Sunday 8 August 2010

Day Fourteen

End of week two is now upon us and we can't quite believe it. Seems like we have been here only a few days.

Got up fairly late and wandered over for breakfast. Watched in astonishment as a couple sat not far from us ate enough food for 10 breakfasts. Back to the room to Skype people before checking out bang on 11am. As we didn't have far to travel to our next hotel we decided to have a quite day in and around Jackson and the southern part of Grand Teton NP.

Went for a walk around the town. Looked in a gallery at very expensive framed photographs. In the town square they have four arches made up of elk antlers that have been shed by the animals.

Stag-gering!
Next we made our way to the Snow King resort for another sporting challenge.


Final standings of the second major (Par 52 course):

1. Knightley: 52
2. Roffe: 57

The amazing Roffe-Knightley phenomenon worked again. When we started playing golf there was no-one on the course. By the time we finished the last hole there were people queueing to get on the first tee. Every place we go, shop, restaurant or whatever, it goes from empty to packed in a number of seconds. Is quite annoying.

Wildlife Watch - Day Two

Got in the car and headed back into Grand Teton National Park. Headed towards Teton Village. The route we took ended up with a section of unsurfaced road. Tested the 4x4 out. Ann didn't like the bumps. No bears.

Got to the village, parked up and headed to the cable car to take us to the top of Rendezvous Mountain (10,500 feet/3185m above sea level). Stood around at the top, took some nice photos before heading back down. No bears.


View from the top


Had lunch in a place next to the cable car station. Made the decision to share a burger and chips, which as it turned out was an excellent idea. Plenty of food for two of us normal sized people. No bears in restaurant. Having seen no wildlife at all in either two parks we had just about given up hope, then suddenly our prayers were answered as we finally saw an elusive bear!

Picinic Basket

Got back in the car and headed south to Alpine, our next hotel location. Only took an hour, so checked into the Flying Saddle Resort by 5.30pm. Unloaded and then walked around the place. Discovered the swimming pool and jacuzzi were empty, so ran back and got our stuff to get in quickly. As it turned out we spent an hour in there with no-one else around. Relaxed in the water and recalled the last two weeks.

Now had dinner and contemplating tomorrow's long journey south to Moab, another 450 miler, which should be our last long travel day.