Animal spotting in Grand Teton NP
Am living it up in Jackson, Wyoming for the next couple of days, the main reason being to visit Grand Teton NP. Left SLC around 7am and decided to put faith in the GPS. Google Maps had provided 3 possible routes, the NPS site 2, but the GPS did not pick the same route that Google said was the quickest. Ended up going with the GPS option as it seemed to take more interstate which usually means faster. Think we picked the correct route as we ended up at our destination in about 4.5 hours – much better than the 5.5 hours of alternative routes.
The route had us go up the I-15 instead of the I-80 then wind our way through the backroads of country Idaho. How do you know they’re backroads? When signs tell you there’s no service for the next 70 miles. Freaky part, when your hire car decides to have the maintenance light come on just as you enter the road with no service and you madly flip pages of the car manual trying to work out if something is wrong. Turned out it was okay. These new fangled cars have lights come on when they think they need a service – i.e. at 5,000 miles.
Eventually made it to Jackson but it was too early to check in, so headed on up the road to the NP. Had a drive around the Jenny Lake area and looked at the Teton Range. The Teton Range was pretty awesome as even though it’s not winter yet there is snow at the peak and you can easily see the glaciers on the mountain. Very pretty. Then made the drive back to town via Antelope Flats Rd. There’s a view from this road of the Tetons that I’d seen a few years ago and it was my mission to go via this road and see it myself with the Mormon barns in the fields in front of me. Call it one of the things on my [non-existant] bucket list. That and it’s also a known place for wildlife viewing. And Antelope Flats Rd did not fail me. I saw the postcard view and spotted animals in the wild. I’m not quite sure whether it was antelope, deer or pronghorn but think it was either of the last 2 as antelope have horns (horns don’t shed each year). Also saw herds of bison roaming the plains. Got some photos but it might be a bit hard to see without zooming in. Can’t get too close to the animals as they can attack/kill.
The Teton Ranges, snow capped with glaciers!
Jenny Lake
View from Antelope Flats Rd
View from Antelope Flats Rd, overlooking a barn on Mormon Row
Is it an antelope, deer or pronghorn? There were quite a few of these, but this guy stuck his head up in the right direction.
Bison. These guys can charge at you, so it was 22x zoom for this.