Minneapolis/Yellowstone trip '09: Leg 2 Utah to Grand Teton

We left Hurricane Utah and headed for Delta Utah. Delta is about 90 miles south west of Salt Lake City on Highway 50 that goes to Reno. Delta is in the high planes, an agriculture town with no particular redeeming grace other than the fact it is our “Home Base”. For the non RVers, we belong to an organization, Coast to Coast, that allows us to stay at several campgrounds around the country, some of them very nice, for a low nominal fee. To belong to C to C we have to belong to a Home base Park. Delta was the cheapest one (excuse me, the most economically effiecient) we could find, so we are members of Antelope Valley RV Park in Delta, Utah and stayed for free!

The drive from Hurricane on 15 was great for the most part, Utah, unlike California, actually takes care of their roads (nice concept!). When we arrived it was pouring down rain, just what one wants to set up camp in.

After Delta we headed through Salt Lake City (ugh, after so much open, country highway driving, the big city was a rude reminder of how traffic can be) to Brigham, Utah. The first part of the drive, 70 miles, was through gorgeous back country roads. Roads like you would see in an RV book or a TV commercial. In 70 miles we only saw one other car! Funny how just a road can create a memory.

From Brigham we drove to Idaho Falls, Idaho to one of the scrungiest RV parks we have seen. We named it the “Bates Motel” (Remember “Psycho”?) We would have turned around and left were it not for the fact we were meeting Hitchhiker RV friends here (Rich and Joan Walter and Sally and Mike Theroux). We laughed and made the best of it.

Our "neighbor" at the "Bates Motel", that rig ain't ever going anywhere.

Surviving the night at the “Bates Motel” (did I mention the manager knew nothing about RVs and had no front teeth) it was off to Grand Tetons. What a spectacular drive. Big mountains, much of the drive along the Snake River, lush green fields, past potato farms, never not a grand scene. We turned off the main road in Grand Teton National Park to head for our camp ground and almost immediately ran into a big buffalo heard and two herds of Prong Horn Antelope. What an exciting start to our Teton experience. We stayed at the Gros Ventre (pronounced grow vaunt, French for big belly) camp ground.

Our site at Gros Ventre. Wide open spaces, fire pits, sage brush and Gros Ventre river close enough to listen to. We had 7 Hitchhikers at Gros Ventre, great fun.

Happy hour and a camp fire at our rig. Everyone ducked under the awning when a little rain fell but no spirits (human or alcohol were dampened!).

One afternoon we all met in the town of Jackson to explore the town and visit the famous "Million Dollar Cowboy Bar". Jackson is the town, the whole huge area, the valley, is Jackson Hole.

Part of our group under the forever photographed famous elk antler arch. These elk were not killed, they shed their antlers every year.

Inside the Cowboy Bar, those are real saddles and the bar is covered with real silver dollars.

By the way, the opening shot is the remains of the ranch used to shoot the movie "Shane".

This old boy came through our first evening, right in camp. These guys are huge, when he stood up his shoulders were over 6 feet tall. For you photo bugs, it was pretty dark. This shot was exposed for 1.1 seconds, hand held. Thank goodness for Nikon's vibration reduction and for the tree I leaned against, but still 1.1 seconds with very little blur is amazing!

There was a tree in the campground where a great horned owl had hatched two babies. The park was astute enough to cordon off a wide area, including giving up revenue producing camp sites, giving the mom and babies some privacy and protection. This is my favorite shot of the babies.

And here is mom. We watched her coax the babies out of the nest with offerings of field mice for them. Before we left they did leave the nest.

Typical buffalo site, these guys were almost everywhere.

Baby calf crossing the road. Not uncommon to have to stop to let these guys cross the street. Animals in the park do have the right of way.

One morning we took a float trip down the Snake River. We chose the early trip to see the most game. We were on the water by 6:00 am! And it was 38 degrees out, whoo eey. But what an awesome experience. We saw incredible views and we saw ducks, geese, eagle, white pelicans, moose, deer, and elk. Photography was a real challenge as the raft is not allowed to stop and we boogied down the river at about 7 to 10 MPH!