Monday in Grand Teton

Gus the MSH (Mighty Squirrel Hunter) needs to study. When I mentioned we were going to see ‘Bullwinkle’s', he clearly mistook this for ‘Rocky’s’. That seems inconsequential until you’re surrounded by 10 Bullwinkles in the evening with a barking Schnauzer. But before I get too far…

Elk Reserve

I left before dawn to drive to Grand Teton, heading north out of Jackson, trying to get an early start to the day and catch the good light.  Just outside of Jackson is an overlook to the Elk Reserve, where each Winter 25,000 Elk gather to graze.  The water in the rivers and lakes is warmer than the surrounding air at this hour, creating steam from the surface. The clouds in the horizon were amazing, and it was a view I thought would be difficult to surpass.  I was so wrong.

Visitor center

Jackson is lower in elevation and separated by a mountain from Grand Teton.  You’re driving up the highway and BAM…there’s the Teton mountain range.  No warning…not there, there.  I wondered how many accidents were caused when people saw this for the first time.

The visitor center at Grand Teton is modern with many new displays.  From the visitor center I learned that canyons were formed from the receding glaciers, which also formed Jenny Lake.

Took the Gusser around the entire visitor and rafting centers.  The center is adjacent to the Snake River, which has been tamed considerably with the addition of the Jackson dam.

Talked with the ranger at the entry station, who provided great advice on things to check out.  Kudos goes out to the Rangers at Grand Teton.  Each one was very helpful.

Exploring

I made the decision on this trip to not plan anything.  I’d drive in a direction, and if something seemed interesting I’d look at it.  If a road seemed like it might lead somewhere, I followed it.  If people seemed different, I’d talk to them.  No plans, just explore.

Found this great scenic road that took me to Jenny Lake, which is 200+ feet deep and as mentioned before was formed by the glaciers.  I don’t think it’s warmed much since.  The water on Jenny Lake was glassy.  I could see every detail in the mountains in the reflection. Met a couple that I kept running into as they were skipping stones into the lake.  Took a picture here that I think is one of my favorites.

Near Jenny Lake is a climbing school that also serves as a base camp for journes into the canyons.  They take visitors back into the canyons leading into the mountains.  Grand Teton goes back into the mountain range and I’d love to explore.  I spent a little bit of time on the local trails and think I’ll come back to investigate them further.

 Following the “interesting routes” thought, I found another road that claimed to go to Jackson Lake.  The end result was less entertaining than the drive, which went down a rugged dirt road to the beach.  The road was very bumpy, and Gus has indicated he’d prefer not to follow any future such roads.

Signal Mountain

To the east of the Teton range, and just south of Jackson Lake is a solitary mountain.  Signal Mountain rises about 1,200 feet, but can be reached by a scenic drive.  I took several pictures from the vista, but my favorite feature of Signal Mountain is the Verizon Wireless tower at the summit.  5 bars at 8,000 feet!  Love it!

Evening in the Park

Grabbed this great shot of Jenny Lake in the evening.

After returning to Jackson for dinner, I headed back into the park to view wildlife.  Ran into elk and deer everywhere, but my co-pilot decided he wanted to play with them.  Elk evidently aren’t fans of the high-pitched Shnauzer bark.  In fact, it seems to strike fear in them (along with small rodents) and causes them to start moving, quickly.  Either we need to study the Rocky & Bullwinkle tapes in greater detail, or perhaps basic math.  4,500 lbs. / 23 lbs. = 183 size differential.

Tomorrow, Yellowstone!  Will be hard to top today.

Arrival, with a side order of Nowhere, WY

My apologies to the residents of Cheyenne for my previous post.  I unknowingly questioned why anyone would live in Cheyenne.  I now understand why.

Beyond Cheyenne is Rawlins, after which is a surreal scape leading to Landler.  High Plains Drifter meets Total Recall.  You reach the crest of a hill, and look down into a valley 10 miles wide and 30 miles long seeing only road and scrub brush.  I drove towards one large hill for an hour, and after that time it still appeared in the distance.

Lewis and Clarke crossed this path, as did countless thousands of settlers later in the century, with no sign of water or direction.  I drove across this space in several hours – each hour which would have taken a week for them – and I wanted to turn around.  It is a testament to their fortitude and ability that they continued.

Landler is the type of town one can escape within.  Nice.  Forgettable.  The prominence of Landler is it’s proximity to the Indian reservation of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapahoe tribes.  For history buffs, Sacajawea was a member of the “Snake People,” or the Shoshone.  The Shoshone were not known to be a violent tribe, but their ability to survive in such rugged surroundings makes me rethink my perception of them and that we could learn much from their history.  The “non-violent” tribes of North America must have been very tough, but rather than resorting to violence as other tribes, which would have allowed them to claim other grounds, they chose to exist within the land.

Leaving Lander, I continued to Dubois.  I think Red Dawn was modeled after this town.  Great Western town, on the edge of the mountains.  Friendly townspeople trying to build a strong community, with clean streets and American pride on display.  Dubois seems a stopping point on the way to Yellowstone, as it offers all sorts of old roadside motels with names like “Branding Iron Inn,” “Trail’s End Motel,” and “Rocky Mountain Lodge.”

