And we woke up to an overcast morning, which was disappointing because we were headed off for a 8:15 AM float trip on a raft down the Snake River in front of the Teton mountains. We gathered our things together and headed off to meet our crew of people who would be going on the river raft with us. We ended up sharing a raft with a very nice family, there were eight of them. Our rafting guides was named Alex and this was his sixth year guiding tours on the Snake River.
We were taken by van 10 miles up the river to where we would put in for our rafting trip. There were lots of instructions and safety tips. And then quite quickly, we were on the water. We both found that we were actually very grateful that they made us wear lifejackets. It was windy and cold out on the water. And even though we both had jackets on, we could’ve used even another layer.
The rafting was relaxing and all on board were keeping our eyes out for wildlife. We saw an eagle, and a couple eagle’s nests, white pelicans, Canadian geese, our guide saw a badger even though nobody else did, and a mule deer mama in three little baby fawns.
Dick was watching closely how carefully Alex steered our boat on the water. He paid such attention to the river, how the water was flowing, and made sure that we went down the right channels when there were choices. He did it all very smoothly. And periodically, he would throw in some information about the park, or the wildlife, and the river. He was very knowledgeable and happy to try to answer any questions that the group had.
All too soon, the raft trip was over. We noted with some irony that almost as soon as our trip was over the sun came out and it started warming up. The later tours of the day probably would’ve been much warmer. And the mountains would’ve been in the sunlight. Oh well, you do your best in signing up for things and then you make the best of it.
We visited the Visitor’s Center and had a chance to see some of the really nice new exhibit they had there about the geology, the wildlife, and the people who had been involved in this land that is now the Tetons National Park.
Then, we went over to a lovely spot: The Chapel of Transfiguration. This is a small Episcopalian chapel that rather than having artwork or stain glass behind the altar, had a simple picture window that framed the Tetons right behind the cross. It is stunningly beautiful peaceful place. And we were glad to spend a little time pondering the beauty that is there and feeling the spiritual connection of it all.
We had our lunch along, and decided to eat it on the one picnic table near the chapel. You couldn’t have picked a more scenic spot to eat lunch out of the cooler. It was so so beautiful. Yes!
We decided to take advantage of this sunny afternoon by doing a hike to Phelps lake. This was in a quieter section of the park. They had only a very small parking lot, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for a parking spot to open up. But then we went on a beautiful walk alongside a creek through beautiful forests and were especially delighted in the wildflowers. Columbine flowers were especially plentiful in many different colors.
At the top of our climb was Phelps Lake. This is a beauty alpine lake and many people stopped there to rest. We had some great conversations and exchanged a photo taking with several people. However, we started to notice the storm clouds were moving in. We made a decision it was time to head back downhill and started our race with the rain. With about 20 minutes to go the rain really started coming down. We walked as quickly as we could knowing that all of our rain gear is safely in their other backpack in the car. We manage to get down without getting too wet. And as soon as we were down the sun came back out again. Wouldn’t you know it!
We drove over to the town of Jackson and went through some very heavy rain on our way there. We wondered how much rain was falling at our campsite. We made a quick stop for a cup of delicious hot cocoa and then headed back to our camp. There it appeared a tiny bit of rain had fallen earlier in the day, but it was mostly dry and hot now. We were trying to take a nap in the sun was beating down on our tent. Dick finally had a brilliant idea of taking our screen porch that we put over the picnic table down in walking it over to put shade above the tent. This was so much cooler.
Another camp dinner and a beautiful fire. This time we just ate the Girl Scout cookies; didn’t try to heat them up in aluminum foil. It was a really lovely lovely day with so many different types of weather. But that’s life in the mountains.
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