family of tourists
But this is beside the point.
The point is that the Tetons are probably my favorite stop thus far. It didn't seem as crowded as Yellowstone, and the motel room we ended up staying in was a small efficiency in Teton Village that was clearly designed with ski bums in mind:
3 could sleep in the bedroom and 2 more in the living room
This meant we were able to cook our own meals and brew our own coffee, both of which are high on life's list of simple, sublime pleasures. This left us feeling refreshed and reinvigorated the next morning when we took an eight-mile hike around Jenny Lake:
my yin on the southern shore of Jenny Lake
The views are incredible on this hike, providing stunning vistas of the peaks that surround the lake. Snow whips across the mountain tops and falls on the path below:
Eventually we made it around to Hidden Falls and asked a stranger with a tripod to take a picture of us. We've been learning little tricks like this along the way, looking for the telltale gear and accessories that point out the least amateur of the amateur photographers.
nonetheless, results may vary
What doesn't show up in this image, however, is just how packed Hidden Falls was. Not Yellowstone packed, but busier than one would expect given the amount of snow on the ground:
my yin is a trooper
This is because there is a small boat that ferries visitors from the south end of the lake to a dock on the west side, which is only a half mile from the falls. I call it the "Coward Boat."
the small dot in front of the treeline is the Coward Boat
Along this hike we also saw all kinds of wildlife, including this creature, which is either a marmot, a pine marten, or a beaver:
the debate rages on
Most impressive was this bull moose:
He was munching on tree branches and twigs, and it was about as close to a moose as I ever hope to be. In fact, he was so close that you could actually see his teeth:
After snapping copious photos, I lowered my head and walked past him, glancing out of the corner of my eye top make sure he wasn't coming my direction. Not long after we passed, he made his way onto the path:
yikes!
I also wondered if perhaps he was the father of the baby moose we saw the day before on the way into the park. Similar to the buffalo in Yellowstone, they caused a "moose jam":
And this grizzly caused a bear jam only a few minutes later:
It was worth the wait, though, because soon we saw that she had two cubs, one of which my yin photographed climbing down out of a tree:
There was also a second encounter with a marmot/beaver/pine marten. We were alerted to his presence by a strange chirping sound that we initially mistook for a bird. Eventually we found the source of the sound, and my yin wondered if he was standing on top of the rock because he felt threatened by us. I told her that he was probably just horny.
Speaking of horny, we took our trip at the perfect time of to see mothers and their young. In the non-human animal world, the males seem to have very little to do with raising the young, and the mothers cast out the children as soon as they can fend for themselves. Take, for instance, this two-year old black bear, which my yin and I first saw crossing the road on the way down from Signal Mountain's summit:
We were the first people on the scene and ended up causing our own bear jam. We watched him for several minutes and were delighted to see him walking this log like a tight rope:
There was also all sorts of poetic landscapes and still lifes in the Tetons, ranging from this lonely tree that straddled the dividing line between light and darkness:
To this pine branch that caught the midday light as if it was dusk:
Even the camera's imperfections worked in the name of art, perfectly distorting the white balance in this photograph to create an image whose plasma blue snowscape actually approximates the electricity of the experience itself:
Needless to say, it was hard to leave Wyoming...
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