Fish Hatchery and Blacktail Butte

We sat around all morning watching news and a few shows we had taped during the week. It was overcast all morning and the sun started to peak through. At around noon we decided to take a spur of the moment drive up the road to see a couple spots we haven't seen.

The first stop was at the National Fish Hatchery. It lies on the edge of the National Elk Refuge and we have driven past it many times:

There are over a million eggs produced here each year and there are about 400,000 trout that are bred and taken to many of the area rivers and lakes. The complex is larger than we originally thought as it sits over the edge of the highway, nearly out of sight from the main road to the Tetons Park:

We only spent a short time inside the large building where the tanks were located since the odor was overwhelming. Here are a few shots of the tanks, and some fish that were in 2 of them:

A tank with 5 month old trout:

A tank with 1 year old trout:

These were the only tanks open for visitor viewing.

About 5 miles north, we went to another area we have passed on numerous occasions called the Blacktail Butte Trailhead:

It is mostly an area for climbing and repelling, but there is also a trail to the summit of this butte that is almost 5 miles. We probably will not take this hike anytime soon.

While driving back to Jackson, there was a mob of people and vehicles along the side of the road and on the bridge over the Snake River where we spotted these moose, that can barely be seen in the center of the photo:

A zoom shot showed that there were actually 3 moose - a cow and 2 calves:

Our trip to this area would not be complete without a shot of the Tetons. The overcast skies are visible, but the real culprit in this photo is the smoke that can be seen coming in from the north from a new fire that is burning about 30 miles north and east of this location:

Just when we think the smoke is about out of the area, we get a new fire to add to the record number of fires this year.

Speaking of fires, Austin rolled again last night in his team's 54-28 win in a nonconference game against Oswego. He ran for 214 yards, with 5 touchdowns! He had TD runs of 88 yds and 41 yds. He also caught a TD pass of 44 yds. Wow! He has run for almost 500 yards in just 2 games so far this year. We look forward to each of his games on Friday nights.

Today starts our final month here and we look forward to more fun at locations that we haven't visited as yet...