Grand Teton

I felt like jumping out of my sleeping bag as soon as I woke up; the temperature was considerably warmer at my slightly lower elevation. I quickly packed up camp and hit the road to the Grand Teton visitor center at Colter Bay on Jackson Lake. Jackson Hole is the valley to the east of the Teton mountain range, of which Grand Teton Mountain is a part, and is located about 30 minutes north of Jackson, Wyoming. Jackson Lake is in Jackson Hole.

The ranger at the visitor center was especially helpful. She recommended a back-country campsite at Leigh Lake (located just a few miles south of Jackson Lake) and even told me where to find a wifi hotspot - in the beautiful grand lobby at the Jackson Lake Lodge. I reserved a spot on Leigh for the following night and headed off to the lodge to update my blog and catch up with a couple of emails. While the lodge and the wifi access were wonderful, my blog continued to aggravate me as I tried to post pictures. In addition, it seems that there is a significant delay between when I post the blog entry and when it is finally accessible for all to see on the www. I spent more time at the lodge than I would have liked trying to get things done.

From the lodge, I circled the Grand Teton highway clockwise and made several stops in the sagebrush flats, the primary geological feature in the eastern part of the park. I stopped at the Cunningham Cabin to learn more about life as a rancher in Jackson Hole in the late 1880's. Life was tough and operating costs were very high for ranchers because of the prominence of the sagebrush in the area. After a few stops for pictures and a drive to identify the Leigh Lake trailhead, I made my way the Signal Lake campground and marina with a return trip to Jackson Lodge to see what was happening with my blog. The campsite was perched on a hill about 100 yards from Jackson Lake and had a beautiful view of the mountains. There was a marina down the road, but they didn't have any sailboats to rent me!