and we also have a shower seat.  That will come in handy after our few days here rambling around Yellowstone.  Overall, the room is nice – but it’s not the same.

We unpack and head out to explore as the shops are still open.  We don’t buy anything at this stage – we still have plenty of time.  Looking at the menus outside the restaurants we feel a bit peckish but what to have.  Can’t make up our minds so we decide to eat at the hotel.  That is a big mistake.  The Oregon Short Line Restaurant is not one of those ‘I will go back’ places.  Service is lousy, food not the best and it is overpriced to boot.  I don’t mind paying over the top prices if I really enjoy the meal but this was definitely not worthy.  We decide we will get dessert to take back to our room – seemed to be such a lot of trouble to put dessert into a cardboard box.

We are getting an early start tomorrow morning so it’s an early night tonight – our start at the Holiday Inn has not been good – I am sure tomorrow in the park will be better.

Highlight of the day : Sunrise in the Grand Tetons