Our last day here in the Grand Tetons and Dornans. 😔

Firstly, on a personal note, it’s 55 years ago today, 11th June, that Si and I started dating! 😱

Secondly, we were pleased to hear that it’s no longer necessary to take a Covid test to enter the USA. Shame that didn’t happen three weeks ago!

Although the start to our week here was a little disastrous with me recovering from Covid and Si testing positive, it’s all turned out rather marvellously. We’ve hiked, enjoyed some lovely weather, seen bears and other critters, dined well and found a few things to buy in Jackson. So all in all, we cannot complain! 👍

We decided on another early start this morning, 4.45 a.m. and took the short trip to Mormon Row to see the sunrise over the two famous barns, T.A. Molton Barn and John Molton Barn.

Sunrise at T.A. Moulton Barn

The T.A. Moulton barn is an iconic structure in Jackson Hole. The sunrise view with the barn in the foreground and the Teton Range as the backdrop is one of the most photographed locales in the valley.

Thomas Alva (T.A.) Moulton and his brother John homesteaded on Mormon Row in 1908. T.A. built a frame house in 1915 and dry farmed grain until the state built irrigation ditches to their property in the late 1920s. In 1930, the Snake River Land Company met with the Mormon Row settlers and many sold their property with most securing lifetime leases. By the 1950s, few remained.

We then drove to see if we could get one more glimpse of Blondie and her cubs. Alas, we didn’t but when we arrived at the location the Rangers were out in force, a sign that bears are present and sure enough, one of them told us we’d just missed some, they’d run into the woods. That happened to us twice today. We visited Lupine Meadow in the hope of seeing red foxes and were told we’d just missed seeing a bear there! I guess it’s all about timing. 🤷‍♀️ We did see Pronghorn though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just across the Snake River at the back of our cabin at Dornans is The Chapel of the Transfiguration. Somewhere we’ve been meaning to visit so we decided to do that today.

 

 

 

The chapel was built to serve guests and employees of the dude ranches that stretched north of Jackson along the base of the Teton Range. The land was donated by Maud Noble, owner of nearby Menor’s Ferry, predating the establishment of Grand Teton National Park in 1929 and its expansion into the Moose area in 1950. Construction materials, labour and funds were provided by local ranchers. It played a primary role in the movie Spencer’s Mountain, which was filmed in Jackson Hole in 1963, and featured Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara. The movie, although set in Wyoming rather than the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, was a forerunner (or early alternate version) of the television series The Waltons. I loved the Waltons and have all the DVDs that I still watch today! Sad or what!?

Anyway, back to the Chapel. It has been visited by President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, President Bill Clinton and his family plus the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Across the Snake River at the back of Dornans is the now unused Menor’s Ferry and the home of Maud Noble.

As we need to pack today for our onward trip tomorrow we decided on lunch instead of dinner and so went back to the Cowboy Bar in Jackson. We had another lovely meal and the place was really buzzing as it’s a Saturday.

So, to the packing! This is going to be a challenge as we are now travelling with more than we started with! Oh dear! Fingers crossed we can get the cases closed. 🤞

Tomorrow is a driving day. We will be overnighting in Salt Lake City before driving back to Las Vegas on Monday for our final few days.

I can tell the end of the holiday is upon us as I’ll be booking my Spinning class at the gym for Monday 20th later this evening. We’ve waited so long for this holiday and now it’s nearly over. 😔

Catch us tomorrow in Salt Lake City.