In the haste to make sure the guys in the car were not breaking into Harry's truck he was a little heavy handed opening our side door and happened to break off the door handle. His luck continued....
The sun is up before 6am these days, so we were up early the next morning to commence Operation Husky Keys: looking for Harry's expedition vehicle keys that he'd lost on a hike yesterday at Grand Teton National Park.
Michael and Harry left by 7am (complete with bear spray, just in case!) to retrace Harry's steps from his ~6 kilometer hike the day before, while Sheila and Lisette stayed by the vehicles in case someone showed up with the keys. Ironically, Lisette couldn't find her set of keys for the RV, as her keychain (of an Aussie thong--that's flip flop in American speak!) wasn't staying put, so both sets of keys looked the same. She thought Michael may have taken both, but it turns out hers was in Michael's shorts pocket in the RV. Phew!
As it was a Saturday, the parking lot was fast becoming packed with weekend hikers. Sadly, Michael and Harry came back empty handed, but Harry thought he'd try the very start of the hike again to see if he could find them. And... he did! It turns out that the spot that he thought he'd dropped them to take a photo was not the right area, and it was closer to the start of the trail, but off to the side so that nobody had likely spotted them since yesterday. What a relief, and certainly all part of the adventure of roadster life! While we have each other to carry a spare set of keys at all times, it's definitely more challenging as a solo traveler. We've traveled solo a lot in the past and we've both had our fair share of hiccups. As Michael put it, if we get into a bind in the future, and we'd hope that people would also help us out if we needed. Good karma points!
Exploring Grand Teton
We've already driven the length of Grand Teton National Park several times: when we wrapped up a day in Yellowstone and needed to find a parking spot at the end of the day (and also drove back up to Yellowstone the next morning), and to meet Harry to help him when he lost his keys. In both cases, we'd been wowed by the Teton Range, including Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the range, which stands at more than 2,100 meters (7,000 feet). The mountain range is also reflected in the numerous lakes surrounding it, making for a spectacular display at all times, but particularly during the sunsets when we'd already seen it.
Now that Harry had found his keys, we all drove into Grand Teton National Park with plans to explore it more thoroughly. One of the most popular drives is the 42-mile scenic loop (about 68 kilometers), which includes Teton Park Road, Jenny Lake Scenic Drive, and parts of the Moose-Wilson Road and Signal Mountain Summit Road, giving visitors incredible views of the Teton Range, diverse wildlife, and other attractions. Our first brief stop was at Taggart Lake Trailhead, for a quick photo. We loved seeing the wildflowers all around Grand Teton National Park, adding bright spots of color, including vibrant yellows and purples, in the green open fields, while Sheila enjoyed sniffing the flowers and getting a sense of their difference scents!
We'd heard that Jenny Lake was a particularly popular and scenic area, so we stopped along here and did a brief hike along Jenny Lake Overlook, where we walked from the road, down a trail and to the lake's shore, giving unfettered views of the glaciers surrounding the lake basin. The water was beautiful and crystal clear, and there was also an area where there were rapids gushing downstream. After our hike, we said goodbye to Harry, who was going back up to Yellowstone National Park, agreeing to keep in touch, especially as we share dreams to travel around the world. Who knows where we could meet again?
Bison Jam!
We drove southward, with a couple of additional stops to take in the beautiful scenery (Potholes Overlook and Oxbow Bend are two incredible areas). We had just passed Elk Ranch Flats Turnout, where we'd slept a couple of nights before, but unlike that time when we didn't spot any wildlife, this time we saw hundreds, if not thousands, of bison! We'd heard about the phenomena of "bison jam" at Yellowstone National Park, when bison block roads or the mere sight of them causes a traffic congestion. And up until this point, while we'd seen vehicles slow down ahead of us because there were animals nearby, we'd never seen it a herd this big and wondrous.
The bison were steadily making their way southbound across the plains, with one bison clearly leading the herd. They were all on a mission, walking in the same direction, and it was absolutely, irrefutably, magical. There are some sights we've seen that make us stop and simply marvel at the beauty of nature and this planet, and this was definitely one of those moments we felt lucky to experience.
