Grand Tetons NP - Living in Jackson Hole

We took a road trip today through the outer road through the Tetons to explore its history. The inner road takes you close to Jackson and Jenny Lake with great lake views and close mountain views. We took this road yesterday. The outer road takes you through some stunning territory and which is the historical section of the park, where the fur trappers set their traps and homesteaders build their homes and tried to wrest a living from the arid, rocky desert soil.

The views of the Tetons are just as stunning from this road and you can get the whole range in one shot. This range is so stunning because it has no foothills, it just seems to pop up from the flat valley floor. Thomas Moran, an artist who accompanied Ferdinand Hayden in 1871 on his surveying journeys throughout this region, said:

        ‘The Tetons have loomed up grandly against the sky. From this point it is perhaps the finest pictorial range in the United States or even N. America.’

The Tetons are young at only 5 - 10 million years old, babies when compared to other mountain ranges. But they are composed of rocks 2.5 billions years old. In fact, at 7000’ above the valley floor, they are still growing as the valley floor slides down further and further while the mountains rise higher and higher along a fault line between the Tetons and the valley floor. About 10,000,000 years ago, the plates beneath the earth’s crust began moving, bringing earthquakes and causing the eastern plate to fall and the western plate to rise. The rocks on one side that match the rocks on the other side are now 30,000’ apart. Wow.

Native Americans

The first signs of human habitation in this region dates back to 12,000 when Native Americans lived here in the spring, summer and winter months before leaving for their winter homes. There is an amazing group of Native Americans, settlers, homesteaders, trappers and guides who made their way through this territory, the last sections of America to be homesteaded. One of the main tribes who inhabited this section of land during the summer months was the Shoshone, led by Chief Washakie, born in 1786. He was the last war chief for the eastern band of Shoshone and an able statesman, negotiator, peacemaker and interpreter. Because of his skills, he was able to get the land that he and his people wanted in this area.

Fur Trappers

Most of the early explorers to this region were the fur trappers drawn to this territory for beaver pelts to supply the beaver hat trade in the east. While finding the furs necessary for them to make a living, they also explored, described and named much of the Rocky Mountain landscape. Though their heyday lasted just 20 years before silk hats replaced beaver hats, they left an indelible legacy. David Jackson was a trapper for whom Jackson’s Hole was named. ‘Hole’ was what the trappers called a valley surrounded by mountains. In the end, the ’s was dropped from the name and it became Jackson Hole. One was David E. Jackson.

How about John Colter, who was a volunteer with Lewis & Clark and wanted to stay out west and not return with them to St. Louis. Civilization held no lure for him but the wilderness did. He left to continue to explore this region further and to try to benefit from his knowledge. He roamed through what would later become Yellowstone NP and all the way down to what is now called Jackson Hole. The Colter Bay area of the park with its VC, marina, campground, store and facilities is named for him.

Then there were Richard ‘Beaver Dick’ Leigh who, it was said, could find and trap beaver where there weren’t any. He lived in a teepee with his wife, Jenny, a native Shoshone. Leigh had explored the whole area as a hunter and trapper and was hired by James Stevenson to explore the Snake River and the Teton territory. He and his wife received the timeless honor of having two lakes in the region named after them, Leigh Lake and Jenny Lake (pictured below).

Their story ends so sadly, though. The whole family, Jenny, Beaver Dick and their 6 children all contracted smallpox. Jenny and the 6 children died and left Beaver Dick ‘the loneliest man in the world’ to live out his life in Idaho until 1899.

Homesteaders

With the Homestead Act in 1862, more settlers headed out here. The deal was that if you could make improvements on your land in 5 years, all you had to do was to pay $15 and fill in the ubiquitous paperwork and the land was yours. 160 acres - all yours - what a deal. Should bring lots of people to settle out here. But not too many, this land was not fertile, had an extremely harsh climate and a very short growing season. Farming was not in the cards for many and those who came had to scratch out some kind of living.

Ornery, profane and grouchy and a confirmed old bachelor (I wonder why), Bill Menor was one of these. He operated a ferry across the Snake River. He charged 25 cents for a rider and horse and 50 cents for a wagon and team but a pedestrian could travel free if a wagon was crossing. What a monopoly he had. Sometimes, if he didn’t like the person who wanted to cross, he wouldn’t let them. Ornery as heck but ingenious.

When the river got too low for the ferry, he rigged up a primitive cable car to carry 3 or 4 passengers across. In the winter he and his neighbors had a bridge which they dismantled each spring. After 1894, his ferry was the main crossing in this valley.

