2009 National Park Trip - Day 7

Triathlon day. We started out early and rode our bikes 5 miles to Signal Mountain Lodge planning to tackle the Signal Mountain Trail. According to our brochure this was a moderate 4 mile 2 hour hike. Go to the top and see all over. Signal Mountain is not part of the Teton chain, but is across Jackson Lake from the Tetons. It’s relatively short – according to our brochure it was a 900 foot climb.

I knew it that the brochure said it was 4 miles. Michelle thought it was 2.5. But anyway we started up, being sure to make reasonable noise to scare the bears. Once again we saw none. It was a pretty easy climb to start through a forest. It came out to a pond and some meadow. Nothing strenuous. We found out there was an echo out there and so made goofy noises to hear the echo. Nice views of the Tetons.

We came to a fork where it said it was 2.5 miles either way to the top. This was confusing since this wasn’t a total of 2.5 miles nor did it add up to 4. But we took the Ridge fork, saving the Lakes fork for the return trip. More of the same, really. Beautiful meadows, some forest. We came to a place with a stream on the right with a slope above it. Then the mosquitoes came. We battled mosquitoes for about ½ mile.

Oh and the trail started climbing. And climbing. This was a double cutback climb up to the top. At one of the cutbacks, a grouse was sitting along the trail, not 10 feet from it. It didn’t even bother looking at us. We continued the climb and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the flats to the east of the Teton range, with views of the south range. Beautiful.

While we were climbing up that climb, we heard someone talking on the trail below us. Sure enough, as soon as we got to the top, here they were, running up. Yes, we had hiked up the trail, and they had run. Oh, and the sign at the top indicated it was 3 miles back to the bottom. That’s right, a 6 mile trail.

We turned to go down, and Michelle was inspired to run – it was down after all. So we started running down the trail. The third leg of our triathlon (bike, hike, run). We certainly didn’t make it all the way back running, but we ran quite a bit. And since the trail wasn’t 4 miles as we thought, we were pretty tired when we got to the bottom. Still didn’t see any bears nor anything else for that matter (except the grouse and a snake).

So we hopped back on our bikes (hopped being inaccurate – it was more like dragged ourselves), went to refresh at the little convenience store, and headed to Colter Bay. That’s about 5 miles on the other side of Jackson Lake Lodge. Michelle wanted to eat at the salad bar there – I think I mentioned it before. It is a great salad bar. So we rode the 10 miles there, loaded up a plate (and a bowl of delicious veggie soup), and ate ourselves silly. Then we rode the 5 miles back.

Time for a nap. Actually I used to time to take a shower and do this blog. After about an hour or so, we went to the pool. Yes, I swam. Is that a quadathlon? Tetrathlon? Whatever. Of course swimming overstates what I did. I got wet. Went underwater. Refreshed. Then got out and read for another hour or so.

Since it was our last night at GTNP, we decided we needed to go out and look for wildlife. The shuttle driver told me of a route where we could go find the antelope and most especially, the bison. We started down the main highway and didn’t go far before we found some bison off the side of the road, about 100 yards from a pullover. We stopped, took pictures, got back in our car. ½ mile down, the bison were right beside the road, about 20 yards away. Everyone was pulled over and taking pictures – you know, doing exactly what they told you not to do.

We still hadn’t taken the road where all the wildlife was supposed to be. We continued on, turned down a 2-lane road going east and saw some bison far off to the north. We turned south, and saw some far far away to the west. Then we turned back west and southwest, and saw an antelope with it’s calf about 50 yards off the road. Then more behind us. Eventually the ones behind us crossed the road about 30 yards behind us.

Just up ahead all the cars were stopped and the buffalo herd (50-100) was milling on both sides of the road and crossing randomly. It was pretty cool. They were right there. A woman in the car ahead of us got out to take a picture on her left and one came up on her right just behind her car. Scared the heck out of her. We got pictures taken of us there with the bison behind us. As we got back in the car, the biggest one we’d seen came right across in front of us. So close that Michelle wanted me to put the car in reverse, just in case. Since there was a car behind us, I didn’t figure that would do us much good. We got a good picture of him and decided to move on.

We then went to Jackson and walked around. It’s sort of a cross between a cowboy town and an artist community. Lots of art shops alongside a Cowboy Bar. Lots of motorcycles beside Patagonia shops. (did I mention it was also a haven for outdoor activity?) We went to this bar with a second floor balcony overlooking the main street and had a beer and some food. It was a beautiful evening – very enjoyable.

It was dark going home – the first time I had driven in the park at night. I drove carefully looking for something to jump put in front of me. We finally saw a deer or elk (it was dark) beside the road and decided we’d see wildlife if we took the Signal Mountain road. We turned off and went up. It was very very dark and I was freaked out that 1, something would jump out in front of the car and I’d hit it, or 2. a bear would come out, or 3. something would happen to our car and no one would know where we were. Mostly I had an irrational fear of being there. Michelle had me stop a couple of times and turn off the car and lights but I couldn’t last long doing that. Maybe it was all those campfire stories of the guy with the hook or something. We got out at the bottom and there was our wildlife – a deer/elk/something. I took a flash picture, but I don’t think it came out very well. We went back to the room and collapsed to sleep.

I could tell you our interesting story of driving home, but you know that story. We drove home. Maybe we took 2 days to go the 1400 miles, or maybe we drove straight through. You decide which is more interesting.

A great trip! We now have to figure out how to retire and work summers there. And winter somewhere warm. Michelle even stated that given the choice of a Mediterranean cruise or this trip, she’d choose this. That’s saying a lot.