And Then There Were Mountains

After our time at the Badlands, we stopped by Mount Rushmore and spent the night in Buffalo, WY. We had initially planned to stop by Devil’s Tower, but in the moment decided it would be cut from the itinerary. We wanted to get to the Tetons, pronto. Rachel drove for a few hours, mostly winding through the Bighorn Mountains, where our highest elevation was just below ten thousand feet. Eventually, we made it into the park, flashed our spiffy access pass, and drove to our site at Colter Bay. Previously we had to deal with rattlesnakes. Now there weren’t any snakes, but instead much larger, furrier creatures. Yes, we were officially in bear country. The sites at the campground all had their own bear boxes, a steel case about two feet by three by three. We chose to keep all our bear attracting items in the car. We, of course, still slept in the tent. 

After an uneventful first night, we spent the day cruising around on the road, reading all the little roadside information displays. The really cool thing about the Tetons is that they rise out of the land without any foothills. They are just standing there, by themselves, like sentinels. Bam.

We did go for a short hike, to Phelps Lake. The trail followed a stream on the way up, and it was quite beautiful. I had the bear spray on my hip and a bell on the pack. It was our first hike in bear country and I was thankful it was a popular trail, since that way there were more people making noise, scaring the bears away. The view from the lake was spectacular.

We also went to the Murie Center, which is a conservation organization. They have a campus which they bring youth and school groups to and run environmental education programming. After this full day, we headed back to camp, got some sleep, and packed up for our next park, only a few miles away. We turned north and headed to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone teaser: