What a great day. Grand Teton NP has a reputation for wildlife viewing and it certainly didn’t let us down.
We left the motel at 6.30 to have the best chance of spotting animals in the dawn. As the temperature was zero degrees it was a bit chilly, to say the least. Certainly well below the minimum temperatures we have experienced so far.
Buffalo were the first creatures to reveal themselves. Although it was a herd, quite some distance off, it was still pretty exciting. We’d been told there were moose near the Visitors Centre and as we approached the tell-tale sign of cars pulled off on the side of the road, indicated something interesting. A family of three moose were grazing alongside the Snake River. We were able to take some excellent pictures of the bull moose while mother and calf reclined in the grass.
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| A bear!!!!! |
Bears! Bears! Bears! At last we were able to see bears in the wild. As part of our drive around the sights of Grand Teton (pronounced Tee-ton) NP, we went up a steep, winding road to Signal Mountain. On the way down we came across a number of cars pulled off on the side of the road. Sure enough – a mother black bear and cub were feeding on the huckleberry bushes about 10m off the road. Two rangers were present controlling the spectators – it’s recommended you stay at least 100m away but because they were so close the best the rangers could do was move people up or down the road as the bears changed position. The rangers got a little concerned when it looked like the bears might cross the road where we were. While all the excitement was going on we were snapping away madly – so have lots and lots of photos. Hopefully some will turn out good.
In the afternoon we saw another herd of buffalo grazing alongside the road – closer than the morning’s herd but still a fair way off. Again we took some more photos. Just as we were pulling out we saw a large dog-like animal. We came to a hasty stop and started snapping away at what turned out to be a coyote. By now traffic mayhem was in full swing as cars parked and dodged one another with everyone jostling to get a photo. While this was going on two buffalo no-one had noticed on the opposite side of the road decided to rejoin the herd by crossing the road only a few metres in front of our car. Talk about an adrenaline rush!
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| Sunrise on the Grand Tetons |
So what else did we see? Because we had an early start we saw some magnificent sights as the sun rose. The Grand Tetons provided absolutely stunning scenery. Some snow and glaciers can still be seen on the peaks.
Adding colour to the scenery is the changing colours of the leaves. The dark green of the lodge-pole pines, contrasts with the lighter greens and yellows of the other trees. Although not fully into autumn/fall yet there’s a significant indication of what we might hopefully see before our trip finishes.
Did I mention the other animals we saw? While having lunch we were entertained by a squirrel going about his food collection. We also were privileged to see a number of pronghorn deer – distinctive by their white backsides while a brightly coloured male pronghorn walked parallel to us for some time as we drove slowly along a road.
Can it get any better? You’d hardly think so, but who knows!
