It was much colder this morning as we left from Grant Village in Yellowstone. Although it wasn’t freezing the temperature was about 3 C when we left this morning. As we drove south into Grand Teton National Park we drove in rain, and at one point, a very little bit of sleety snow. However, as we got farther into the park the clouds began to break, and we could see the snow covered peaks of the Teton mountains.
We are camping in the Colter Bay campground until it closes on Sunday, September 22. As we were registering there was a trailer, just a bit smaller than ours, in front of us, and it had stickers on it from several national parks that they have visited. When we pulled in to get water, they were also filling up, so we talked to them a bit, found out they are from Minnesota, and are soon going home. They have been to many of the same areas we have in the Dakotas and Wyoming.
We got into our campsite (with considerable difficulty, as it is narrow, there are big log barricades on the side, and it has a bit of a turn – but we squeezed in) and the other couple from Minnesota is camped right across from us. There was a big puddle in the place where the hitch meets the truck, and so it was rather awkward to unhook without falling into the water! After we got the Tahoe unhitched, I used the pail and baled water out of the big mud puddle. My back is a bit sore tonight.
After lunch we hiked first around the Coltor Bay Nature Trail, except it isn’t much of a nature trail, as there were no interpretive signs, as our hiking guide book states there are. It would be a nice easy walk when the flowers and plants were blooming. Jackson Lake is very low (it is used for irrigation) and so the water is a long ways out from shore. The marina is completely dry, and the docks are resting on the dry bottom. As you walk along the shore it smells much like the ocean, presumably from decaying vegetation in the rocks. Across the lake we could see the Teton mountains, though the tops were almost obscured by clouds. It sprinkled rain a couple of times, and it wasn’t really warm, except when the sun poked through the clouds, when it was quite pleasant.
We then walked a loop trail that goes by Swan Lake and Heron Pond. This was a much prettier trail than the nature trail. Both the lake and the pond are covered with pond lilies. Though they are not blooming, the leaves were an attractive green and gold in fall colors. The tops of the Teton mountains were occasionally visible across Heron Pond.
It is much, much colder tonight, and I am sure that it will freeze.