This morning we bade a fond farewell to Teton Springs and traveled on to Grand Teton National Park.
So here’s a funny story (at least to us.) Many years ago we were traveling in Arizona and we came across pointy mountains named Dos Cabezas. What could cabezas mean? We decided that cabezas must mean breasts because that’s what the mountains looked like. Hah, were we stupid! Cabezas means heads. But now, here in Wyoming we have found the real cabezas, I mean tits. Because that is what Tetons means.
We drove through the park and found a place for a scenic picnic. We had some leftover organic sausage and some yummy Grandma’s bread from Bountiful, Ut. It was quite idyllic.
We also learned some amazing geology here. The uplift of the Tetons was simultaneous with a sinking of the valley floor. The actual distance between the sandstone that was the lake bottom before all this geology happened is on the top of the Tetons and buried below the valley – thirty thousand feet apart! There has been so much erosion that the now the distance appears to be less. Plus, as you can see in the picture (I know, there’s no picture), there’s an amazing inclusion in Mt. Moran that was molten rock being forced up. It’s the dark stripe in the rock. John and I love this stuff!
From Grand Teton NP we drove into Yellowstone NP. On the way there natural feature after natural feature was named after Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition. We could only imagine that as they approached each new feature Lewis called out, “dibs!” And thus we have Lewis Lake, Lewis River, Lewis Falls, etc., etc. John and I decided that Meriwether as a lad hated his first name (having wished to be called Louis Lewis or Louie Lewie) and therefore for had a need to mark everything with Lewis rather than Meriwether. What was Clark doing during this time. I have no idea, but since my maiden name is Clark I am assuming his was taking the higher ground and letting Lewis have his way.
We made our way to West Yellowstone which is an ugly, over commercialized place whose only reason for existence is to feed and lodge all the visitors. After finding out that our reservation had been cancelled (huh?), we played the it’s our anniversary card and got a better room at the same price. We got some KFC, watched So You Think You Can Dance (I know, Ryan, lame), and exchanged the Best Western’s scratchy sheets for our own.
Tomorrow the real Yellowstone adventure!