After
258 miles and 4.5 hours later, we arrived at Virginia Lodge RV Park in Jackson,
WY (sometimes called
Jackson Hole). Don’t waste your time
staying at this RV Park. Find a place
outside of town, even if it is several miles out.
This place is an extension of the Lodge and
an afterthought. It’s a primitive park
that is very overpriced ($150 a night); costs more than staying at Fort Wilderness
in Walt Disney World. They advertise
WiFi and Cable TV. WiFi is spotty and
cable TV; about 10 fuzzy channels (mostly talk, sports, and religious stations).
We got stuck with a site one row from a power sub-station which hummed loudly
all day and night and 3 sites down our row is a gigantic trash dumpster the
length of a 40’ RV.
After the 2nd night
we asked to move to a different site. We
did. This site is at the end of the row next to a public, busy road. There is
also a dump station on our site. Cars towing trailers stop and dump their gray
and black water in front of our trailer.
But we are gone most of the day and it is very quiet at night. So all is well.
We spent 4 nights in
Jackson. Downtown Jackson is full of
restaurants and art galleries. There are
lots of wonderful bronze statues all over town.
And of course, there is the
town square with huge elk antler arches at the four corners of the square
(since 1960). The antlers are from about 7,500 elk that spend the winter on the
nearby National Elk Refuge each year. The bulls shed their antlers each
spring. They are picked up by local Boy
Scouts and sold by public auction in this square. Jackson is known by these antler arches and
it attracts thousands of visitors each year.
We spent time strolling the square, visiting the galleries, having lunch and enjoying Moo’s ice cream.
Outside of Jackson going
toward Grand Teton, on a hill top, is a stone castle that is the National
Museum of Wildlife Art. Beautiful
life size bronze sculptures surround the outside and inside you see more bronze
sculptures and wonderful paintings of wildlife.
Below are some of my favorites. I
also hid one of my painted rocks here.
Panther and cubs, Edward Kemeys, 1878, copper and lead.
"Pride" by Gerald Balciar, USA, 1942, Colorado Yule marble.
"The Last Three" bronze by Gillie and Marc.
This represents the last 3 Northern White Rinos.
One male and 2 females. Breeding the two females was unsuccessful. The male "Sudan" has died. The females, in Kenya, Africa, are the last two of its species left alive in the world. The extinction is due to poaching
"Marmot's Garden", by Emily Poole, ink and watercolor.
Ai Weiwei, Zodiac signs above is Dog, below is close up. Made with LEGO bricks.
Rooster made with LEGO bricks.
"Endangered Species", by Andy Warhol, Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board.
"Moon Rock" by Nicholas Wilson, gouache
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK
We visited the Grand Teton NP
two different days. Our stay was over a
weekend, so both Jackson and the National Park were very crowded with lots of visitors.
Fall colors
Jackson Lake with very low water
Tetons
Glacier, almost gone
Don't know the flower, but thought it was pretty.
Our first day at Grand Teton, the sky was hazy with smoke from several fires going on in Idaho and a few in Wyoming. California isn't the only state that is cursed with fires.
This visit to Grand Teton was mostly a drive through, seeing the sights and taking pictures. On our way back to town we were stopped by a traffic jam near the airport. We thought it was a “wildlife jam”, people stopping on road to view and take pictures of bear, bison, elk, etc. So we just stayed patient as we slowly moved along the road. Then way ahead we saw several vehicles with blinking lights. We thought a fire or a wreck.
I check my phone for events in
the area and found that one of the 13 fallen soldiers from a suicide bomber at
the Kabul airport on the last days of our war in Afghanistan was coming home to
Jackson. It was a somber event for this
little town. I was humbled by the love
and loyalty this town showed to it’s fallen citizen. Rylee McCollum was only 20 years old, married
with a 1st baby due this month. So sad. Prayers to the family.
As the evening wore on, the clouds gathered and we had a small thunderstorm during the night. We had hopes that this rain would wash away all the smoke in the Teton’s.
We returned to Grand Teton on
our last day here. It has gotten cooler
now and the sky was full of dark clouds along with all the Aspens starting to
turn yellow. It made for some dramatic
pictures of the Tetons.
We returned back to camp on a
different road this time for a different view; Moose-Wilson Road. This road is narrower with brush and trees
growing up alongside the road. There is
a moose habitat on this road and there are often wildlife sightings in this
area. Sometimes this road is even closed
when too many bears take over the roads.
On this day we were lucky to
be able to view a mother moose and her older calf.
Not too far from this sighting we came upon
traffic being directed by volunteers and suddenly there was a mother Black bear
alongside of the road with a cub up in a small tree. No time for a decent
picture as it was a surprise and a volunteer was moving traffic along. But I was able to get a picture of the back
end of the bear.
Beaver dam
Hopefully we will have more
wildlife sightings in Yellowstone NP, our next stop. Stay tuned.
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