The NPS gives tours of his house and store. Later in the summer when the river isn’t running so fast, you can catch a ride on his ferry. None of the furnishings in the house are original and neither is the ferry. However, the furnishings there are from the same era while the ferry has been built to resemble Menor’s.

In our tour group was a family group of 18 people from 4 years old to a couple in their 70’s. They had started out in Texas in 2 vans and were on an extended trip to Yellowstone, Tetons, Glacier, the Black Hills and on. Imagine that, 18 people, 2 vans, all ages and several weeks of traveling. AND - they were still getting along. You can see some of them in the picture of the Maud Noble cabin below.

But there were also some women homesteading in the valley. Maud Noble came to the valley in 1915 as a ‘dude’, a wealthy easterner seeking adventure. There were a few dude ranches in the area that made their living presenting the western lifestyle to these easterners. She decided to stay and built this home in 1916. In 1918 she purchased the store, homestead and ferry from Bill Menor and - doubled the rates. In 1927, only 8 years later, a bridge went in about 1/4 mile away and her ferry was obsolete. However, her main claim to fame was that her cabin was the meeting place for several Jackson citizens who wanted to preserve this area as a preserve, a place for all to enjoy.

Here’s an Alaskan dog sled that an early homesteader, Geraldine Lucas, used to visit her neighbors and carry moderate loads of supplies. She was a retired teacher who bought some land to homestead for her retirement and by 1922 the property was hers. At the age of 59 and not in climbing shape, she persuaded a local young mountain climber, Paul Petzoldt, to help her get to the top of Grand Teton, a rocky crag. She wanted to climb it because she loved the mountain but also to prove herself to the rest of the area residents, mostly men.

        ‘I’ve heard talk around town that it’s no place for a woman and that women should not be allowed up there. People just don’t understand people like myself.’

After her death, her land was donated to the park.

That’s just a few of the homesteaders who established themselves in this remote area. There were many others like the Mormons and the dude ranches and, of course a few scalawags. But, they'll make their appearance in the next blog.

Grand Tetons NP - Keep Hikin'

After a bit of nourishment from the local bakery in West Yellowstone,

we moved to the Tetons National Park. Here’s the West Entry into Yellowstone that we drove through along with everyone else in West Yellowstone. The trick is to enter early to avoid the traffic.

We have a reservation at the Flagg Ranch, just south of Yellowstone for 7/23 - 7/30 and for Yellowstone Fishing Bridge Campground 7/30 - 8/6. We were excited to get our bonus day in Yellowstone and we’ll return but now it’s time to explore the Tetons. On our way to Flagg Ranch, we came around a corner to see this.

We knew there was some construction and expected some delays but, in this case, it was an accident on the road. Around a curve, on a narrow road and at the top of the pass. Worst place to have an accident. There were 3 police cars with their lights rotating, 2 ambulances and 2 banged up cars which will not be driven again. Since the ambulances were still there, I think that the injuries were not too bad. This is the second accident we have seen and we’ve been in Yellowstone Park only 3 days.

When we got to our campground, we found out that we are in a dead zone for Verizon, we didn’t know that we would be ‘off the grid’ both for phone usage and for internet until we got here. The employees tell us that we can drive 15 miles down the road to find a spot where Verizon works. That’s where they call their parents and friends. Unfortunately, we use evenings for internet work like paying bills, publishing my blog, making reservations for the future, research on campgrounds, etc. So, we found ourselves on our first day here, heading over to Jackson Lake Lodge, an affiliate of Flagg Ranch, to use their wi-fi in their lobby.

It was a beautiful lobby with a patio looking out over the Tetons. Could anything be prettier?

Inside it was more Craftsman in style. However, it was not set up for computer usage with tables and desks so we made due with comfy chairs and a round table. About an hour later, we were done, had drunk our second cup of coffee and were ready to do some exploring.

We drove to Colter Bay where there are some trails near Jackson Lake. The trail was ok but we were walking through a marvelous lodgepole forest,

past Heron Pond covered with lily pads

and always the mountains in view, here over the marina in the Bay. Look at that glacier.

Unfortunately, aside from the views, the trail was terribly dusty and not too exciting. When we got back to the Visitor Center to use the bathroom, I took the opportunity to wash my legs off. Oh, my, absolutely black with dirt. And, that was that for the day. Some days are just like that. But the next day’s hike more than made up for today’s.

