Sorry for the delay in posting; busy at work, and of course with Labor Day weekend.

Day 2 found us getting up bright and early so we could quickly weave our way up north via 89 to Grand Teton National Park. This is a great drive that we had done before back in 2006 -- the difference being that then (May) everything was green, and now (August) it was a dry yellow, and there was a haze in the air over the vista along the way. Not quite as breathtaking, but still quite lovely, and the view of Bear Lake as it comes into view is always a treat.

There's a great turnoff along the way here that leads to an underground spring that's bubbling up. This too was a bit drier than last year -- the spring was still there, but you couldn't see it bubbling like 2 years prior. There's a nice little cave you can explore right next to the spring. My apologies for not having the name with me.

Due to some poor driving choices, our driver at the time also got trapped at a stoplight out in the middle of nowhere with a sign next to it that urged drivers to be ready to wait 15 minutes. The light was green as we pulled up but quickly turned red and our law-abiding driver chose not to run it. Bad mistake. We turned off the car and had a quiet wait.

Also along the way is a fantastic bathroom -- the cleanest, my female traveling companions assure me, in the world. The bathrooms are decorated with western art, pinecones, flowers, and small trees. Quite odd. Again, I don't have the name of it written down for reference at the moment.

Jackson Hole was writhing with tourists and we got through it as quickly as traffic would allow and made our way to the Tetons. We lunched at Snake River Overlook, which was pleasant (but hot), until we got invaded by a tourist bus, each member armed with at least one camera. We got out of there as quickly as possible, heading back south, and stopped at Antelope Road, I believe, which leads to Mormon Row. Although I was at the Tetons back in '06, we missed Mormon Row, and countless online pictures made me urgent to get back there and see what we missed.









As you can see, we'd missed out on a lot. The buildings were gorgeous, especially in the rising sun -- even when taken from a moving vehicle, like the first shot. Once we'd had our fill of old buildings, we entered the park itself and did a 5+ mile hike to Taggart Lake, then another smaller lake before returning to the Taggart Lake trailhead. We swam in Taggart -- not sure if it was allowed or not, but it felt great.



By this point it was getting to the evening, so we inquired about free camping with a ranger and landed an excellent spot where he had a great view of the sunset. It was ridiculously hot and dry that evening, but as soon as the sun sank past the Tetons, we froze our butts off. Here's a nice pic of a friend of mine enjoying the view:



That's it for now. Next time: We continue our driving through the amazing Teton, Yellowstone, and Beartooth country, stopping along the way to run through snow. Cold...