Rise and shine, it's our last day of fun!
We drove to Jenny Lake, on the path to the boat, Gloria (who was finally getting her hair redone) found a caterpillar, she posed with it in front of a quaking aspen tree-one of my favorites.
Boat dock.
The boat!
On the boat! It was $45 to get us across the lake and save a mile of hiking. I thought it was a fun experience and worth it. On the way there we chatted with a Kiwi who was living in DC and on the way back we chatted with four hikers who just finished four days backpacking.
Beautiful lake, shore (where we later had lunch) and mountains.
Gloria was trouper on this walk, we had to keep up with her!
Pretty purple flowers.
Hidden falls!
Family photo
We stayed and contemplated nature here for a while or rather the girls climbed on fences, slid down a log...
and generally played around, happy to be out of the car, off boardwalks and able to explore a little.
When we started back down, Gloria said, I wish we could see a pika, and we turned the corner and there one was!! We saw him grab long green grass and run back to a hole, we assume to build a nest, others came along and he was too scared to come out again.
The girls say this picture makes it look much higher and steeper than it actually was.
Our little backdoor on the shore close to the boat dock...
we had smashed PB and nutella sandwiches.
After we crossed the lake and got back to our car, we went to String Lake where we heard is a lovely place to swim but the water was freezing, so the girls were happy to play in their 'secret hideout' while I took a little walk on my own...
selfie!
Caleb cooled his feet for a while,
and the girls found a lotus flower and lily pad that had washed over from the other side of the lake. As we couldn't take it, we posed a beautiful picture.
We finally drug them away from this very beautiful (and very famous, to quote something we quoted often) place and
drove to the top of the world, or at least Signal Mountain, where we had good views from both the valley and mountain side.
The 3 Tetons and Mt Moran
We drove past Oxbend Bow which is supposed to be great for wildlife but not in the middle of the day which is the only time we could squeeze it in...
and back to the Moose Visitor Center were we hung out getting to touch animal furs.
It is a great building and we watched their movie about the park
at the end, the screen pulls up and the curtains open up to this amazing view-what a show!
Drove back to the campground and loved seeing bison and mountains together.
Dinner at the campsite and after six days this is what my hair came to!
We walked to the River and wished we had more time to wade if it was warmer and add to the dam and skip rocks, we did this for a while and saw our first bald eagle flying!
It began to sprinkle but we still tried to have a fire which worked well enough to roast a few marshmallows!
The amphitheater was right by our site so we walked over to see the program on Mountain men, which we had learned a little about in the movie. It rained but the show went on! The Ranger said she had done shows even in a blizzard before.
This is a real beaver felt hat from the 1830s, which went out of style for silk hats but is what caused a lot of French Canadian trapper to come to this area.
Back at the campsite we tried to enjoy the last of the fire before playing a quick game of Spot it in the tent before turning in.
Days 9 & 10-we got up early and everything packed up, except these two little ones, we woke them up, took down the tent and were off for two full days of driving.
We saw riders heading home from Sturgis Rally, listened to more books, saw Home twice in a row, hated the Denver traffic, enjoyed the LaQuinta pool and beds and breakfast in Trinadad, CO. Last day was a long one, when we stepped out of our car for dinner in Texas we were blown away by the heat.
What a trip!!
