New Sightings

The original plan for yesterday was to "hang-out" and not do much of anything. It is tough to do that on a day off with so much to see and do in this area.

We had heard at the front desk from visitors about several sightings of bears in the Jackson Lake Dam area and also about moose sightings in the two most common areas where we have been successful in spotting moose. So, we decided to take a drive through the Tetons to see if we might get lucky and spot those animals.

Our first "known" location for moose didn't produce any activity. We drove north past the Teton Village and about a mile north of the Village we spotted lots of traffic and cars pulled off the road. That could only mean one thing - an animal sighting of some kind. We pulled over to join the crowd and discovered that they were watching a Great Grey Owl. That is a first for us, and a rare sighting:

While driving to our other location, we took a couple photos of the snow situation in the mountains. There is still plenty there:

As we continued on, we discovered that our second "known" location for moose was not productive. We did see some of the early, common wildflowers starting to appear, such as the Balsamroot:

The next stop was at the location where bear sightings have been reported - at the Jackson Lake Dam area. There weren't any bears, but there was other animal activity. We first spotted these elk:

and then a crane:

 

But our timing for bears was off again.

We drove to the Pilgrim Creek Road where the bears are often seen and there were lots of vehicles in the area. One of the folks that was sitting on a chair on the side of this dirt road indicated that the Sow had been spotted with her two cubs. Of course, they were gone by the time we arrived.

We then decided to bag it for the day and headed home. Just as we started out and drove past the Jackson Lake Dam, we spotted another group of vehicles that were stopping to get shots of this young moose:

The animals are out and about, and we just need to catch them in the right place, at the right time.

Our plan for today is to take our first hike. We plan on taking a relatively short hike for our first time out, so we are looking at possibly taking the Phelps Lake/Laurence J Rockefeller trail that we have previously taken. We hope to have some good photos from that hike that will be published tomorrow...