Baby Love

Thursday we discovered an osprey nest on a phone pole near the entrance to Teton NP. Ospreys are large birds similar to eagles, but they are fishermen. The female was in the nest and we saw the male approach with something large in his mouth. He landed in the nest and he and his mate busied themselves feeding the young'uns. Then we entered the park and drove along the scenic road to Jenny Lake. Took pictures of the mountains and proceeded into the town of Jackson.

Jackson is a cute town with tons of shopping and restaurants. All of the chains are here including
Orvis, Coldwater Creek and GAP. I had a great time having my hair cut and colored. We went back to our camp and I did laundry where I met and chatted with some nice women.

That night we went on a sunset cruise on Jackson Lake leaving from Coulter Bay. Our captain is a middle school science teacher from Boca Raton, FL. He comes up to Teton for the summer and gave us a terrific tour with lots of information about the mountains and how they were formed. One impressive mount is Mt. Moran which has several glaciers one of which has snow 300' deep. We also saw some deer and an eagle living on the islands that we passed.

On the way into the park that night we saw two black bear in a field and a moose with her calf. On the way home we had quite an adventure. Approaching the lookout where we saw elk the night before, we pulled over and saw a large herd of elk running. The herd was being chased by a grizzly and we were watching this drama unfold from a safe distance. The elk split into two groups and the bear took a second to decide which group to chase and lost precious time. When he/she stopped to rest several bull elks challenged the bear and outran him. The bear charged after the herds several times and eventually got too tired. At that point the elks started to bugle (a loud distress call) and the cows and calves came out from hiding in the trees to join the rest. There were so many and they formed a large circle to protect their young and vulnerable members.

It was amazing to watch this true test of survival. These animals are not fed by park rangers, they are wild and eat each other when hungry. I'm just glad that all the elks were safe while I was watching.