Day 43 (Friday, August 6th) Grand Teton

Today is a drive day but it incorporates driving through Grand Teton National Park. The first two hours of our drive was still in Yellowstone since we had to go around the west side of the lower loop to the south entrance. Grand Teton is very close to Yellowstone so we started seeing the moutain peaks relatively quickly after leaving Yellowstone. We planned a route that would take us along Lake Jackson and the west side of the valley down to Moose Junction and then back up the east side of the valley. After stopping at the Colter Bay visitor's center and gift shop for the obligatory T-shirts, we made a short detour to Oxbow Bend and enjoyed a wonderful view while we ate lunch.

After lunch, we turned south to continue our trip. Unfortunately, we fell victim to road construction again. A gravel truck came flying down the road, stirring up a cloud of gravel. One of the many rocks that hit us left a large star in the lower, passenger side corner of the windshield. We can only hope that it won't spread before we can get home and have the windshield replaced. Of course the unpaved road we had to drive on for several miles didn't set our minds at ease but we didn't let it ruin our day.

After making it through the construction zone, we were again captivated by the views of the mountains. Apparently there is a 40 mile fault line that created the mountains when the valley fell and the mountains rose. There were several spots along our drive that provided us with information on the mountains. One such spot told us about Mt. Moran which has 5 of the 12 glaciers in the park. We could easily see three of them and possibly a few on other mountains during our drive.

By the time we reached our southernmost point of our journey, the clouds had moved in and we were surrounded by thunderstorms with magnificant lightning shows. Due to the heavy rain, we didn't stop at any more overlooks but we felt we had seen the best already.

After leaving the park, our drive took us over mountains 9600 feet high (with more road construction). By the time we were that high, the rain and clouds were gone and we were provided with some spectacular views. The rock faces were very colorful. The beauty of the landscape even kept the boys' attention until we were about an hour from our campground. We'll stay in Riverton, Wyoming for two nights so we can rest up and do laundry. On Sunday, we'll head for a campground near Mt. Rushmore and Wind Cave in South Dakota.