Wednesday, July 23

Though I am posting more than my usual limit of twenty pictures per blog, I eliminated most of the 362 pictures I took ~ to give you the highlights of yesterdays relaxing, delightful day.

Our first stop was here ~ to get information for traveling from Jackson to Grand Teton National Park.

Our second stop was at the airport to get air in one of our rental car’s tires. The indicator light on the dash told us that a tire was low ~ and the mechanic on duty did find a low tire.

A kind young man took this picture for us early on our drive.

This barn was made famous by a photographer ~ with Grand Teton behind it ~ and now many people (including me) stop and photograph it.

If you look closely you can see two buffalo between the tree on the left and the barn. There were also several buffalo to the right ~ just beyond the picture.

A pretty thistle flower near where I was standing to take the previous picture.

Later in the day someone told us that thistles came to the area through hay that was brought in to feed animals.

This little guy was eating a nut very close to where I was standing.

This was a very typical picture of the landscape we saw most of the day as we traveled near the Teton range ~ flat brushy grass and shrubs, trees, and mountains.

We saw several herds of buffalo and a few antelope.

I chose to post this picture because both are here. Cerwin liked the horns on the antelope on the right.

Jeff Batzer (Executive VP of TFC), this next series of pictures is for you. Because we had time, we looked up the ranches where you used to live and work. This is approaching Heart 6 Ranch.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a café in that grouping of buildings, as we were quite ready for lunch.

It was a highlight of our day. The food was delicious. The view was amazing on this screened in deck. And the people behind us were from Pennsylvania. We had a great time visiting.

My white bean buffalo soup. Oh, my! It was delicious.

The view. I wanted to put down stakes and stay awhile.

We loved this place! I could live here.

Jeff, the people you know who used to run this are now outfitters to the south of here.

We went to the sitting area to see the racks like you suggested.

Cerwin was impressed!

 We also found Diamond D Ranch where you used to live, but didn’t go far enough to locate Turpin Meadow where you worked. We thought we missed it, but later realized that we didn’t drive far enough.

Wow! What a beautiful area. And it was wonderful to get off the “beaten, touristy path.”

A beautiful lake with trumpeter swans and Canada geese.

Then it was back to the beautiful “beaten path” of all the other tourists in Grand Teton National Park. 🙂

It was the middle of the afternoon by this time, so we had coffee ~ just for the view on the deck ~ and shared a hot apple/huckleberry pie.

The birds cleaned up the crumbs at our feet.

Jenny Lake was just as beautiful as everyone said it would be.

We took time to walk several of the well-traveled trails that surround the lake.

It was a warm day ~ in the high 80’s ~ and I loved the scent of pine trees.

Sometimes I just stopped walking and breathed deeply.

I think this is fireweed.

I am not sure if I have seen it since our trip to Alaska eleven years ago.

Kayaks at Jenny Lake

By evening we were back at Jackson Hole, and after putting our few traveling things in our room, we walked to the town square for a picture of the celebrated horn arches (there are four arches ~ one on each corner of the park.)

The local stagecoach.

While walking around the park, we learned that there was going to be a “Shoot Out” in a few minutes, so stayed to see what would happen. 

It was put on by actors from the town’s playhouse, and the fight started over gold (in the closest actors hand) and then escalated into a fight over women as well.:)

Then the women were fighting over the guy.

Notice the sheriff (brown skirt), the guy on the balcony (and the smoke next to him), and all the people who gathered for the fight.

And, of course, someone always dies in gunfights.

We had to leave at this point, because we had a 6:30 reservation for supper, but as far as we could tell, it was the end of the story.

Our supper appointment at the other end of town. We decided that guns was our evening theme. 🙂

We were glad we had reservations, because the place was packed ~ with lots of people waiting to be seated.

I enjoyed this delicious elk chop. Cerwin isn’t one to try new things, so settled for his usual beef steak.

From there we went back to our motel, with the intention of walking back to the town square for ice cream, but we are still not used to Mountain Time, and sleep soon seemed more appealing than ice cream.