A Drive to Grand Teton National Park, along Falls Creek Road

 

It’s been a while since I have written, mostly because we haven’t spent much time outside. The reason, of course, is that the forest fire smoke has made the air quality so bad that its not safe to be outside or exercise. There was a brief respite last week and so Renita and I were able to do our walks, watch the Perseid meteor shower, and even take a drive to Grand Teton National Park.

The Perseid Meteor shower put on its yearly display, and I did go out to do a meteor count early on August.  12^th. I could see all the stars of Ursa Minor and even the Milky Way, so the seeing conditions were near perfect. From 4:10 to 4:27 am I saw nine Perseid meteors and six non Perseids. Doing a little math gave me a count of thirty-two meteors per hour. Not bad but nowhere near the peak.

We have always wanted to take the Fall Creek Road to Wilson. It doesn’t save any time, (a little maybe because of all the road construction), but we had read in the paper that bears were spotted south of Wilson which is where the Falls Creek Road is located.

The first six miles of the road were rough. The best way to describe it as a washboard surface that pounded our truck as we slowly drove upstream alongside Falls Creek. Occasionally a rock stood up and was too be avoided as it could damage a tire or an oil pan on a low riding car, (we were in our truck).

Six miles in everything changed as the county had just finished paving the next eleven miles! It’s a series of curves, one after another and the drive is slow due to the many turns. The road was also filled with people on bikes enjoying the smooth surface and easy ride.

Finishing in Wilson, our next goal was to go into the park and check the berry situation. The bears have had a tough go of it due to the extended drought but after entering Grand Teton National Park, we spotted hack thorn trees filled with berries.

Spotting a moose, we stopped and watched as it fed in a pond, before we walked along a trail past a bear warning sign.

There were quite a few walkers and so we felt safe. One person told us that a back bear had been feeding on the berries, but we never saw any bear sign. Renita, (my fearless pioneer woman), is really good at spotting tracks and scat, while I am constantly looking for live animals. She also listens for breaking branches and has alerted us on past hikes to a nearby bear. (My hearing aids are not as good as her ears). We spotted several pine siskins eating the berries and one posed for a picture.

Driving to the Jackson dam we drove by Willow Flats but didn’t see any sign of elk or bear. Turning north we next drove to Colter Bay to check out the lake’s water level. Colter Bay has been closed and all the moored boats had been removed. The lake is at an historic low.

As we glassed the dry bay a person next to us shouted, “look at the fox”, and turning we saw it casually trot past us before it begin to hunt for any careless ground squirrel. Finding a good vantage point, we saw that the fox had been collared. A radio collar on a fox means the fox has been fed by people!

Once it has been captured and fitted with a radio collar it is moved to a new location. If the fox returns and is fed again, it is recaptured and euthanized. While this may seem harsh it is a safety step to protect the visitors to the park. The rule is simple, a fed fox or bear is a dead fox or bear. They lose their fear of people, (a book I highly recommend is, Death in Yellowstone Park. In one case a woman was feeding a bear candy. Getting bored she said to the bear, “That is enough”, and turned her back and tried to return to her car, which was big mistake as bears don’t speak English).

From Colter Bay we drove out the entrance at Moran Junction and headed back home. It had been a good day of clear skies and we got a check mark form our Fitbit. That night the smoke moved back in from the California, Oregon, and Utah fires and new air quality warning have been reissued.

It’s supposed to get cold here, so we are hoping for rain to dampen the fires. So instead of saying clear skies, let it pour!