Thursday, October 25, 2012

Grand Teton & Jenny Lake

After a good night's rest at Jackson Hole and a leisurely morning followed by a hearty & fulfilling breakfast at Hampton Inn comprising English Muffins,Sweet Muffin,Omelette,Butter & Marmalade,Waffles, Honey, a range of Fruit Juices, strong well brewed aromatic Coffee etc we checked out finally 10.00 am and took off towards Yellowstone. Enroute we stopped briefly to fill up gasoline and pick up small eats from the nearby store before hitting the freeway. As we drove  on we could soon see the Grand Teton Range from a distance and this spectacular view remained perpetually in our sights as we drove towards it. To our left we saw planes taking off from Jackson Airport which is one of the busiest airports in Wyoming State. 
Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Wyoming's Grand Teton national Park and a classic destination in American mountaineering.We reached a classic view point within an hour from where we had awesome views of the Teton peaks. Unfortunately there was very little snow capping the peaks and that was disappointing. We travelled further and parked the car in a huge parking lot from where we took a long walking tour or trek to Jenny Lake. We did not walk to Lake Solitude, Hidden Falls & String Lake picnic area as these trails were closed. We walked parallel to a small stream flowing towards the Jenny Lake. Presumably this is an a stream fed by melting glaciers from the mountain range. The trail threw  up some magnificent views of alpine trees,the stream,the fallen trunks,the rocks and finally the beautiful blue shimmering, glimmering and glorious lake. There were many patches of tall dead & drab tree trunks with little vegetation around - it was obvious that there are frequent and devastating forest fires in these regions. It is however amazing how nature has its way of bouncing back and vegetation grows back over a period of time. We could sight plenty of deer & elk poop enroute and Mira who was always ahead of us continuously sounding warnings of "Poop Alert". We spent around two hours trekking before resuming our journey towards Yellowstone. It was a glorious day with bright sunshine and temperatures around 25-30 F. There were sign posts warning trekkers to stay together and sing/talk loudly to ward off bears. We tried our best to be noisy by singing & clapping our hands. Looks like we successfully kept the bears at bay. Alas we did not see any animals - elk,deer or bear.

54 comments:

  1. Grand Teton is indeed breathtaking! I love the place!

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  2. Very beautiful place....Enjoying with family...very nice...have very nice time...

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  3. What an amazing place. Thank you so much for sharing these great photos.

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  4. Awesome captures. The lake looks beautiful.

    http://www.rajniranjandas.blogspot.com

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  5. wow...wow.....wow....
    superb pics....wonderful place...

    million thanks for sharing...
    regards

    anu

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  6. This park is very beautiful, and I have never been there. The air must have been crisp and clean. Glad you had a good time, and you didn't encounter any bears.

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  7. The wonderful landscape beautifully captured..Thx a ton for sharing it :)
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  8. Very beautiful mountains and a lake. It's good for you not to encounter bears. When I visited a teafield I came across monkeys.
    I was so scary that I couldn't say anything and freezed. I never thought monkeys were in the teafield.
    Thank you for sharing a nice tour.
    Have a great weekend!

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    1. Yes Sarah,monkeys are unpredictable and a big menace. They can attack when you are completely defenceless.Thank God you got away safely. Have a great weekend too. Ram

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  9. Great landscape, but a tad lonely for me, I must say. Any place I don't find a bunch of people, I freak out. And do the same when there are too many people too LOL!

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    1. Ha Ha ! I agree this was a bit too lonely for comfort. If we had been accosted by a bear dont know what we would have done. My son law was carrying anti bear spray though.

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  10. Hello Ram,I didn't realize I had so much catching up to do!It's been very interesting moving through these landscapes,your photos depict the variations so well.The blues and greens of the water here are really beautiful.

    Have a great weekend!
    Ruby

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    1. Thanks Ruby for taking time to read my posts and to leave your warm and wonderful comments. Have a great week end. Ram

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  11. Wow, Ram, so mazing thes pix! Like from a wildwest film - so clean and serene! Hope your weekend is relaxing and fun!

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    1. Thanks Martina. Hope your weekend is going great too !

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  12. Lovely lake pictures. Must have been a relaxing trip!

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  13. beautiful landscape photos...

    excellent capture...

    thanks for sharing

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  14. Yes sighting wild life is pretty fateful , matter of luck.
    Having been to Thekkady a few times, I have not come across one wild elephant let alone the herds that are seen in pics bathing by the waterfront.

    They told us in YS that elks come down to the reserve in winter.

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    1. The absence of wild life sightings in GT was more then compensated inside the Y.Stone park.

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  15. You took some wonderful picture of these impressive places.
    Have a great journey!

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  16. It is always an adventure to visit your blog - thank you.

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  17. Namaste....
    wow lots of rolling mountainous hills......

    thanks for sharing. hope you and your family are all in good health.

    have a great weekend.
    stay blessed
    rhapsody

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  18. Sir you are exploring the better side of this country. Thanks for sharing these beautiful images. :)

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  19. Beautiful shots of mountain range, very scenic place.

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  20. The contrast of the greens and the gray is eye catching. :)

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  21. Glad you had some nice clear weather for viewing the Tetons. They're spectacular. It's hard to stop looking and photographing, isn't it?

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  22. Congratulations on getting to see this gorgeous places and on having kept the bears and elks at bay.

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  23. Good to have you back. And nice to hear about the Old Faithful! So are you going to trek to EBC this summer?

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