Day 4: Jackson Hole, WY to Yellowstone National Park

 "It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature." Theodore Roosevelt

**We've been "off the grid" in Yellowstone for two days, so I'm getting caught up here.

Day 4: 100 miles

We started the day with a ride up the gondola to the summit at Jackson Hole: 10,450 feet.  It was clear and beautiful, and we could see the valleys on both sides of the mountain.  There was snow at the top – we went from 100° two days ago, to 45° this morning!  We then set off through Grand Teton National Park – more beautiful scenery – and headed to Yellowstone.

Here’s where the first glitch in our plans occurred.  We got to our reserved room (it’s hard to find a room inside Yellowstone) only to find it unbearably awful (Kim – this was a Motel 2).  A photo couldn’t do it justice (unless, perhaps, it was a scratch and sniff).  We quickly decided we could not stay in that room, and (fortune smiles again) found that one room has just opened up in the Lake Hotel for tonight only.  We grabbed it, and are hoping for more luck tomorrow as everything is sold out, and there’s no way I’m setting foot back in Motel 2.

After dinner in the (new) hotel, we took a drive to see some hot springs, mini-geysers, and mud volcanoes.  This is remarkable scenery (worthy to be remarked upon), and M. took videos and pictures of the “geological oddities.”  I can’t imagine under what desperate circumstances we’d actually sit down to watch bubbling hot springs and boiling mud, but the whole thing brought to mind the hours of home movies Dad took at Marineland (no kids – only seals, dolphins, etc.).  Then again, if we get stuck in another motel room like we started in today, those videos might start to look pretty good to us!

Wildlife sightings:

3 Moose (Mooses?  Meese?)  Whatever they are, Mimi can’t seem to capture them on film.  At one point, she was standing in a tree snapping pictures like crazy, but when we tried to download them, we saw trees and greenery (and even a man in shorts), but no moose!  Even when we had to stop for one in the middle of the road directly in front of us, the photo escaped us.

Finally!

1 wolf (not related – the 4-legged kind).  It was so cute – after he peed, he kicked up the grass with his hind legs just like Augie.

2 bison

1 grizzly bear

We now know that in an animal kingdom game of rock, paper, scissors, the bison beats the bear.  As the giant bison started ambling over toward the feeding grizzly, the grizzly picked up his prey and ran into the woods.