At this point, the sky had turned to dark.  Dark in the mountains is absolute.  No shadows.  Light from the headlights are absorbed by trees with no reflection.  It’s a lonely feeling driving through winding roads in the dense forests of tall pines.

I made Grand Teton National Park, which I entered twice (see map).  Little did I know that Autumn is the time of year which the National Park Service chooses to perform road work.  As I’m driving down a curvy mountain road, flanked by dense trees, the pavement goes away.

The one benefit of driving on a mountain dirt road is you don’t know whether you should be scared or not.  You may be next to a thousand foot cliff, but you can’t see it.  Ignorance is only bad when the wrong thing happens.

I left Grand Teton, then re-entered.  From Moran, it was thirty miles of pitch black to Jackson.  My hotel was easy to find on the North side of Jackson, even with nothing else being visible.

Why do people stay in Cheyenne?

The trip so far can be isolated into stages.  Omaha to Ogalalla was very agrarian with rolling hills of grain. Once West of Ogalalla, you enter ranch land.  Think miles of rolling sand covered with tan colored scrub grass.  I have never been through this part of the country when the grass wasn’t a dried out, tan color.

I drove by the world famous Cabella’s headquarters, which looks comparable to the one in Omaha, which is similar to the Bass Pro Shop in Counciltucky.  I guess if you’re not from Sidney, it’s not as big a deal.

I was disappointed there was no sign of Chimney Rock from the road.  May have been able to see it, but very cloudy with rain.  Wasn’t about to take a side trip.  Entire focus today is distance.

Next leg was the “fake mountains”.  Having never travelled through Wyoming before, I thought since I was entering the foothills I was getting close to my destination.  After all, I crossed Nebraska in no time. I crossed the border near Pine Bluff and was prematurely excited by what I thought were foothills.  Turns out they are foothills, but to the smaller Laramie mountain range of the Rockies.  Pine Bluff is a series of bluffs that are covered with scrub pines.  Seems like a nice enough community.  It’s an oasis of trees in that part of the country.

Once out of Pine Bluff, you’re back in desolate space until the climb begins to Cheyenne. Cheyenne was being hit by heavy snow when I passed through.  I stopped in a truck stop and was struck by the personality of the people.  People in Cheyenne don’t smile.  The weather, people and town are dreary.  People in Cheyenne look at each other with a disdainful, “what did you do to end up here,” look. Quickly left Cheyenne and headed towards Rawlins.

I made a stop in a remote gas station, where I interupted a young man in full hunting gear behind the counter discuss rifles, ammunitions, and the benefits of working the nearby strip mines.

I must say, for a major Interstate in the U.S., this has a decidedly desolate feel.  I went 80 miles between gas stations.  I’ll be glad to get past this point.

The Journey West (beginning)

I started out this morning from Omaha, heading West on Interstate 80.  Despite a dreary, overcast sky with frequent rain I’ve made good time through Nebraska.  Had a nice chat with John, who runs a gas station in Paxton, Nebraska.  John said I had snow to look forward to in Cheyenne.  Guess we’ll see how much snow he means.

John also mentioned that traffic should be dropping off this time of year, but he’s seen steady traffic all year going from Denver towards Omaha.  I’m wondering if the trouble with airfare has people driving instead.

I’m going to have to try to figure out how to upload my photos from my camera, so stay tuned.

Car stats: 17.57 MPG over 300 miles. 

Warm-up trip

Took the company jet to Naperville for meetings this week.  Gotta say, very nice.  Not so much the plane – it flies like all other planes – but everything else.  I pulled up 20 feet from the front door of the hangar, which is a comfortable waiting room with wood floors, soft leather chairs, and warm colors.  Looks like a place more suited to drinking bourbon and smoking cigars than waiting for a plane.

The walk from there to the plane was another 30 feet.  No security.  No checking in luggage.  Walk on, sit down.  5 minutes later we’re in the air.

 1 hour later, we’re landing in DuPage, which is a small airport approximately the size of Lincoln’s airport with equally limited traffic.  DuPage is a nice place to fly into as it’s Northwest of our office.  They pulled the plane up within 20 feet of my company car.

What really stood out was the level of service from everyone in the outfit, from the pilots to the handlers everyone was extremely courteous, eager to assist, very accomodating.  Kudos to the flight team!  If we all had their attitude our stock price would be through the roof.

Fall Inspiration

Some people think of Fall as an ending, as the predecessor for Winter.  Plants die, animals going into hibernation, the eventual shift from warmth to cold.  I love Fall.  It’s the culmination of everything in nature, with all colors of the spectrum coming together in a visual tapestry.  The rich saturation of color in the turning leaves.  The subtle golden hues of the grasses as they turn dormant before winter.  The deep purple of mums as bloom once more before the first frost.

I’m looking forward to seeing the transition of seasons in one trip.  Leaves in Omaha are just starting to turn, but Yellowstone has already seen snow.  Those cool, crisp Autumn days with the warm sun beating down on your face rudely interupted by a cold gust.  Smoke from campfires seem to stay in the air longer during Fall.