Grand Teton National Park, WY
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 9:52AM
[Raul Keally]

Just as I was blown away when entering Glacier National Park, the same happened as I rounded a corner through thick forest and first saw the Grand Teton mountain range.  When I drove in, there were a lot of clouds and thunderheads forming over the mountains so I didn't get the best photos - but that was OK.

I headed straight to Colter Bay for a shower and some breakfast - and it was a great breakfast buffet!  I forget the name of the restaurant but they had an Enchilada breakfast caserole of sorts that was pretty tasty.  Eggs, potatoes, enchilada sauce, cheese and corn tortilla made lasagne style.  I hit up the general store for my daily ice/postcard purchase and then continued on to check in at the Jenny Lake campground.  This campground is for tent camping only and has 50 campsites.  I was lucky to grab the one of the last 6 sites that were available at 10:30 AM.

After setting up my camp and hanging up my rainfly to dry out (it rained the night before in Yellowstone) - I put my bike together and explored the surrounding area.  I hiked a little bit with my bike - although I was unable to ride it - not very many bike friendly trails in our National Parks.  Thunderstorms moved in pretty quickly and drenched me - only to dry off about 30 minutes later.  I eventually headed back to the campground and took a boat ride across Jenny Lake to hike up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point which provided a great view of the lake.

After the hike, I headed to my campsite to start a fire and make some dinner.  All of the sudden a deer came over the hill from behind my campsite and started to feed on a downed pine tree directly behind my campsite - about 10 feet from where I was standing.  I took a lot of great pictures that you can see from the link below as well as some video.  The deer ended up coming back later that evening - since I guess the pine tree was pretty tasty.  I had no idea that they ate pine trees. 

The next morning I woke up pretty early, jumped on the bike and headed off towards the southern entrance to the park.  I grabbed some great photos of the Teton range - since there were no clouds.  I ended up getting a flat tire at the farthest point on my ride - but luckily I was well prepared with patch kit and pump to fix it.  I jumped back on my bike - and came across some wildlife on the way (Pronghorn and some birds I could not identify) and the way back to camp.

I jumped in the car and headed off towards Jackson, WY to check out the town and grab some breakfast.

Photos of my stay at Grand Teton National Park can be found here

Article originally appeared on Raul Keally (http://raulkeally.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.