6/4/12 - Day 3: Given our rather long drive on Day 3, we were up and out of the hotel in SLC by around 8:30 a.m. We made some humble peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast in the parking lot of the hotel, gassed up, and hit the road... again. Via I-15, we drove north from SLC through Utah and into Idaho. Surprisingly, Idaho was one of the most beautiful states we drove through -- lots of green, mountains/rolling hills, and small lakes/ponds everywhere. Since we missed the "Welcome to Idaho" sign on the way in, we stopped when we entered Wyoming and turned around to take the Idaho picture. Unfortunately, there was no "Welcome to Wyoming" sign, but we took whatever pictures we could and drove east into WY.
Our first encounter with Wyoming folk was at a small general store about 45 minutes southwest of Jackson. We mainly needed it for a bathroom break, but ended up buying a few items. As a "reward" for our business, the store clerk and his daughter gave us a sharpie and asked that we sign their picnic table in front of the store. Of all the signatures, we thought we might live relatively far away, but in comparison, we were pretty close! There were names of people from China, Australia, and many other foreign countries. On second thought, we realized that Yellowstone is a pretty famous place. Anyways, we drove on and made it to Jackson Hole, WY. We parked in the town center/square and walked around before ending up at a bar facing the square. The food was acceptable, but definitely nowhere near top of the list during our trip (frozen burger for me, chicken ceasar for Cari).
After lunch, we drove north towards Grand Teton National Park! We arrived in no time and stopped at the first visitor center to get information, plan our trip, and buy some souvenirs. First on our "to-do" list was driving Antelope Flat road to see some wildflowers and wildlife. The former was pretty non-existent except for a few small patches. The latter was abundant, especially on the bison front. We saw several herds of free-range bison roaming the grasslands (not too close to the car though). Got some great pictures of the magnificent beasts, along with some nice panoramics of the mountain range, before driving back into the park.
We stopped at a random trailhead a few miles into the park where the rangers at the visitor center indicated a mother moose had recently given birth a few days ago. There was quite a crowd surrounding the wooded area where the moose was last spotted, many members of which had very large cameras with very large lenses (National Geographic, maybe?). Unfortunately, we didn't see the moose, but we did catch some elk on our way north through the park. Our next stop attempt was Jenny Lake overlook. I say "attempt" because a storm was blowing in as we drove through the park -- lots of gusty wind and sheets of rain. We made it halfway down the one-way drive to Jenny Lake overlook and had to turn around due to a fallen tree (luckily it didn't fall on us, but it was blocking the road completely). After turning around and heading to Colter Bay Village (our destination for the evening), we caught sight of a grizzly bear walking down the side of the road. Fortunately, there was a ranger there to guard against all of the ignorant tourists who wanted nothing more than to risk their lives to get a picture.
We continued to Colter Bay and checked into our old, but spacious cabin. Because of the storm, we had no electricity, but this was a minor issue that was fixed by the time we returned to the cabin later in the evening. Since we weren't given any expectation of restored power, we went across the street to the general store and bought a flashlight and some Christmas ornament souvenirs. Next, we went down the street to the Ranch House for dinner -- had an excellent wild game bolognaise with a salad while Cari enjoyed bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Both dishes were very hearty, and very good. With our tummies full, we walked down to the bay marina, looked at the boats, watched the sun go down, and took pictures (while we were eaten alive by mosquitoes). Once the bugs got their fill of us, we took a short hike around part of Lakeshore trail, skipped rocks at the lake, and took a few more pictures before turning back. We stopped at an outdoor ampitheater on the way back and sat through a LONG introduction by a park ranger (which we actually thought was the entire program). Once the intro stopped and the transition began into the program, we casually and politely collected our items and left. We were almost back to the main path when Cari spotted a white-tailed deer and FREAKED OUT!! I think it caught her by surprise, but I'm glad I wasn't in her way, otherwise I might have had a tennis shoe print on my face.
Before bed, we hopped back in the car to do some dusk moose-hunting. It was a little too dark, and we didn't find any moose, but we did find a LOT of elk (male and female), some of which we almost ran into. It was a very cool sight to see dozens of elk grazing in the fields at night, so we were satisfied with our hunting expedition. We made it back safely to our now powered cabin and passed out relatively early!
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