They are beautiful glacial gifts (well, I guess the glaciers and John D. Rockefeller are both responsible for allowing us to enjoy these incredible mountains today - thank you Mr. Rockefeller!) Kevin and I have decided we'll go there to be seasonal rangers someday when we've ceased being useful for anything else.
We stayed at Signal Mountain Lodge - a collection of cabins inside the National Park on Jackson Lake. Here's the amazing view we woke up to out our front window:
A pretty idyllic place.
Our kids have been spoiled with beauty over the last few months, and chose to sleep in the first morning we were there, despite the gorgeous lake outside the front door. But that meant Kevin and I could take a lovely hike around the quiet lake by ourselves, so we let it slide.
The second morning, however, we all got up early to follow an agenda planned by Sage and Henry as part of their bid to become Junior Rangers at the park. We headed to Jenny Lake, a beautiful blue glacial lake at the base of Teewinot Mountain. We hopped on a boat with Ranger Anne:
The boat took us the the head of Cascade Canyon where Ranger Anne took us on a gorgeous hike up past waterfalls and fall foliage:
to a place called Inspiration Point where she taught us about how Glaciers work and how the Tetons were formed (very cool). Somehow, we didn't manage to snap a single inspirational shot from Inspiration Point - maybe because by the time we reached it we'd already passed Exclamation Point (where you mutter something about how steep the climb is) and Perspiration Point (where you peel off layers of sweaty clothing despite the Autumn chill). At Inspiration Point you just collapse on the rocks and become docile listeners since you have no energy for anything else.
The kids made it with the help of walking sticks (ski poles) although I don't know if they provided more help or distraction during the hike:
After the Ranger Anne show, we kept on hiking up the canyon for a couple of hours to explore
and take advantage of family photo ops in the mountains
before heading back down:
We hiked back around the lake rather than taking the boat across and everyone ended up happily exhausted - ready for dinner and early bed.
We only had a few days in the park, but one of our top priorities was to see a moose - we never caught one during our Yellowstone visit and we'd heard they were plentiful in the Grand Tetons. We weren't disappointed. In fact, we witnessed a most amazing and bizarre mating display that left us crying with laughter and bewilderment.
It all happened when a boy
met a girl
during the rut, or fall mating season. Here's where you stop reading if you don't want the gory details which include lots of rolling around in moose pee (by the moose, not us).
We were lucky to come across these moose as they were engaged in elaborate courtship on a river island - this meant that we could get relatively close (less than 10 yards away on the river bank) while maintaining a somewhat comforting body of water between us and the hormonally charged animals.
The cow had a calf from the previous spring with her:
and didn't seem overly aware of the bull wandering around nearby...until...
The bull came down to the edge of the island and dug out a hollow in the sand with his hooves. He then stood over the indentation like he intended to pee in it, but he seemed to have performance anxiety or some other issue because nothing happened. Poor guy - we couldn't help laughing, his intense posturing was very funny at the time. He repeated this several times before finally finding success. The moment he did, the cow immediately became VERY interested in the bull, running over to where he was and watching intently:
There must have been some very powerful chemical stimuli given off by the bull, because the cow started acting really worked up, panting and making strangled sounds in her throat. The bull finished peeing and started furiously stamping in the puddle with his front hooves, which only seemed to distress (or turn on?) the cow even more:
Soon his muzzle was covered with fragrant mud (queue the squeals of disgust from my children) and the cow was making all sorts of frantic vocalizations and I started to feel like a bit of a voyeur... As soon as the bull moved away from his puddle, the cow rushed to lay on it, like she'd found a valuable treasure that she wanted to keep all to herself:
Her calf eventually joined her, although the bull tried to chase him away a few times:
We stood watching this spectacle for at least 45 minutes and it was still going on when we left (nope, we never saw them consummate their relationship). I'm afraid I can't do justice to all we saw with a few photos and my feeble words, but trust me that it was A LOT better than a National Geographic special. Oh that we'd had a video camera!
Anyhow: Moose? Check.
Junior Ranger? Check. Sage and Henry finished their requirements, raised their right hands, swore to protect the natural world wherever they go, and they are now Junior Rangers, with all the glory and plastic badges the role entails. (and as a side note, the new ranger stations here and at Old Faithful in Yellowstone are spectacular uses of our taxes!)
Marvelous, relaxing mountain retreat? Check. If you're interested in hanging out around this:
or this:
we highly recommend a trip to the Grand Tetons - despite the silly name.
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