Day 6 Grand Tetons National Park

Monday, June 2, 2014

Today was sunny and beautiful, so we headed for the Grand Tetons, which are just south of Yellowstone. Heading towards the south entrance you see a totally different view of the park. There was much more snow on the roadside and not as many lodge pole pines. It was very beautiful. To get to the Grand Tetons you drive on the John D. Rockefeller Parkway, named for the man who bought up the land between Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. He then gave the land to the U.S. government to be part of the National Parks system. He didn't want the land to be spoiled, The Tetons are spectacular mountains. They shoot up without any foothills and border beautiful lakes.

Our first view of the Tetons was from Jackson Lake and Dam. There was a fisherman in the shallow part 

fishing. Trout are in the rivers and lakes

.We had a spectacular view of the mountains once we walked to the other side of the dam.

We then drove up Signal Mt. Road to get an "up-high" view of the gorgeous mountains.

As we were driving down the road, a black bear ran right across the road in front of us. It happened so fast that we didn't have time for a picture!
Our next stop was  the Mt. Moran Turnout. This mountain was named for Thomas Moran, a famous landscape artist who accompanied General Washburn on the Yellowstone Expedition in 1870. His paintings helped convince Congress to create the world's first national park (Yellowstone).

We enjoyed a picnic lunch along Jenny Lake, named for Jenny Leigh, the Shoshone wife of trapper "Beaver Dick" Leigh. This was our view from our picnic table.

We did a 2 mile hike along the shoreline of this beautiful lake. All went well until we encountered this roadblock! We were wearing our hiking boots, so we just trudged right through it!

We headed back to Yellowstone. It was amazing how much of the snow had melted along the road in the short amount of time from our morning  passage. We did not see anymore animals today.