Today was a day for a hike. We circumnavigated Two Ocean Lake with a short, but steep, side trip up to Grand View Point. We started out with our seemingly daily stop at Oxbow Bend to check out the happenings there, just the usual pelicans and cormorants this morning. As we continued up the road towards the Pacific Creek Road turnoff, we ran into our first bear jam. There was a black bear out there somewhere. It was quite far off, coming down a hill, appearing and disappearing into the bushes as it came down. Even through strong binoculars, it was indistinctly a bear. It was either that or a ranger in a bear suit to excite the visitors.
After the brief bear stop we turned up Pacific Creek Road and then the unpaved road to the Two Ocean Lake trailhead. On the way up Ellen saw a very big bird in a meadow, but by the time we stopped and backed up to the spot to get a better look, it was gone. We are currently calling it a Sandhill Crane, as there doesn't to be any other bird of that size, known to inhabit the park, that would be in that environment.
Two Ocean Lake was so named in the mistaken belief that it was on the Continental Divide and its waters drained into both the Atlantic and Pacific. It isn't on the Continental Divide to begin with and, in our walk around it, there didn't seem to be an outlet. There is a trail on each side of the lake, joining at a point where the trail up to Grand View Point also intersects. The north-side trail seemed to have the most climbing, so we decided to go clockwise around the lake and do it first, while we had fresh legs.
The north trail goes mostly through woods and rather dense vegetation, but does pop out with views of the lake along the way. The lake was glassy calm in the morning, with just the trails of waterfowl. They were mostly too far away to identify, but a pair of Buffleheads were close enough to photograph. After passing through a series of meadows, the trail climbed up a few hundred feet above the lake and then back down to the intersection of the three trails. We then climbed to Grand View Point. We saw no other hikers on the trail until we got to the top of Grand View Point, where a family was just leaving.
It was another thousand feet of climbing to the point. We did flush out a few Grouse on the way, but other than that, no wildlife. The view was grand. Encompassing Two Ocean and Emma Matilda Lakes and the Teton-Bridger National Forest to the east and Jackson Lake and the Tetons to the west. It was a great lunch stop. Unfortunately, there was no place to sit except on the very dusty hilltop, but we had it all to ourselves until we were leaving when a couple of other groups came up the hill as we started down.
It was back down the hill and onto the south-side trail around Two Ocean Lake. This side was significantly different from the north-side trail. It was mostly through open meadows with expansive views down onto the lake. The highlight of the hike back was the moose. As we were traversing one of the meadows, Ellen saw something big and dark in a stand of aspens above the meadow. It was a big bull moose. He was just standing there in the cool shadow of the aspen. probably waiting until evening before moving down into the grove of willows along the lake below the meadow. It was hot and sunny out there. We slowly walked along below him watching intently. I don't think that he paid much attention to us.
When we got back to the trailhead the parking area was jammed. When we arrived in the morning, there was only one other vehicle. We quickly packed up and headed back to camp. As we passed the Oxbow Bend, we pulled in for a last look. No birds, but two more moose. They were two females browsing along the shore of an island in the middle of the bend.
We were back at the campsite in plenty of time for a visit to the Speedy Cafe for an afternoon latte, then time to camp out in our Kermit chairs, read, and watch the local wildlife. We seem to have a resident squirrel who zips back and forth across our campsite. If we weren't looking, it would come within inches of our chairs as it ran past. In one instance it was walking right toward me while I was reading until I lifted my head. It jumped about six inches, turned around in the air and scurried off to the nearest tree.
Dinner was a more reasonable one than last night's mega-nachos. We had the last of our burgers, imported all the way from Hingham (with all the refrigerator problems, the freezer never got above freezing), a tasty potato salad and the last of our lettuce. It was then off to our private viewpoint behind our campsite, overlooking Jackson Lake and the Tetons, where we had tea and cookies and watched the last of the sunset in a thickening smoky haze.
Photos
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