DAY 19 – Jackson (0 miles driven, 6.79 miles walked)
We’re staying in another cabin here in Jackson which is bijou if I’m being polite. However, it does have one downside and that is a light right outside of the cabin shining in making it difficult for me to sleep at night. I couldn’t find any way to turn it off so this morning I went to reception to find out how I could. I was told that I can’t turn it off from the cabin and that they are required to have a light on there (which sounded like BS to me). However, I could take the bulb out if I wanted to! I did.
We’ve had a range of temperatures on this holiday and today we hit zero degress (or a more manageable 32 if you are American!). We came out of the cabin and had to scrape ice of windscreen before we could get going. A reminder of home.
Grand Teton National Park sits immediately south of the more famous Yellowstone park and is very accessible from Jackson where we are staying.
It is an incredibly beautiful and quiet park. It helps that it’s October of course and the very end of the season so there aren’t many people around. Everything pretty much shuts up shop in the parks next Monday which is fortunately after we have come home.
The park is made up of several crystal clear lakes with the Teton mountains as their backdrop. We walked along the shores of the lakes and all you could hear was the sound of our footsteps and the birds – absolute bliss. That’s what I’d like to hear in our back garden rather than the M4!
The only thing that I found slightly offputting were the warnings that appeared every ten paces saying that a bear was going to attack and eat you. Having had a brush with a mother bear in Yosemite I was keen to avoid another.
What we did see through were several Pronghorns, a sort of antelope which were very attractive (and none threatening).
We spent the afternoon in the town of Jackson (it’s probably a city as here they bestow that accolade on any place irrespective of it’s size. Bryce City that we visited a few days ago was really only one mand and his dog). Helen was in need of a coffee so we hunted down a cafe which also did a very good tea – in a pot no less and with the milk on the side. They really did understand English tea culture!
Tomorrow when we make our way to Yellowstone we will travel through only parks to our destination. First Grand Teton again and then Yellowstone itself. Looking forward to it.