Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, WY, Jackson Hole

We left Yellowstone and spent four days at  Gros Ventre Campground which is in Grand Teton National Park.  After our time at Grand Teton, we spent one night at Wind River Casino (free overnight for RVers) and then moved on to Platte River RV and Campground in Glenrock, Wyoming.  We will be here for 6 days.  We had to stop here to get Darby's four week after surgery x-ray of his leg which will be done at a vet in Douglas, WY.  We decided to stop here because once we get past Douglas we weren't sure if there would be any towns large enough in Northwest Nebraska to have a vet that did digital imaging to allow the X-ray to be emailed back to the surgeon in Bend, Oregon.  From here we will be headed to Fort Robinson in Crawford, Nebraska.

Our Route

View of The Tetons from our campsite 

The following two pics are of two of the most photographed barns in America.  They are located about a mile from the campground in an area known as "Mormon's Row" which was a settlement of five Mormon families in the 1880's.  Several of the homes and barns are still standing.

This barn is the more famous of the two

Teton Glacier

Donna in the window of a settler's cabin from the 1800's

More Buffalo - Tetons in the background

View of the Snake River and the Tetons

Part Of Jackson Lake

Donna at the Grand Teton visitor center

One of a pair of moose at the campground

Both of them

Donna too close to the moose

The same guy

Jackson, Wyoming - The rest of the pictures are of Jackson, Wyoming.  Jackson is the town nearest the Tetons and Jackson Hole is the general area which is mainly the 50 mile long valley that includes Jackson and several other small towns.

Jackson has a park in the center of town that has amazing huge elk antler arches on each of the four sides of the park.  There is a nearby National Elk Refuge where the antlers were collected.  Each spring, Boy Scouts collect shed antlers and have an auction (at this park) to raise money for the winter feeding of the elk at the refuge - this has been going on for 50 years. .

Close-up

One set of moose antlers on each arch

 Another one of the arches

View of downtown Jackson

Another view of Jackson

Yellowstone National Park

We finally made it to Yellowstone National Park.   It is difficult to get a spot at the campgrounds inside the park  and most of the spots aren't big enough for our 5th wheel so we stayed at Henry's Lake State Park which is in Island Park, Idaho about 15 miles from the West entrance to Yellowstone. 

Yellowstone was great - the only complaint was the amount of driving we had to do - this park is enormous.  We put on several hundred miles inside the park just to see the highlights. We also experienced some lengthy delays (30 to 60 minutes each)  - two of them due to road repairs/construction and one due to a "bison jam".  A herd of buffalo decided to block the road for a while so we had to wait for the rangers to come and clear the road.

Our Route

Lots of bison in the park

One of the many geyser basins

Hot spring pool

Boiling mud pot - look closely and you can see the mud bubbles

One of hundreds of geysers

More hot pools

Life forms growing in the near boiling water

This steaming pool was about 30 feet deep

Another geyser getting ready to spout

Old Faithful - just starting to spout

Old Faithful - at her max height for this eruption

 Yellowstone Lake from a distance

You cross the Continental Divide several times while traveling through the park

Quite a few elk around also

Several waterfalls on the upper loop - don't remember the name of this one

Another geyser basin

This was in the middle of town in Mammoth Hot Springs - the elk pretty much have the run of the place 

Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs - this is one of the original buildings from the 1890's when a fort was established here to allow the US Army to manage and maintain the park.  This was the main barracks building.  Thirty-five of the original seventy buildings are still standing, most of which are still in use - several as residences for park employees.

Tower Falls - 132 feet high

Another geyser basin in the background with a herd of buffalo in the foreground

This is a part of the West Thumb geyser basin located on the shore of Yellowstone Lake

One of several active geyser cones in the lake 

  More geysers

Craters Of The Moon National Monument - Hayspur Fish Hatchery Campground

We moved from Three Island Crossing State Park to Hayspur Fish Hatchery near Picabo, Idaho.  The hatchery has a free campground  run by the Idaho Fish & Game Department.  The campground is pretty nice with large open and level sites, picnic tables, fire rings, etc.  - no hookups however.  While here we visited Craters Of The Moon National Monument which is an 1100 square mile area of lava fields caused by volcanic activity along the "Great Rift" of Idaho as recently as 2000 years ago.  The Monument is mostly large fields of lava with occasional spatter cones and cinder cones but no singular volcano.  The lava erupted from large fissures along the rift.

Our Route To Hayspur Hatchery

Our Site

Entering Craters Of The Moon

Lava field with cinder cone in background

Many of the lava fields are comprised of large chunks of lava like this

 Lava fields

Spatter Cones caused by huge chunks of molten lava are thrown up into the air and when they land they form there own mini-volcanos

Spatter Cones

Lava

Vent Tube - this one was about 30 feet deep

Cinder Cone (mini volcano)

This pic was from the hatchery - some of these rainbows are over 2 feet long

Next Stop - the Yellowstone Area!