Day 36 – The Glorious Tetons!!

There is a certain amount of mental preparation that goes into each day. Today’s was easy preparation, assuming that I have a mind to prepare. The reason it was easy was that we only had about 50 miles to go and the Grand Tetons were awaiting us near the end.
We pulled out of the KOA and said goodbye to the very nice little town of Dubois, WY. Dad and I took it quite easy today and enjoyed both the ride and the scenery. We enjoyed much side-by-side riding and it was good on the quiet road to have good conversation with Dad.

The real-estate, though very expensive, would be the choice of almost anyone with the beautiful mountains in the background and I began dreaming of how I would move the mountains to MI so that I could enjoy them in the greatest state in the union. I decided that many things could be moved but mountains are not one of them.

I guess I can still dream.
The dilemma began when the construction came into view. The state of WY is widening the road that goes over the mountain at Togwotee Pass. This is not the normal quick fix resurfacing that is often done. This involves tearing up all of the asphalt, bringing in semi load after semi load of gravel to stabilize the road, smooth, bring in more dirt till the road is at the right level, and then finally lay the asphalt. When the project was started, they estimated that the entire thing would take 9 years. 12 miles are about as much as can be done in a year since they can only start after the snow and frost is gone. This makes for a lengthy process. Herein lies the dilemma!

When the asphalt is all torn away and only gravel is left they do not allow bicyclers to ride up the hill and hold up traffic for that long. They forced us to ride in a vehicle till the construction was done. 6 miles in all would be ridden in a car. Is this cheating??? You might say that 3994 miles out of about 4000 is close enough. I resigned myself to the fact that I was not riding out of fatigue but I was riding because I was not allowed by the state of WY to ride on the road. What do you think?
We did get past the construction and back on our bikes and continued to Togwotee Pass. It was only 9658 ft above sea level and was nothing compared to Hosier Pass at 11,542 ft, but nonetheless it was a nice climb and gave us quite a workout. We enjoyed a picture together.

There are many creative ways to use the self-timer.

This time the camera was placed on top of a metal pole with a circle reflector on it. We continued up the hill and came across the first Continental Divide sign of the week. At the top of the hill we encountered a couple sag vehicles from Cycle America. They seem like a fantastic organized group of volunteers running this ride. They supply three meals a day and also set up the tents for the riders at nights. What a deal! It almost sounds like they are getting the treatment that we are, but not quite. I think our sag team is the best that money can buy!

We descended until all of a sudden the Grand Teton Mountains came shooting out of the ground. They are the most spectacular mountains that can be seen in the Rockies and possibly the entire world. We soaked in the view while talking to a Vietnam War vet. He was a neat man and held on the good memories of the celebration that finally took place for him just last year ago. What underappreciated men for such bravery and courage that they all displayed!
A short and fast ride down the rest of the hill to the Grand Tetons RV Park gave us the rest of the afternoon and evening to enjoy Jackson, WY and part of the Grand Teton National Park.

Everyone loaded up the Yukon and headed to the National Park. The Wildlife Art Museum was a stellar building. It was too expensive so we did not take the tour.

The Grand Teton Visitor Center was one of a kind with an entire herd of stuffed elk inside.

The man at the counter told us the two places that we needed to go in the Park before our dinner reservations, so off we went. The first was Jenny Lake.

Tucked behind a small rise in the landscape was this crystal clear and not too cool lake. It was enormous and magnificent. Much bigger than I expected a snow water fed mountain lake to be.
The second place was the Signal Mountain Lookout.

I felt like an eagle soaring above everything, awestruck at the beauty of the mountains from this different point of view. The campground atop of this mountain was calling our names but knew that not all in our party would feel the same way.
Supper reservations were not too far off, so we traveled the short distance to the Jackson Lake Lodge.

The sunset created the perfect atmosphere for supper. We enjoyed buffalo, prime rib, and an assortment of cheese. It was all very good and I thought that our waiter was the best and most knowledgeable that I have ever encountered. He lived on an island right near to where we are ending our trip so he was excited to hear about the trip and especially where we were ending up. If any of you ever eat in the Mural Room at the Jackson Lake Lodge, ask for Rich to serve you. He made our enjoyable night much more enjoyable.
We made the short trip to our RV and slept well. Tomorrow will be 100 miles in the mountains so we will need every ounce of sleep that we can get!