Day One With our Daughter Jen, The Grand View Trail, Moose, and a Black Bear

We were surprised when our daughter asked us if it would be ok for her to come down and visit us. She had some unused vacation days and she had to use them or lose them so of course we readily agreed to spending some more days with her, (Eric didn’t have any extra days off). The night she arrived we talked about her itinerary and she enough on her list to keep us busy for a lot longer than three days. Her list included, hiking the Grand View Trail, bear watching, wildlife viewing, driving up to Yellowstone, and some more flyfishing lessons! The next morning, we got off to an early start and arrived at Grand Teton National Park about nine am. We drove to the Moose Wilson Pond, parked, and were rewarded with a resting moose calf. It was resting below us, unconcerned with all the people taking pictures.

Heading down the trail we hoped to see a bear, so of course we didn’t see one. Instead, we spotted a moose and her calf. As the cow moose was feeding three people got way too close, less than twenty-five yards!

Luckily for them the cow did not stomp them and instead flushed out into the sagebrush covered bench,

(Jen took a video of them but I have not figured how to post it on the blog).

Upon returning a larger moose had showed up! Loding into the car, we drove south on the road hoping for a bear encounter. We did not have any luck as there had been a sow and cub black bear, but they had walked off into thick brush. After several more loops without seeing any bears, we decided to drive to the trailhead for the Grand View Trail. Armed with our lunch, walking sticks, binoculars, cameras, phones, and our lunch we started up the trail.

The first part of the trail is easy, but Renita and I soon had to stop to catch our breath. There was too much weight! Jen showed us how posture helps to expand your chest and allow in more air, but we still had to make frequent rests. She patiently waited for us but after a while decided to wait for us on the top.

We finally caught up to her as she was visiting with two other young people on top. We rested, ate our lunch, and then posed for a picture on top. After admiring the view of the Tetons, Emma Matilda, and Two Ocean Lakes, we headed back down the trail.

The others had stopped their descent, and were taking pictures of three ruffed grouse. One posed in the middle of the trail, and we took a great picture. The camouflage of these birds is excellent! If they hadn’t moved, we never would have spotted them.

Returning to the car we decided to drive the loop looking for bears and on the last loop we saw a bear jam. It was a large black bear, eating berries, and we were so close to it that we had a hard time getting a god picture.

It’s really hard to get a good picture, but my best one only shows the bears ears and the outline of its head. It had been a wonderful day in Grand Teton National Park, and we celebrated it by eating pizza at the Snake River Brewery. The individual pizzas were so large that we could only eat half of them! WE will definitely stop there again. On the way home we decided that tomorrow would be dedicated to flyfishing. Tired we collapsed into our beds. It was a great day! Clear skies