16th May:

We decided to have a lazy start today. All the early mornings have caught up with us plus ……….. we’ll have another early morning tomorrow as we’ll be chasing the sunrise again!

We had breakfast in the cabin and I tried out the huckleberry jam on toast. Of course, it was delicious.

The weather’s been fabulous today. It started at 36ºF and this afternoon had reached 71ºF. It was supposed to rain this afternoon but that never materialised. Update: It’s just started raining! ☔️

As we drove out of Dornans this morning we noticed a large collection of cars parked off the side of the road. A sure sign there’s wildlife about. Sure enough, Mangy moose had returned for his breakfast. At one point he started walking towards everyone so they moved back out of the way apart from one idiot who thought it a good idea to take a selfie with the creature. Luckily, Mangy, just kept on walking and didn’t seem at all bothered about all the fuss.

It seemed as though everyone were out moose hunting today. People kept asking if one had been spotted. I guess we were just lucky seeing mangy again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First stop today was the Visitor’s Centre to get our National Park’s Passport stamped. It’s a great system and one that our own National Trust in the U.K. has started.

Since 1986, visitors to the National Parks in the U.S. are able to buy a Passport To Your National Parks, to collect ink stamps from each of their explorations. We take the Passport to any National Park visitor centre or park store and stamp the passport with the date and location of our visit. We can then personalise the Passport even more by adding stickers from the area visited. It’s a great way to record and preserve memories from every holiday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that we went back to check on the Sandhill Crane to see if the eggs had hatched but sadly, no, nothing yet. We’ll check again before we leave on Friday.

On the way back, once again, we saw cars parked on the side of the road so we stopped to see what all the excitement was and lo and behold there was a grizzly bear on the hillside. It had been spotted by a young lad of about seven who had very sharp eyes indeed.

We got talking to his mum and dad who had another four children, all girls, and who are home-schooled. They live in California but are doing a road-trip as one of the daughters has just graduated from high school and she wanted to see what lay outside of California.

The mum was born in Ukraine but married an American. She asked me if I wanted to borrow her binoculars to better see the bear. She called me ‘ma’am! I’m know I’m not young anymore but it did rather make me feel 100! 😂

The young lad who spotted the bear had a bear t-shirt on as he loves Paddington Bear. When I asked if he had seen the films his mum said he hadn’t as they don’t watch those kind of things, they prefer to read books.

We went into Jackson for lunch at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and were served by a lovely young lady called Nicole. She has just moved with her husband, Dillon, to Jackson from Las Vegas! In conversation she told us that Dillon’s a chef and used to work at Spago in the Bellagio and at Caesars Palace. We told her we had eaten at both venues, the last time being during our visit last year and so we would have eaten his food. It’s a small world indeed.

We both had a very unhealthy lunch. Si had a cheeseburger and I had the Million Dollar Bison Burger (fabulous). Si had a Grand Teton Tres Lager (Mexican Lager) while I had a Cowboy Mule followed by a Cowgirl Cosmo. I think that’s why I’m having trouble staying awake to write this post! 😂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did a little more shopping while we were in town. I bought a pair of hiking trousers earlier in the week and love them so much I decided a second pair was required. Si managed to find himself a casual jacket too.

The shop I was in was the one I bought the pancake mix from last year!!!!! I told the man serving how the mix nearly got me arrested. We had a good laugh about it. Wasn’t funny at the time though! 😞

This year it’s being sold as Huckleberry Scone mix. I didn’t buy any!!

For those who do not know the story, take a look at last year’s post – Day 23 – Home! That’ll give you a laugh! 😂

The weather was so nice today, Si decided it was time to show off his legs in his new shorts, also purchased earlier in the week. It’s not just me buying things! 😂

For dessert we went to an ice-cream parlour called Moos. We follow a couple on YouTube who live out of a converted van and on their last visit to Jackson they tried the ice-cream and said how fabulous it was. They were not wrong. I had the Wild Huckleberry (two scoops) and Si had a scoop of pecan and one of vanilla. Another reason it’s hard to stay awake …………. we’ve eaten too much!

We had a quick drive around the Elk Refuge just to see if there was any wildlife to photograph. Sadly there wasn’t, but Si spotted this beautiful Yellow Headed Blackbird.

On the way back a Ranger had stopped someone, we assume for speeding. Quite right too! There’s a limit of 55 mph during the day and 45 mph at night to protect the animals but people do not always adhere to that. 😞

I don’t think these signs could be any clearer:

We were hoping to drive out to a spot called Blacktail Pond Overlook to capture the sunset this evening. We’ve never been there before but it’s supposed to be a perfect spot. Sadly, now it’s started raining, it will not be worth going so we shall have to try again tomorrow.

Better set the alarm early for the morning as we need to be at Morman Row for 5.55 a.m. to photograph the sunrise. They are usually spectacular there!

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Back tomorrow!