Tuesday July 26, 2016
Once there, we saw Taggart Lake from above and it was marvelous.
Walking through the trees that were amazingly green was awesome and when we made it to Bradley Lake, the view of the clear lake and the Teton with a glacier was breath taking! We peeled off our socks and shoes and stood in the cold glacier fed lake. I don't even have words for the feeling and the view...
While sitting there, Pumpkin suddenly needed my help and we hike away from the lake to dig a cat-hole.
Back at the lake, we waded in the water while the kids played, Pumpkin getting wet up to her chest and Chuck Roast splashing everywhere.
The hike back was quick since we had gone uphill almost the whole time to the lake. Chuck Roast and I hiked back at his speed so we lagged way behind, but it was quiet and the 1-on-1 time together was great.
On the way back, we stopped for the kids to take their Jr. Ranger pledge (after Elise forged a ranger signature in Chuck Roast's book since he slept through the ranger program). Both kids picked patches even after I begged for them to get a badge. They were wood and had a moose! After the kids got their patches, the ranger slid a badge to me :)
Back at camp, we cooked up the most amazing mac-and-cheese and Frito Pie! The pictures shows just how icky the dinner looked but it was so, so, so delicious!
After cleaning up, we packed into the car again and headed to Jackson Lodge for the wildlife viewing.
The bathrooms at the lodge made us swoon compared to the cramped, cold bathrooms at our campsite, and the smell of Colorado-spice-rubbed Elk and legs of lamb from the restaurant made my head swoon but we walked through the lodge to the patio... we didn't stay long. It was loud and our flannel-wearing group didn't quite fit in with all the people drinking wine from real glasses and dressed for dinner out. But we did see two deer meandering through the willows. Willow Flats was the other spot recommended for bear and moose so we found a high spot to see over the field. A photographer there said a cow moose and her calf were in some willows so we waited and waited. A man behind us in a flannel was talking to someone else about the wildlife in the area. He definitely knew what he was talking about. Then he told the other man to follow him to one of his favorite spots to see moose and bear. They turned and left.
So did we. We tried to follow slowly but realized that we would lose them so we ran. Almost all of us in flannel running after strangers. We jumped in our cars, I've never buckled Chuck Roast in his carseat so fast, and we we took off following the strangers in their two cars. They drove around the next corner and so did we. They turned onto another road close by and drove by a dam. So did we. There was parking lot that the two cars parked in. We pulled in and the people in our other car told me to go talk to the guy in flannel but when I walked around the car, the other two cars were pulling out again. They all had their windows down and they were just smiling at us. We think we got caught. The kids and I wandered a ways down the river from the damn and definitely heard a bellow, but we saw nothing. On our way back to our campsite, our other car pulled over with their hazards on so we pulled over too. We didn't see any animals, so I got out to make sure they weren't actually having car trouble. There were animals. Probably 20 elk hanging on the side of the road. It was dark and we turned off our headlights and their eyes glowed. There were so many! We u-turned to see them a little closer and then u-turned again to head back to camp. A huge buck was starting to cross the road in front of us. He stopped an went back into the grass, but he was beautiful! Back at camp, everyone crashed quickly, it was after 10pm and it had been a busy day!
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