Bison Stampede

Buffalo Stampede

There is magic in Jackson Hole! You can’t call it a valley. A “hole” was the term used by pioneer explorers and mountain men to describe any open valley encircled by mountains.

We had snow and rain for a few days which gave me time to recover from the cinders of Craters of the Moon. But we ventured out driving many of the roads in the Park. Going north out of Jackson is the National Elk Refuge, a huge expense of land where they encourage the elk to come down out of the mountains in the winter to feed them. Then the National wildlife Art Museum is a gem with paintings indoors and a new sculpture garden outside. Here we saw a special exhibit by a wildlife artist Bob Kuhn.

On our drives we have encountered herds of bison (buffalo to the uninitiated), moose cows sitting very close to the trail and out along the Snake River, Pronghorn (antelope) grazing in small herds or mom and her one year olds frolicking in the grazing land, Marmots dodging in and out of their holes, a variety of geese and ducks such as the Horned Grebe, and Common Merganser, as well as several bald eagles. On her deck, Mary has nailed several oranges along the railing. The most beautiful Western Tanagers and Magpie have come visiting. We have seen a Mountain bluebird here and I saw a Western Bluebird in Zion. The elk are starting a new set of antlers, as they drop their antlers every year. They are very powerful looking animals and quite majestic.

Even with rain clouds and snow the mountains present a very breathtaking view. They are the newest mountains in the Rockies and are still rising while Jackson Hole is sinking. There is a major fault running along the eastern edge of the mountains. The mountains were uplifted and have very old rock forming the mountains and there are no foothills. The “hole” is sedimentary rock and just tilted slightly. Through all of this the Snake River is carving a wide swath. On the other side of the “hole” are the Gros Ventre Mountains and the Gros Ventre River flows west into the “hole” also. I took a morning float trip down a section of the Snake that is parallel to the Teton Mountains with phenomenal views. Just as I have way too many pictures of Upper Yosemite Falls, I have way too many of the mountains in all of their many presentations.

There are hundreds of miles of trails and we did one which required taking a national Park shuttle launch across Jenny Lake. Then we climbed to the Hidden Falls and Inspiration point. There are also miles of bike paths running through the “hole” just as there were in Yosemite and Zion valleys. There are also some decent rocks for rock climbing and of course two ski areas. Teton Village has a huge tram that runs year round to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain.

Downtown Jackson and Teton village have trendy shops and art galleries. My heart sinks every time I see a Sotheby’s office, because it means I can’t afford to live where they have an office.

On one of our drives we were viewing a herd of Bison and decided to take a side road to get a better view of the herd. Mary is very skittish about getting out of the car when Bison are around because they can run 35 mph and jump high fences from a stand still. As we were cruising slowly down the side road we were using binoculars to watch the bison and some pronghorn, when all of a sudden a Bison jumped out of the bushes and flew across the road in front of us. It was so huge. They can get up a really big head of steam. It was quite dramatic. Then today I had two Pronghorn jump out in front of me and cross the major highway. The Pronghorn are very gazelle-like and very graceful. The bison have been rolling in the dirt to get off their winter coats.

Yesterday I got a canister of pepper spray so that I don’t have to use Mary’s supply. Mary claims she sees bear every time she goes out, but of course not with me along! But there is still Yellowstone!

We leave for Yellowstone on Friday and Mary has a wonderful camping trailer called a “Scamp.” Sleeps two or three and we will use that until she comes home and then I will use my tent. There are over 10,000 geothermal features to see at Yellowstone. I am not quite sure how I will see them all! Pictures to follow.