The Great Wyoming Adventure: Jackson Hole Tram

One of the places we stayed during our trip was at the Jackson Hole Ski Resort. Not only was it a very nice place to stay, it was ideal for us because the ski resort is barely a mile from the entrance gate to Grand Teton National park on Moose-Wilson Road.

However, staying at a ski resort in the summer is a bit odd, because ski resorts, obviously, are focused on skiing, which doesn't happen in the summer. At Jackson Hole, during summer time, the snowboard equipment stores are closed, the chair lifts are idle, and nobody is wearing those cute multi-colored polarized goggles to protect against snow blindness.

And yet, there is one part of the ski resort that doesn't close down during the summer: the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram:

This is what flying feels like. In 15 minutes, the Aerial Tram glides 4,139 vertical feet from the base of Teton Village to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. The summit offers a staggering 360-degree view of the Snake River Valley, Grand Teton National Park and the Gros Ventre Range in the distance.

So, on a fine Tuesday in late September, we bought a deli lunch from nearby Aspens Market, packed our lunch, our warm clothes and hats, our cameras and binoculars, and took the tram.

The tram car is beautiful: luxurious, comfortable, quiet, and clean. We got seats right on the window, and armed our cameras and binoculars.

Initially, the tram glides calmly over the aspen and pine forest. After a little while, the trees are replaced by shrubs, and then by bare rock.

And then, just about the point where you look up the hill and think to yourself

Oh, my! That is an enormous sheer cliff, right in front of us!

the tram suddenly starts to go up, and up, and UP!

My hands were clammy, my knees were weak, and I was just about at the point where I had to close my eyes...

And then there we were. With the slightest of bumps, the tram docks neatly into the loading area at the top of Rendezvous Mountain, the doors slide open, and out we go!

Although we had been prepared for it, the conditions at the top still took us by surprise. It was 25 degrees colder, and, in addition, the wind was blowing at least 35 mph. Quickly we pulled on our fleeces, our jackets, our hats, and our gloves, and took our place in the line of people taking pictures in every direction.

After a few minutes of snapping wonderful shots, we were starting to be unsure if we could feel our fingers, so we ducked into Corbet's Cabin, home of the highest-elevation waffles in the country (in the world?).

We had just finished lunch, but the Irish Coffee was too tempting, so we rewarded ourselves with a warm and tasty drink.

Originally, I had this fantasy that we were going to hike around on the hiking trails on the top of the mountain, but it was just too cold, and we had other things we wanted to do, so after spending another half hour or so enjoying the views and photo opportunities, it was time to move on.

The ride down on the tram is at least as much fun as the ride up. Was I more relaxed? Was I able to enjoy the views and delight in the experience.

Well, no.

But it was a great trip, and I'm really glad I did it, and all I can say is: if you ever find yourself in Jackson Hole, looking for something to do for 2 hours, ride the tram up to the top and have some waffles at Corbet's.

You'll be glad you did.

The Great Wyoming Adventure: Teton Raptor Center

On a cool, quiet Tuesday morning in late September, we made our way down to tiny Wilson, Wyoming, for a visit to the Teton Raptor Center.

Our timing was perfect: the center was still on their summer schedule, delivering regular interpretive programs in the outdoor tent, but the crowds of summer were gone, and we were a group of only 6 guests, rather than the several dozen that regularly visit in July.

Raptors, of course, are those birds of prey which are specialized for hunting: owls, falcons, hawks, eagles, etc.

The Teton Raptor Center's primary efforts are in the areas of rehabilitation and return to the wild for sick or injured birds, and education and outreach programs to help educate laypeople about these beautiful but not often encountered birds.

Jason gave us a spectacular tour, taking his time, answering all our questions, letting us spend some time with these amazing birds just inches away.

We learned about the center's resident raptors:

• Gus the Golden Eagle
• Owly the Great Horned Owl
• Ruby the Red-tailed Hawk

We also saw live exercise and falconry with two other birds:

• A Harris's Hawk, a fascinating species which hunt cooperatively as a group.
• A Lanner Falcon, a beautiful small bird that catches its prey in mid-air.

