Saturday, August 13th

Jim and I spent the weekend exploring the Grand Tetons and 
Jackson Hole, WY.  I'm afraid our pictures can not begin to
do the breath taking beauty of the Tetons justice but here are a few. 
We drove the loop road that took us close to the foothills of the  
Tetons - as close as you can get by car anyway, by Jenny Lake, and to  
Teton Village, a ski area outside Jackson Hole.  Jenny Lake was  
beautiful and we did a quick stop at Jenny Lake Lodge to see what 
the most expensive lodge in all of the national parks looks like.  You'll 
notice there are no pictures - we were not impressed.  You couldn't 
even see the lake and it was very small and mostly cabins. We were  
however impressed by the slit visible on Mt. Moran (12,605 ft).  It was molten lava 
that was pressed up between two granite slabs way back when the  
Tetons were being formed.   Right beneath the slit is Ice Fall glacier and
it was hundreds of feet high.  Awesome!!!  The tallest is Grand Teton
at 13,772 feet and they are still growing at the rate of 2" per year.

Teton Village was a little farther south and nestled right up against the  Tetons.  The day we were there they were having a relay race that started in Logan, Utah (260 miles southwest) with the finish line in the village.  We rode the tram up to the top of the ski runs at 10,400 feet (above the tree line).  The views from the top were unbelievable - east to the Jackson Hole valley and west to the backside of the Tetons which is a much more gradual slope than the eastern face of the mountains.   There were a lot of hang gliders in the area which took off from the top of the mountain where we were.  The ride up was 12 minutes and the gondola held about 40 people but I don't think we had that many in our ride.  They said they receive over 400" of snow there in the winter time.  Can't imagine what it looks like then.


More to come from Sunday
Ann & Jim