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Posted by GA Tim (66.168.208.179) on 16:22:22 06/29/12
Day 12 June 19, 2012 Tuesday:
Up at 5AM after a good night s sleep. It s a little difficult sleeping in a small double bed after being used to a king size memory foam bed at home. But we managed though we missed our cats. By this time in our trip we were really ready to come home. We made it over to the Lake Hotel dining room right at 6:30AM for their breakfast buffet. This was the best buffet anywhere in Yellowstone. The star of the buffet was several large fillets of smoked wild salmon. They had all the fixings to make a great bagel & salmon sandwich cream cheese, capers, red onions, chopped egg whites, and chopped egg yolks. All of the other items on the buffet were similar to other locations but everything seemed to be cooked a little better and tasted a little better. The coffee was great too and even though the buffet was more expensive, we still got our money s worth.
By 8AM our bellies were near the bursting point and we were on the road headed out of Yellowstone. But Yellowstone was not done surprising us. About 13 miles south of the Lake Hotel we spotted a large brown-colored black bear very close to the road. I really thought it was a grizzly at first due to the size and color. He paralleled the road for quite a while and we kept moving to stay ahead of him. We got up to a turnout on the other side of the road where we thought he might cross. The ranger was right ahead of us and told us we were OK as long as we stayed in the car. Finally a nice, understanding ranger in Yellowstone. The bear slowly approached the road and kept looking across but was getting spooked by cars stopping. The ranger did a great job of clearing the cars out and finally the bear made a dash across the road. The ranger yelled at the bear to keep moving now she was starting to sound like the other rangers!. The bear then disappeared into the thick forest between the road and the lake. What a way to end our Yellowstone experience!
We stopped at West Thumb for about an hour. Our previous visit here had been on that cold, snowy Sunday when we first entered Yellowstone. Today was sunny and it was still early enough that the winds were bearable. Once satisfied with our photos we continued south, stopping at Lewis Falls and Moose Falls. It was a much different experience without all the snow. We took our mandatory photo standing in front of the leaving Yellowstone sign and left the park.
We drove down into Grand Teton and took the Teton Park Road, stopping at Jackson Lake Dam and Jenny Lake. Later we just missed the two orphaned grizzlies near the Windy Point turnout. We waited around looking for them but they didn t make another appearance. We drove out to the main highway and stopped for photos at Schwabacher Landing and Triangle X Ranch. I really loved the view of the Tetons from Schwabacher Landing. I wish we could have fit in a sunrise there. We then drove up to Pilgrim Creek just to see if the blonde grizzly was around. What we found was a large bull moose eating along a small pond there near the dirt road. We watched him for a while and got some very close shots. I felt I was a little too close at one point but people actually got in between me and the moose (and they would stand right in front of my camera go ahead and get plowed by the moose, jerks). I had some good photos so I backed off and left the scene. I was amazed at how many people showed up and how quickly they arrived. There must be a good social network via texting or cell calls for everyone to find out so quickly.
We went up to Colter Bay to check in for two more nights in one of their cabins. This time the cabin was not so old and larger inside. There were also a few more electrical outlets and a better heater. However this cabin was plagued with large ants and spiders. And it was not cleaned too well either. We made the best of it and enjoyed our last instant noodles for dinner along with some tasty pasta salad we picked up at the Colter Bay general store (the chipotle chicken salad is awesome). After our little dinner we drove around a bit, out to Oxbow Bend, then around the dam and back. Nothing was stirring tonight.
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