Also out on display were a Gyrfalcon, breath-taking in its size and power, and a pair of young Goshawks, part of an international captive breeding program for species genetic diversity.

Teton Raptor Center is a small organization, but they are great people: they are dedicated to saving and protecting the wild birds, and to helping people understand what we need to do to ensure that the birds have habitat and opportunity to survive.

For raptors to survive, the ecosystem must be healthy; we learned this when we almost lost the Bald Eagle in the 1960's. Organizations like Teton Raptor Center are special places, and we both really enjoyed visiting them and supporting their programs.

If you ever find yourself near Jackson, Wyoming, stop in at the Teton Raptor Center; I'm sure you'll enjoy your visit, and you'll come away with a fresh appreciation for these wonderful creatures.

The Great Wyoming Adventure: Grand Teton Lakes

Grand Teton National Park is best known for the signature Teton Range of mountain peaks, among the most recognizable peaks in the country.

But the lakes in the park are as beautiful and worthy of note.

The largest and most obvious lake in Grand Teton National Park is Jackson Lake. Jackson Lake is a natural lake: the Snake River enters it from the north, then exits it to the southeast, becoming the Snake River again. In 1916, an artificial dam was constructed atop the Jackson Lake outlet, raising the water level 30 feet and greatly increasing the surface area of the lake. (Note that this was nearly 15 years before the national park was formed, and Jackson Lake actually didn't become part of the national park proper until 1950.) The larger, deeper lake is greatly enjoyed for its recreational opportunity.

This year, when we arrived in late September, the water level on Jackson Lake was down to its natural level: all the artificially retained water had been released during the summer by the Bureau of Reclamation. An interesting article from this summer's Jackson Hole Daily discusses this in more detail: Thirsty Idaho draining Jackson Lake

Tougher water standards in California equal a dairy industry move to Idaho, and that means a need for more of Jackson Lake’s water, he said.

"There’s just not as many small grains and beans in Idaho as we’re used to," Beus said. "The dairy industry is moving from California to southern Idaho."

Whatever the reason, by the time we got there, no boating was occurring on Jackson Lake. Colter Bay Marina was empty, and the marina docks were resting on mud flats, hundreds of yards from the nearest waterline. This also affected famous scenic locations such as the Jackson Lake Lookout, which no longer framed the Grand in a perfectly mirrored display, but rather showed it perched above a long and muddy valley floor.

All of that was, in the end, fine with us, as we weren't planning on spending much of our time on Jackson lake anyway.

Two lakes where we did spend much of our time were String Lake and Leigh Lake. After lunch on our first day in the park, we were both eager to get out and stretch our legs, and, well, I'd done all that research on various hikes, and so what were we waiting for?

The String Lake trailhead is in a small parking lot at the south end of the lake. The trail meanders around the shoreline of the lake. At its north end, String Lake joins with Leigh Lake, and we took a short side trip to view this beautiful lake, with Mt Moran in the distance. The end result was a delightful 4.2 mile hike, with great scenery throughout.

The most well-known lake in Grand Teton National Park is Jenny Lake, named for Jenny Leigh, a Shoshone Indian who married Richard "Beaver Dick" Leigh and settled in the area in the 1870's (and inspired books such as Jenny of the Tetons!).

Jenny Lake is the most popular destination in the park, often called "the heart of the park", and for good reason. I was determined to take advantage of the good weather while it lasted, so on our second day in the park we drove over to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center and caught the boat shuttle run by Jenny Lake Boating

The boat shuttle is great! Super comfortable, wonderful views, an entirely pleasant way to get across the lake.

On the other side of Jenny Lake, we hiked up to Hidden Falls, then over to Inspiration Point for the views. Even though these were short hikes, the combination of the elevation and the gain of several hundred feet during the hikes made them quite fatiguing, so although this hike was much shorter than the String Lake hike, it seemed that we were just as tired.

Lots of people said that you could see moose just off the Jenny Lake Trail near where it meets the Hidden Falls Trail.

We didn't see any moose there.

