Thursday, July 24

We were up early today ~ to be at Dave Hansen White Water by 6:45.

No, we were not going white water rafting!

We had chosen the more comfortable (for me), scenic, thirteen-mile float down Snake River.

After being transported to the river by bus, we were divided into groups of 10 (9 plus a guide) or less and outfitted with lifejackets.

Many of these people were going white water rafting after this excursion.

The waiting rafts.

This is the raft that was just ahead of us.

We were blessed to get the guide leader, and he chooses to go last.

There were eight in our raft ~ three couples (Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania), a young girl from Utah, and the guide who was originally from eastern Texas.

We had barely gotten on the river when a beautiful osprey flew overhead.

Ducks on a small gravel island.

The guide ahead of us got stuck in low water.

We were pleased to see a young eagle early in the trip.

We saw several marmots on rocks along the shore.

Our guide described them as a cross between a beaver and a squirrel. 🙂

Our guide. Notice the raft that was stuck got going again – and eventually passed us.

Like I said, our guide likes to be last.

We startled a great blue heron.

An American white pelican looking for fish

Our guide said that Bald Eagles often give each other about a mile of space, and on this thirteen-mile trip we saw about thirteen eagles.

I will just show you the best pictures.

Some of the eagles were in the shadows because of the rising sun.

The ones to our right (west) made the best pictures.

Our guide said that an eagle’s nest can weigh as much as a ton – especially an old nest, because they add fresh sticks to the nest every year.

We were pleased to see this one near the end of the trip.

Some of my serious birder friends will know what kind of ducks these are.

Oh, that was delightful.

After the river trip, we went to Wilson for a late breakfast at Nora’s.

We chose this place because I am a blog/Facebook friend with Ariel, who is a waitress here. I had been in touch through Facebook and knew that she worked today.

Ariel is the daughter of friends of ours from back home. To those of you who live in our area, she is Dick Myer’s granddaughter. Her mom is Dick and Martha’s daughter Sue.

Ariel and I think we may have been “Internet Friends” for 7 or 8 years. Our connection was photography.

Nora’s is especially known for their delicious, creative breakfasts.

Cerwin chose a chili omelet.

I had the asparagus and brie omelet.

After breakfast (about noon) we headed toward Signal Mountain, as it was a road that we had not yet traveled in the Jackson Hole area.

The Teton range is rarely out of view when traveling in this area.

Pretty weed flowers along the road.

At the top of Signal Mountain

On the way down ~ near the bottom ~ we stopped to walk toward a lily pond.

This was the path.

I wouldn’t have liked to walk too far in this kind of path. We felt like we had to make noise so we wouldn’t startle a bear or moose.

As we headed back to Jackson, we saw a large heard of buffalo right next to a side road – so we drove back to get a closer view.

I didn’t have to use my zoom very much as these two were right beside the road. I rolled the window down, but stayed in the car.

By this time is was 3 PM, so we checked in at Elk Refuge Inn – just outside of Jackson. This is the view from our balcony.

This is also a view from the balcony, but looking toward the ski slopes of Jackson.

We wanted to see more scenery before leaving this area in the morning, so headed south to Alpine, which is on the Idaho border.

While driving through Jackson, we went by the Anvil motel where we had stayed the past two nights. It was not a fancy place, but it was nice and clean and right in town, making it possible for us to walk to many places we wanted to see.

It was a beautiful, scenic drive along Snake River ~ as promised in the visitor literature.

We crossed into Idaho at Alpine ~ just to say we had been there on this trip. This was the sign we saw when we turned around to come back into Wyoming.

Neither of us was real hungry ~ even though we had not eaten since our 11 AM breakfast. There is a Dairy Queen near our motel and we thought that sounded appealing – and away from the busyness of town.

I got a small chicken wrap (which I ate in the restaurant) and savored this piña colada long after we got back to the motel.

Cerwin had a hamburger and this “earth quake” sundae.

Oh, what a wonderful day.

Tomorrow we head to Cody where we will spend the weekend.