On our way into the park on Wednesday, we encountered another gaggle of cars, which we instantly knew meant there was wildlife to see.
It turned out to be a bull moose, who was feeling trapped by all the tourists. He kept darting one way and then another, trying to find some way past all the people. He finally managed to dash across the street into a field.
Our first stop of the day was Schwabacher Landing, which is a popular location for taking photographs of the Teton mountains.
Maybe we got there too late in the morning, but I did not like any of the photos I took. The mountains looked like cardboard cutouts, and they were overshadowed by the foreground.
Jenny Lake
Next, we headed to Jenny Lake. We purchased tickets for the ferry ride across the lake, where we hiked to Hidden Falls.
My photos of the falls turned out terribly, but I managed to capture a photo of this artist painting the falls en plein air. He was painting in oils and was quite good. I was kind of jealous, to be honest.
After Hidden Falls, we continued our hike up to Inspiration Point.
Yes, I actually climbed up the side of that rock cliff!
Coming down was another story. At one point, I sat down because I was so terrified. Some gentleman at the bottom offered to come up and assist me, but I managed to complete it by myself. Yay!
The size of the ferry boat on the lake in the photo below should give you an idea of how high up we were. The sign Greg is standing behind says Inspiration Point el. 7200 ft.
After climbing down from Inspiration Point, we chose to hike around the lake rather than take the ferry boat back.
Another hiker asked if she could join us on the hike back since she was worried about encountering a bear on her own.
On the hike back to the Jenny Lake visitor center, we got to see another moose. Unfortunately, he was shy and didn’t want to have his picture taken.
Shortly after that, someone else we encountered on the trail told us that they had seen a moose at Moose Pond, so we took a short detour to check that out.
It was a beautiful day for a hike, but by the time we finally got back to the Jenny Lake visitor center, we were beat. Greg said he was more tired from that hike than he had been from any other hike we’ve ever taken.
Scenic Boat Tour
Back at the car, we inhaled our lunch (it was 3:00 p.m. by this point). Then we decided to head over to Jackson Lake Lodge to see whether we could buy tickets for a scenic boat tour.
The girl at the concierge desk told us that the very last scenic boat tour for the season was leaving at 5:15. We booked our tickets and then headed to the bar to relax until it was time to head to the marina.
Five-fifteen is a terrible time to take a scenic boat tour if the goal is to get lovely photos of the Teton mountains rising over the water. The first 45 minutes of the tour involved traveling directly into the sun, which made taking photos of the mountains impossible. By the time the boat captain finally turned around to head back to the marina, the sun was setting behind the mountains, leaving them in shadow.
Despite that, I did enjoy the tour, and I learned a lot. Our tour guide was delightful.
Sunset
Since the sun was setting when we arrived back at the marina, Greg and I quickly hopped in the car and headed to another popular spot for taking photos of the mountains.
It was a beautiful sunset, but I don’t feel like I got very good photos of it.
We encountered another traffic jam on the way back to the campground. This time it was a herd of bison on the side of the road.
When we finally arrived back at the campground at 9:00 p.m., we promptly collapsed into bed.
Meanderings & Mind Munchies 