Other very well-known lakes in the park include Bradley Lake and Taggart Lake, which have some great trails that I was planning to take, but which were very busy with bear activity when we were there, and Phelps Lake, which had the same problem (but more about all of that on another day).

We had also considered taking the hike around Two Ocean Lake, but the road to the trailhead was closed due to budget cuts.

But on one of our last days in the park, with the weather greatly influencing our choices, we found perhaps our favorite lakes of all: Heron Pond and Swan Lake.

Leaving from the (silent, empty) Colter Bay Marina at about 9:00 AM, we had the Hermitage Point Trail completely to ourselves. Hiking quietly through the snow-covered woods, we reach first Heron Pond, then cross over to the Swan Lake shoreline for the return trip.

These are small lakes, mostly covered in lily pads, with multiple beaver lodges in each lake. We stood quietly on the shore of each lake, scanning the water with our binoculars, and were treated to a buffet of waterbirds: duck, goose, scaup, goldeneye, teal, and more.

As we were leaving, a pair of mule deer walked silently through the woods, startling us when they passed just 10 feet in front of us.

You can go to Grand Teton National Park for the mountains; you can go there for the wildlife; you can go there for the trails; you can go there for the lakes.

We did all of these, and the lakes were certainly one of the highlights!

The Great Wyoming Adventure: Grand Teton Ungulates

After the exhausting drive, we had a good night's sleep and woke up excited to explore Grand Teton National Park.

From our hotel, the most direct way to the park is to take the Moose-Wilson Road, but for whatever reason we didn't do that.

Rather, we drove through downtown Jackson and then up U.S. 89 past the National Fish Hatchery and into the park.

This was our first opportunity to see Grand Teton National Park, and so we were drinking it in, stopping at every turnout and overlook, taking pictures of everything we saw.

You're not surprised, are you? That's just who I am.

But the day was beautiful and the views were beautiful and we were enjoying the drive. Here's how the Teton Range looked from Glacier Overlook on the Snake River that morning:

That's the Grand itself in the middle, with Mt. Owen and Teewinot to the right, and Middle Teton to the left. Look how clearly Gunsight Notch shows up in that picture! Note how, aside from the glaciers, the mountains are completely dry (It's the end of the summer, after all, the driest time of the year). I'll, uhm, have more to say about that later on...

Then we came around a bend in the road, and dropped down into an area known as Elk Ranch Flats, and suddenly we encountered our first Wildlife Jam (a traffic jam caused by wildlife).

Spread out across the valley were as many as 1000 bison, some just 40 feet from the highway, others grazing farther away, as far as the eye could see, on both sides of the road, while nearly 50 people were milling around, with cameras and binoculars and viewing scopes, observing and taking pictures.

Various pack horses also grazed in the meadown, and there were pronghorn antelope, too, although they were farther back from the road and harder to see.

Approaching Moran Junction, at the bridge over the appropriately-named Buffalo Fork of the Snake, a small group of animals moved cautiously in the woods, just out of sight. We speculated that they were some exotic species, but I suspect they were Mule Deer. Here in the Grand Tetons, mule deer tended to be quite dark gray in color.

We stopped for a while at Oxbow Bend, said to be the best place to see moose, but what we saw were cormorants, geese, and ducks. The meadows and marshes were certainly beautiful, though!

After lunch, we took a lovely walk around String Lake, with a side trip to Leigh Lake. The Grand Teton lakes are just indescribably beautiful; I'll have more to say about them another day, though.

It was getting late, and we decided we needed to start heading back toward our lodge, when, out of the corner of her eye, Donna spotted a solitary, majestic bull elk! We stopped the car and admired as the animal marched proudly across the road and into the meadow across from us, looking carefully around itself as it went.

Those are the Gros Ventre mountains in the distance. At this point, we were on Teton Park Road, just south of Jenny Lake, looking east toward the Gros Ventre Wilderness in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Just south of those mountains is found the National Elk Refuge, where most of these elk head to spend the winter months. The National Elk Refuge actually pre-dates Grand Teton National Park: the refuge was formed in 1912, while the park itself wasn't established until 1929.