Our second day was ever so much more exciting and our hike was great. We drove around to some spots renown for their wildlife. Did we find any? Nope. But the scenery was beautiful. Then we drove down to Jenny Lake to get the great views of the Tetons across the lake and to climb to Inspiration Point and the Hidden Falls. We thought we’d do this hike today and plan on doing the Cascade Canyon hike, a continuation of the Inspiration Point hike another day. We walked around Jenny Lake to begin with and this part of the hike was pretty level with a few ups and downs, but I expected to get more views of the lake than we actually did. Oh, well. When we got to the other side of the lake, to begin our hike up to the two points, it got grueling. Steep and rocky. Pretty aggressive and, since everyone and his brother had come to Jenny Lake today, we found ourselves passing those coming down on a narrow, sharply-rocked ledge. Fun. At the top, we’re huffing and puffing. But the views are great. The greens of the pine delineate the deep blue of the lake and the blue of the sky.

Now, the choice at this point is: return the way we had come: hike back down and around the lake or hike further up the Cascade Canyon trail to the ‘Junction’, a Y in the trail which would be a great stopping point. However, by this point it is 12:30, we hadn’t planned a long hike and - well, did we really want to go that far? How about just going a little ways to check out the trail so we will know more about it when we return to take it.

The trick with hiking is to turn around half way to ‘tired.’ That way, when you get back to your starting point, you’ll just be tired, not feet-won’t-work, I-just-want-to-lie-down exhausted. But, who can tell when you are half way to tired? By the time you realize this, you’re all the way to tired and you still have to get back. So, we hiked on.

This part of the trail is surprisingly easy. The hard part is getting to Inspiration Point, which is a steep uphill, the hike up the canyon is much easier, much more scenic and not nearly as crowded - though it has more people on it than we usually see. We kept looking at our watches, asking each other if we really wanted to continue and, of course, we did. 1.) We now had set the Junction as our goal and we don’t like to turn back before we’ve reached our goal. 2.) the trail was really pretty cool. Towards the bottom we walked beside a rushing stream with waterfalls every now and then. Higher up, the water was pooled and several entwined meandering streams. Sometimes we walked in full sun but much of the time we were walking in the shade of trees. The trail had such a gradual slant that it was hardly noticeable - it was an easy trail to walk. And, always we could look up and see the sides of the canyon we were hiking through, the craggy peaks of the Tetons.

How come everyone we meet on the trail is heading in the opposite direction? Silly question - because they started at a more appropriate time. They’re looking at us thinking: ‘I’m so glad that I’m going down and not up like those two.’ and ‘What are they thinking - starting up so late?’

Are you half way to tired yet? Who knows?

And, we kept hiking onward and upward.

Finally we crossed the creek on a bridge, I looked on the map and, sure enough, we were plenty close to the Junction, our goal. The last 1/4 mile was as steeply pitched as the first 1/4, up to Inspiration Point. But, there it was, ahead of us. Ah, sweet victory.

We savored our attaining our goal but for only a few seconds - now it’s time to get back.

And, I am doubly interested in getting back - I have a strange urgency - I would love to see a door that said ‘WOMEN’ in big bold letters on it. So we start back. Again, we enjoyed the trail as we hiked back. We got to see the everything in reverse which is cool since you miss a 1/2 of the view when you’re heading up. You only see the way up. Now, we got to see the way down, whole different view. And, just as gorgeous. Can anything be more beautiful than this ridge line?

Or this gurgling stream?

Or this meandering creek?

We even met some people heading up and were glad that we were heading down. At 5:00 what were they thinking? Why are they heading up now? When we got back to Inspiration Point, we joined the throngs of people heading down the steep rocky trail. At the bottom, we turned to finish our hike along the Jenny trail. I think it took forever. Where’s that ‘WOMEN’ sign? I looked for the Visitor Center around every bend in the trail and over every crest.

Finally, I saw it, my pace quickened and I was there. Whew. I feel so much better. Now I get to start on my legs - just as dirty as yesterday’s hike. I emerged, a new woman (ha, ha), met Gary and we walked to the small store there and bought some sodas. We sat down to relax and drink. Oops, bad move - don’t sit so long that you get stiff. Both of us had gone way past tired and almost to I’m-not-moving-any-more, what-do-you-mean-we-still-have-to-walk-to-the-car exhausted. And, we’re miles from our RV.

We stumbled out to the car, put our stuff in it, sat down and took off. It was a long drive back but - around a curve in the road, we saw this:

Back at the RV, we tried to stand up straight but we were pretty stiff from sitting in the car. Dinner at 8:30, showers and to bed.

However, as tired as we are, both of us thought it was a marvelous hike. We are so glad that we did it. The hike itself was challenging, the views were stunning, the people we met on the trail were all friendly and having a great time and it was just a superb hike.

15.7 2432’