The trip started out with a stop at one of the areas within the Grand Tetons that we haven't seen before - the Cattleman's Bridge:
This is a location where the area cattle ranchers built a wooden plank bridge to cross the Snake River with their herds in 1950. The bridge is no longer there as it was not maintained and many years of flooding has all but removed any remaining sign.
As we returned to the main road north to Yellowstone, Josie yelled out that there was a bear running across the field to our right. Sure enough, there was a huge grizzly bear trotting across the field to the area where we previously spent several hours searching for bears:
It's ironic that our first sighting of a bear this year would be so close to the area we searched on several other occasions. It just goes to show that timing is everything, and you just need to be at the right place at the right time.
As we proceeded north, we stopped again at a location that we haven't seen before - the Leeks Marina - which is also the location where our RV Park managers, Lynn and Wayne, kept their boat for the summer. We were shocked to see how low the lake (Jackson Lake) had become by this time of the year. Jackson Lake is also a reservoir and the water is released into the Snake River. Below is a shot of the Marina:
We spotted our first herd of many bison as we headed north through Yellowstone:
One of our favorite areas in the park is the Canyon area where the Upper and Lower Falls are along with the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Here are some shots of those stops, beginning with the Lower Falls:
This is the area where the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone lies, and here are a couple photos for that area:
There is an area in Yellowstone where we have visited only once before - the Lamar Valley - which is the road from the Northeastern entrance to the park. We ran into several areas during the day - one of which is shown below - where there still was evidence of the snow that fell the day before - on Wednesday. We had folks coming into our lodge on Wednesday evening that told us they drove through a snow storm while coming through Yellowstone to Jackson:
As we approached the Lamar Valley area, we ran into some road construction which delayed us a bit, but allowed us to see and photograph these sheep that were along the side of the road:
That's the first time we have seen sheep in Yellowstone.
We turned around about halfway through the Lamar Valley because we wanted to try to get back to the Grand Tetons in time to capture the sunset behind the mountains. The return trip took us through the same area we drove on the trip north, but we spotted more wildlife which is the standard for trips through Yellowstone. There was a huge bison grazing along the side of the road:
and these other bison sightings we had along the way:
There was another stop we made at an area we have passed by on many occasions but never took the time to check. It is the Mud Volcano which had the Dragon's Mouth Spring as part of the stop:
We didn't spend a lot of time here as we wanted to reach the Tetons by sunset. There was another spotting of wildlife - this time a cow elk - that was close to the highway:
Finally, as we entered the Tetons just as the sun was setting, we spotted this herd of Pronghorn:
Our return to the Tetons was maybe a little bit late as the sun was setting behind the mountains:
The best location for photos would be the Teton Point turnout, and we captured this shot as we arrived there at about 7:35 - about 15 minutes past the prime time:
What a great trip and what a great day. We will never get tired of traveling through these beautiful areas of our country. To have it end at 8 PM with this shot of a Harvest Moon made it all the more special:
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