We had many other adventures that day, and we were destined to see many more animals on our trip, but truly our first day in Grand Teton National park was The Day of the Ungulates!

The Great Wyoming Adventure: Getting There

You don't really comprehend the vastness of the Western USA until you attempt to cross it.

Nowadays, in our lovely modern vehicles, we zoom across immense expanses of space at lightning speed, but even so, the west is big.

It's about 1,000 miles from San Francisco, California, to Jackson, Wyoming, and to get from here to there, we followed (roughly) the route that the westward emigrants took 200 years ago, such as the California Trail and the Oregon Trail.

Of course, they had to walk, and it took them months; it only took us two days.

Our route took us over 6 mountain passes that were more than 6,000 feet in elevation, including the brain-blowing, car-killing 8,431 foot Teton Pass on the Idaho-Wyoming border, which in barely 10 miles between Victor, Idaho and Wilson, Wyoming, rises 2,500 feet and then falls the same amount, a 10 percent grade up and down.

(The others were Donner Pass, Emigrant Pass, Golconda Pass, and H-D Summit and Goldson Summit on US 93 between Wells, Nevada and Twin Falls, Idaho.)

Practically speaking, though, by following the historical route of the emigrants, what we did was to follow river valleys:

• Leaving San Francisco, we followed the Sacramento River up through the Central Valley
• Entering the Sierras, we followed the Yuba River.
• Descending the Sierras into Nevada, we followed the Truckee River from Truckee, California, down to Fernley, Nevada
• Across Northern Nevada, we followed the Humboldt River
• And from Twin Falls, Idaho, through to Jackson, Wyoming, we followed the Snake River.

All of these are interesting rivers, but the river that really matters for this story is the Snake River.I'll have more to say about the Snake River in later articles, but for now, take it from me that one of the best ways to get to Wyoming is to drive up the Snake, stopping along the way at beautiful places like this, a turnout on U.S. Highway 26 east of Idaho Falls, Idaho:

The entire route is rich with both history and scenery. Along the way you pass locations such as:

• Emigrant Gap
• Long sections of the Lincoln Highway
• Donner Pass over the Sierras
• The site of the famous Reed-Snyder battle
• Massacre Rocks and the Register Rock
• The Teton Scenic Byway

Now, although they say that "getting there is half the fun," it really isn't. Long stretches of the drive are just straight roads through the desert, punctuated by stops for gasoline at a roadside station in Nevada where the McDonalds has a casino in the back, or a service station in Idaho tucked between immense potato fields.

So we spent some of our time talking, and some of our time listening to audiobooks, and all of our time driving.

And eventually, safe and sound but thoroughly exhausted, we made it to Wyoming.

Back online

We're back from our 11 day Wyoming Adventure.

Lots of laundry and unpacking to do. As time permits, I'll try to post some thoughts about the trip.

The parbuckling is complete

The BBC have a nice page: Costa Concordia: Stricken ship set upright in Italy, with a nifty time-lapse video.

It looks like there was definitely a point about 3/4 of the way through where the righting appeared to accelerate, but then was somehow brought back under control. Must have been very exciting during those moments.

Some great pictures down at the end of the article, including an amazing long-range shot showing the enormous compression damage along the side of the ship where the cabins were resting on the rocks.

Officials now plan to fully inspect the vessel and begin to prepare the next stage - the effort to repair and refloat it and eventually tow it away to be destroyed.

"It's not over yet," said salvage master Mr Sloane.

The overall plan is interesting: basically they're going to construct an enormous sea-worthy barge around the wreckage, then attempt to float the entire thing as a unit and tow it.

According to this page: Salvaging the Costa Concordia, the refloatation won't even be attempted until late next spring.

With the ship considered a write-off, its final destination is expected to be a dry dock in Sicily, where it will be cut up.

Why Sicily? My knowledge of the Mediterranean is weak, but it seems like that's a voyage of about 300 miles, which seems like a long, long ways. I assume the destination is Palermo or maybe Messina, but aren't there places like Livorno or even Rome which are much closer?

Well, anyway, I'm glad that the parbuckling was a success, and I hope that the rest of the operation is uneventful.