At West Yellowstone (town) they have a great Grizzly and Wolf habitat. About hourly they change bear sets. We stayed long enough to see 3 sets of bears ( 7 bears). They were all very active and quite playful so it was fun to watch them.
Hey you guys look at me. I love the water.
It's been a hard day. Think I'll just rest awhile.
Hey let's show those onlookers how tough we can get.
After the bears we visited the Union Pacific Museum. Actually in the old UP structure. Kitty thought she would like to take a train ride. Check out her luggage.
Across the street we found this soda fountain inside Eagle's Store founded in 1908.
Another day we drove to Big Spring, this is the head of the Henry arm of the Snake River. Above is about one third of the springs producing an output of about 110 million gallons per day.
Oh this was near the bridge we crossed to get to the cabin.
We were lucky to visit Big Spring on a day the Johnny Sack cabin was open. The cabin overlooks the Big Springs. It was built in the 1930's. Johnny was 4' 11" German and he hand crafted the cabin and all the interior furnishings.
Kitchen cabinets
On down the road, actually another loop we came to Upper Mesa Falls. It is 114 feet tall and 200 feet wide. Quite impressive. There is also a lower falls. They are about 30 miles from Big Springs. So this is also on the Henry Arm of the Snake River.
And another day on the road. Up Rte 287 from West Yellowstone is Quake Lake. In 1988 an earthquake crumbled the mountain and formed an earth dam on the river forming a lake.
From Quake Lake we took Rte 87 back home and crossed Raynolds Pass (Continental Divide). Pacific Water Shed to the right and Atlantic Water shed to the left.
This was going to turn out to be a very long day though not intended. On the map it shows this road going North to South on the "West" side of the Teton's. So!! I want to see the Teton's from the West side. Our first encounter after traveling though a lot of what looks like quite fertile farmland is the Teton Valley Museum. We actually spent quite a bit of time here. It is a very well done museum depicting the area and it history.
Well we were only getting a sparse view of the Teton's and so we kept driving. When we came to the summit of the highway we were driving on guess what? Okay so it was only a few miles down the hill. Why not? We did.
We arrived. Now we had been to Jackson Hole around 1964 and had memories of this small quaint western town. It Ain't no more. Jackson is not Jackson no more. We were not impressed. Did a little walking around the "Old Town" and split.
Now from Jackson it was only a short drive North to get that grand view of the Teton's. And what a view it was.
Now we had a hard decision. Go home the way we came or drive through the Teton park and through Yellowstone. Oh what the heck, lets don't backtrack.
Needless to say it turned out to be a very long day not just because it was a lot of miles. They are re-constructing about 12 miles of highway between Teton park and Yellowstone (long delays, slow driving).
As it turns out this was our first and last time to go to Teton's and Jackson. So glad we did the big loop.
I throw this picture in for a day's end not knowing that all the time we are actually in Yellowstone we will be confronted with these animals continuously.
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