Monday August 17 Colter Bay Campground, Grand Teton National Park WY

A frosty start to a great day in Grand Teton. Got away soon after 8 and following directions that we received from one of the campers last night, we found a wonderful photographic spot, with some old farm buildings and a backdrop of the mountains. The early morning light was beautiful. Ian dropped me off with camera and tripod while he drove on to a pull off spot 50 metres away. I was totally engrossed trying to capture the view, when out the corner of my eye I spotted a big old bison bull lumbering along, about 30 metres away. I felt so vunerable, grabbed my gear, and then a car pulled up beside me, and I ducked behind them. They were smiling as they had seen the bull approaching and were sure that I hadn’t seen it. The worst part about it was that I didn’t get a great shot of it as I was still trembling!. Ian was calmly waiting, he hadn’t spotted it either.

On into the park, and as we expected the traffic wasn’t too bad at this time of morning. Parked at Jenny Lake and caught the little ferry for a short trip across the lake, where we set off for a 6 mile hike that took us past falls, and climbed up to an outlook, enjoyed a snack and a rest before heading up the valley and into the canyon. It was a superb walk, met heaps of interesting people and were impressed with the age of some of the people taking this walk as it was quite strenuous…I certainly felt it.

Camping in the park again tonight on Jackson Lake, a very stoney but beautiful mountain lake, glorious afternoon, no wind and about 25 degrees. A few hardy souls were swimming but they did admit to it being quite “fresh”!

We are parked in the trees about 200 metres from the lake, so after dinner I wandered off with my camera down to the lake to see what sort of evening light I could catch. Surprised to see a female moose and baby eating the bushes near the lake, and quite a few people were there watching. But she disappeared into the middle of the bushes and we waited for about an hour, but could only get glimpses. The cold beat me in the end.