We left Gros Ventre campground this morning. It was just a little too rough and a little too far away from the main attractions of Grand Teton NP, but it was okay for an overnight—and it did have several moose and a badger. Along the road out, we saw two more moose. Two males this time, a young one with small antlers and a slightly older one with larger antlers. They were still in velvet, so moose mating season must not be here yet.
We stopped at the new Teton National Park Visitor Center at Moose Junction. It is brand new, with exhibits presenting all of the facets of the park, from the historic settlement and structures, to the animals, with full-size bronze sculptures and touchable fur samples of all the various coats. The exhibits include rock climbing, showing the evolution of climbing gear over the past 100 years. The building is beautiful and it is oriented with a 60' high wall of windows framing a view of the Teton mountains. This is carried further in the auditorium, where at the end of an introductory film about the park, the screen goes up and the curtains behind it part to reveal another perfectly framed view of the mountains.
From there we drove up to the Signal Mountain campground, which is the smaller of the ones in the central part of the park that allows RVs. Jenny Lake is the most popular, filling by noon, but it permits tents only. We couldn't even sneak in with our tent as a decoy, as it also has a 14' long vehicle limit. It didn't really matter, since we found a great campsite at Signal Mountain. It is nearly on the shore of Jackson Lake, with a peek, through the trees, of the lake and the Tetons on the other side, and a private path to the edge of the lake not more than 50 feet from our site. I expect we will be here for the duration of our Teton visit.
That was pretty much it for the day. A rest day was in order. We went over to the Signal Mountain Lodge to check out the convenience store and the restaurants and shops. I wandered around the campground and talked with a couple of motorcycle campers, one on a BMW F800GS, much like mine, and the other on a KTM 990 Adventure.
We had purchased some grass-fed local steaks when we stopped in Jackson Hole, to be tonight's dinner. As Ellen prepared the steamed spuds and salad, I set up the grill. When I came back out of the van with the steaks, there were a mule deer doe and fawn munching away in the bushes just on the other side of the picnic table. With the badger last night, it seems we don't have to go searching for wildlife here, it comes to us. Eventually, they moved on and we could have dinner.
After dinner, we walked down to the lake with our Kermit chairs and tea and cookies to watch the sun set over the Tetons.
We finished the day with the ranger talk, which was about the geology of the Tetons and the geologic explorations in the Yellowstone area, from the earliest to today.
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