Day 4 Gand Teton National Park

Thursday , Finally we were both able to sleep in! It was a leisurely morning for us both. We decided to stay here, in the Tetons, for the day and explore the visitors center, a few very famous turnout points Ansel Adams used when creating some of his best work and do a little bit of animal watching along the way. We had chances of rain today and didn’t want to risk making that drive to Yellowstone just yet.
The day started off with a quick drive to Craig Thomas Discovery Visitor Center. It was not such a quick visit. Steph and I were in Discovery Museum Heaven! We had all of these questions about how the Tetons were formed, what are the differences between all of the different landscapes we are seeing and what the heck was that cute little furry animal Steph saw this morning (we now think it to be a Pika, and no not a poke man pikachu)! They also had some gorgeous original art works to enjoy. When our eyeballs couldn’t take anymore reading and our legs needed a break we hit up the gift shop. Steph found a kids book for identifying animals specific to this area. We thought this would be perfect for us novices. I spotted a pair of binoculars and we were finally in business to do this animal watching thing right!
So we hit the road at 3:30 and had to try to make it to the other side of the park before the Indian Art Museum closed. The problem was we had all of these famous photography spots to stop at along the way. I was finally inspired to pull out the medium format camera. However between a little drizzle and some frustrations on my part to operate the camera I wasn’t able to get the shot I wanted. Don’t worry Dad, I didn’t get any water of the camera : )While I worked on the camera I neglected my duties as animal spotter and we missed a bunch of Elk just up the road. A nice woman told Steph where she saw them last. While we packed up Steph saw a bird she thought was a bald eagle and called me to come look…I looked up, pulled out the binoculars to verify and sure enough it was! Off we went to see if we could spot some Elk. Sure enough just down the road we saw Elk feeding on the side of a hill. We still haven’t spotted a moose, but we are crossing our fingers, saying a prayer or two and hopefully before Sunday we will get our chance.
Ok…so now we had to rush to the Indian Art Museum because 5pm is quickly approaching. We walk in thinking we have 15 minutes and I double check with the man at the door and he corrects me saying “actually you have 13 minutes”... geeze! I guess he wanted to get outta there quick. We tried to see everything, but it was impossible. There was so much beautiful beading work to admire. We were the only ones there, yet the man at the front still made the announcement “we will be closing in 4 minutes”…alright already…we know you are closing! So we hightailed it outta there and walked down the ramp to see Colter Bay. We were told at the other Museum that we would see this part of the lake frozen and sure enough it was. It was so cold and the photo will show you how amazing the water looked.
On our way back home for the night we pulled over and had a chance to catch an inspiring and majestic view. The sun peeked out at just the right time and I think I maybe got one good shot using my dads camera, but for now here is one from our digital camera. Dinner and blackberry pie was just around the corner! Today was also Throwback Thursday at our Lodge so they were selling these gigantic nachos for only $6.25! That’s I for today! - Nicole