Heading North

Our last day in the Grand Tetons dawned sunny and warm and we took a morning hike to the top of Blacktail Butte for a wonderful view of the valley. The herds of elk and bison on this visit have been the biggest we’ve ever seen, although many locals believe the elk have been decimated by wolves, newly arrived in the Teton Valley. Wolves are a hot-button topic in Wyoming, where they can be shot on sight. We chatted with the state speaker of the house and gubernatorial candidate, a tall handsome Marlboro man look-alike, at the beer fest immediately following the Memorial Day weekend parade, and “wolf management” came up almost immediately.
The local papers carry impassioned letters from wildlife-loving locals and visiting Californians who point out that living wolves equal money for the local economy. “We have our own mountains,” wrote one couple from Lake Tahoe. “We come here to see the wildlife.” Local outfitters, who make their living taking visitors from around the world into the wilds to shoot a trophy elk, disagree.
Of the Druid pack we watched daily last year in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley, none still exist. All of the new pups died, presumably of mange, the pack’s alpha female was killed by another wolf last October and the local paper reported that the pack’s last collared female was recently shot by a rancher 150 miles from the pack’s home. I don’t know what we’ll see in Yellowstone this year.
We’ve struck out on bear this year, although many sightings have been reported. We finally spotted our first predator today, watching a coyoe pounce on a ground squirrel in the elk refuge. Even without bears, the dramatic weather, blessed peacefulness of the nearly-empty campground, and daily sightings of wildlife and birds have made this a special visit. The weather even permitted an outdoor dinner at our campfire and a morning breakfast cookout on the Snake River, where a small herd of elk splashed across the shallows while Terry scrambled eggs.
We ended our last afternoon with a gondola ride up to 10,000’ Rendezvous Peak, where a panoramic view of the valley soon succumbed to pelting snow.
Tomorrow, it’s off to Yellowstone. Two last batches of pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/happytwo.mcwilliams/3Tetonsspring2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCIeYnPCE1uPCiAE&feat=directlink
And:
http://picasaweb.google.com/happytwo.mcwilliams/2Tetonblogspring2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCNm8hLb_iq2JkAE&feat=directlink

Springtime in the Tetons

A noise in the night awakened me: a soft scratching outside Happy not far from my head. An animal? I hoped so, and that we’d find some sign in the morning. I drifted back to sleep. We had Gros Ventre campground virtually to ourselves and left the blinds open to the magnificent mountain view. First light revealed a world of white. Snow had blanketed the world outside, falling steadily and silently, except for the drifts that slid off the roof and down the front slope of the trailer with a soft scratching sound.
The temperature inside read 36 degrees.
Our propane heater quickly dissipated the chill and I returned to bed with a mug of hot coffee and the newspaper, gazing out on a magical scene more suited to December than late May. Dark boulder shapes in the distance announced the arrival of bison, probably the same herd we’d watched fording the river the day before. We jumped in the truck and drove to the camp entrance a short distance away to watch the behemoths move steadily into the campground, snorting and moving aside the snow with massive heads to reach the spring grass underneath. We returned to the campsite and Terry did some snow moving himself, clearing the solar panels atop Happy so they could soak up the meager rays the day offered.
We’re two weeks ahead of our early June arrival last year and the weather has been striking: bitter cold and snow during the Jackson elk antler auction on Saturday, flip-flops and sundresses at the chili cook-off at the same location on Sunday. We were lucky enough to witness part of the spring migration of elk off the winter refuge, watching hundreds of the animals crest a hill and move into the Gros Ventre valley. The great horned owl has returned to her nesting hole in the tree nearby and we’ve watched her, looking like a fat gray cat, sheltering her two fluffy nestlings from the cold. We've spotted several moose -0- one who crossed the road in front of us -- underweight after the winter and losing their thick coats. A coyote has denned in the nearby meadow and her haunting evening cry, along with the daytime songs of robins and meadowlarks, are all that break the peaceful silence. It’s been our best visit here. We love living off the grid in comfort, pleased that everything works so well, right down to the solar panel that powers the radio that lets us listen to NPR each day. The recent purchase of an air card evens allows me to check email from our traveling home, rather than driving to a wifi source. Life is good.
We’ve met up with friends from Florida, a college friend of mine and her husband, who are journeying cross-country in their new motor home and staying in a campground in town. We’ve had some wonderful daytime wildlife viewing expeditions, ending the day with martinis in Jackson. My kind of camping.
Pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/happytwo.mcwilliams/1Tetonspring2010blog?authkey=Gv1sRgCOOxg5H26uKeowE&feat=directlink