Scattered showers here in Montana made this a good chore day and an excellent day to revisit the park we visited several days last week when we were out of wifi range.
June 29 we left our rv park in the south west corner of Wyoming at Evanston, and drove north across the state to the northwest corner to explore Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park.
Grand Teton was formed by tectonic plate movement that raised the sedimentary rock deposited by an ancient sea and dropped the valley floor, forming a large basin now called Jackson Hole. Erosion formed the peaks into the jagged forms they are today.
Our first view of the Grand Tetons.
Small bison herd
Beautiful alpine forests
part of Lake Jackson
At the north end of the park we encountered dead lodgepole pines from the fire of 2015--very sad.
Fortunately we drove back into healthy forest on our way out of the park to our campground at Flagg Ranch, 5 miles north of Grand Teton and 2 miles south of Yellowstone. It was here that we lost wifi and most of our cell service.
Next day Eagle took us for a leisurely ride from north to south through Grand Teton. We took US 89 to Grand Teton Road, retracing our ride from the day before.
The mountains reflected in Lake Jackson
and Glacier Peak reflected in Lake Jenny.
sagebrush meadow
At the south end of the park we left the Grand Teton Park Road and took US89 back through the eastern part of the park. We stopped to explore the Cunningham Cabin Historic Site.
J. Pierce and Margaret Cunningham and 97 other settlers cattle ranched here in the Snake Valley until John D. Rockefeller Jr convinced them to sell out to his Snake River Land Company. Along with their ranches, Rockefeller later donated an additional 33000 acres to the federal government for Grand Teton National Park.
Pierce Cunningham lived in this two room dogtrot style log house until he completed his ranch house where his wife joined him to live on the ranch..
view from the cabin of the mountains with the Snake River running at their feet
After learning our history and poking around the property admiring the hand-dug
irrigation system,
we headed home, getting another look at the bison herd as we flew north.
Next, further travels in Grand Teton.
Louise and Duane
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