Saturday, January 17, 2009

Snow Shoeing - Teton National Forest

Jan 16, 2009 - Yesterday we woke up to some weird weather. For those who have not visited Jackson there is a weather phenomenon called the inversion. Cold air sinks into the valley cooling off the water moisture in the air and creating a heavy misting fog. The cool thing about this system is that once you get above a certain altitude the fog is burned off and you get what the locals call (all ski towns use this lingo) a blue bird day. So Sarah and I packed up the car with some lunch and headed out to Teton National Forest about 65 miles north of town. We stopped at the visitor center, got some maps, and were told we could hike to Huckleberry Hot springs from a trail head inside the park.

About 5 minutes into the park we bumped into this little guy. Sarah snapped this picture from the car. He/she was probably 25 yards away it was really cool. The fox trotted along the side of the road for a few hundred yards and then headed back into the forest. So far on the trip the wildlife has been great. I have seen 9 moose, a giant elk heard, and this little fox, not bad for two days.

The hike to Huckleberry was about 40 minutes along a beautiful river (where we saw moose #8 100 - 150 yards away just standing in the river looking at us). When we got to the springs we were a little disappointed. It was nothing like we expected or what you would think of when someone told you to go visit a hot spring. Besides the numerous warning signs stating NOT to go into the water because certain bacteria/ameba's live in the water, it was only about 12 inches deep. I wish I could show you some picture of a fantastic hot spring in the middle of a pristine national park but this is all I have.

Obviously we didn't go in but we did have a really nice lunch of beef jerky and hard boiled eggs. We hiked back out of the park, past the moose again, and back to the car. On the way home we were treated to a pretty amazing sunset behind Grand Teton and the entire Teton Range. The next picture is of the Teton Range looking south back over Jackson Lake towards the town of Jackson Hole (approx 65 miles south). I wish the picture did the scene more justice.
Grand Teton is the farthest and most distinct peak in the picture. It was a pretty amazing view to say the least.
Today Sarah and I are saying goodbye to Jackson, packing up the car and heading to Bozeman MT. We are driving the Teton Pass which is known to have tons of wildlife (Buffalo & Elk herds) around the road so hopefully we get a few more shots like we did our friend the fox. We are going to pop into Teton Village (Jackson Hole Ski area) and Big Ski on the way to Bozeman so there might be a few cool pictures of the towns coming up.

To the Ocean!



1 comment:

  1. What fun, glad you guys are having an amazing time! Too bad Beantown isn't on your way. We have the Semels in town who are doing some siteseeing of their own. Looking forward to the next post.

    ReplyDelete