Vehicles had piled up on both sides of the road, and people were getting out of their cars, or hanging out of windows to gasp, gaze, take photos and videos of this incredible sight. The bison had started to cross the road to get to the other field. Unfortunately, there were a few folks who didn't have the patience to wait (bison jams can and do happen, and people are warned to factor enough time when in the park), and they pushed past traffic to make their way across. One of the drivers had a super loud and obnoxious motorbike engine, which freaked out the bison and made them hesitate in the middle of the road, before running back to the side they'd come from. We couldn't help but feel frustrated by these visitors, who demonstrated little care for the wildlife.
Eventually, there was a big enough gap in the herd that traffic started to move again, but we would have been happy to prioritize the bison's journey, so they could safely make their passage to where they wanted to go. Wildlife deserve to be respected and cared for in their habitats, and if we all do our part, people can continue to be enthralled by the animals that live here for generations to come.
Moose, Snakes and the Most Photographed Barn in America
Within Grand Teton National Park, there's a community called Moose. Yes, there is the possibility of seeing moose there (we did spot one somewhere in the distance, but we can't remember exactly where). At Moose, we stopped at Schwabacher Landing, a popular place for boats to launch and access the Snake River (despite what the subheading says, this was our only experience with snakes here)! The drive to the landing was on a bit of a bumpy gravelly road downhill, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience to get close to the lake. While we didn't see any beavers, there are apparently large beaver dams in the area, hidden among the cottonwood and spruce trees in the area.
Further along, there's an area known as "Mormon Row", as Mormon settlers had arrived here in the late 1890s, building charming barns and homesteads against the beautiful backdrop of the Teton Range. It's home to the T. A. Moulton Barn, known as "the most photographed barn in America", which has become emblematic of the valley of Jackson Hole in Wyoming. While Mormon Row is no longer a flourishing and active community, there are still descendants of the original settlers living in the surrounding areas.
Jackson Hole and the Mama Mimi Sculpture
Jackson Hole is a valley in northwestern Wyoming, and within it is the town of Jackson, a popular tourist spot for people to explore the art galleries, restaurants, cafes, saloons, as well as serve as a gateway to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Snake River, and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for skiing and snowboarding. It definitely has an upmarket, ski town feeling, reminiscent of our visit to Breckenridge in the Colorado Rockies.
But before we headed into Jackson, we stopped at R Park, where amid the families swimming in the lake, bicycling, picnicking and sunbathing, there's a massive and somehow life-like sculpture of a troll called Mama Mimi, which was built by Danish artist Thomas Dambo from recycled and renewable materials. Mama Mimi is one of about 80 other trolls that are located in the US and around the world; the full list of trolls can be seen at https://trollmap.com/. There are trolls in countries including Australia, Malaysia, Northern Ireland, and Germany!
Similar to our visit to Breckenridge, because Jackson is a ski resort town, it's tough for an RV to drive around. We were also there on a Friday evening, which meant that the town was extra busy, with people heading out to dinner, drinks, and walking around the town. We would have loved to have explored it, but it just wasn't possible with our RV to navigate and find parking. But we did perhaps the next best thing: ordered pizza to go from Hand Fire Pizza, with Lisette running a few blocks to get it, and Michael swinging back around the street to pick Lisette up just as she stepped outside the restaurant. Perfectly timed! We ordered the Love Ya Elote pizza (BBQ sauce, mozzarella, chicken, red onion, roasted corn, micro cilantro, queso fresco) and the Squashed pizza (butternut squash, dried cherries, caramelized onions, mozzarella, local goat cheese), which we ate on the outskirts of town, next to some honking Canadian geese, before continuing away from the crowds to stop and park for the night. Yellowstone and Grand Teton, we had an unforgettable and amazing experience, you will be missed!
Route Map
[…] we were in Jackson Hole in Wyoming, we'd visited the Mama Mimi, a huge troll made from recycled and renewable materials, at R Park. […]
[…] troll sculptures by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, adding to the trolls that we'd already seen by him in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and in Austin, […]