Phelps Lake 2018

Phelps Lake

This week's outing is a walk around Phelps Lake.  We'd visited this lake before with Larry & Phyllis when we walked to the Phelps Lake Overlook from the Death Canyon Trail-head.  This time out we parked at the LSR Preserve, walked the Lake Creek Trail up the Phelps Lake Loop Trail, circled clockwise along the Phelps Lake Loop Trail, and then back to the LSR Preserve via the Woodland Trail.  Nice walk.  Almost 7 miles.  Took us about 4.5 hours to walk.

After that it's been a work week for us.  Talk about fish.  More folks from Alabama came by.  They keep thinking they have to get back to Alabama real quick for Alabama football.  One of the base commanding officers for NAS Pax River dropped by, too. We didn't know each other - though I did remember him when he introduced himself.  He's retired, too, but still lives in Pax River.  I continue to be amazed at how many people I'm familiar with drop by the hatchery as they visit the area. And then we learn today that a 2nd cousin is in the area.  Well, we kinda knew they were coming, but had forgotten when. Anyway, it's a small world!

Deer

Anyway, that's it for us.  We're still talking fish around here.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us!  David

Terry Visits

Jackson Visitor Center

Yep, Terry came and kept us busy.  She got in Friday.  We worked Saturday, so Terry got a day to try to adjust to Mountain Time.  After that, it's been, go, go, go...

Sunday started with a float down the Snake River, walk through town, and a ride out to Grand Teton NP. 

Monday was out to Yellowstone, and the Upper Geyser basin. 

Old Faithful area

Tuesday was shoooooppppping in Jackson and dinner at the Bar T 5 Chuck-wagon Dinner.

Wednesday was a walk along the String Lake Loop Trail in Grand Teton with side trips to Leigh Lake and Jenny Lake where she got to see a bear.

Today was a recovery day and she prepares to return home.  We've tried to put pics here representing everything we did.

So that was our week.  Back to work Saturday.  Later, David

Upper Geyser Basin Overview Trail

Upper Geyser Basin - thinking we're looking at Lions Geyser

String Lake Loop Trail

String Lake Loop Trail

String Lake Loop Trail

String Lake Loop Trail

Bar T 5 Chuck-wagon Dinner

Bar T 5 Chuck-wagon Dinner

Two Ocean Lake & Colter Bay

Colter Bay - Mt Moran

Momma Bear

For our couple of days off this week, we headed on to Two Ocean Lake for a planned 6-mile walk.  We didn't plan on being on the brunch menu for all the mosquitoes!  Two Ocean Lake is on the upper northwest section of Grand Teton Natl Park and considered wilderness.  You travel along some nice, but narrow paved/dirt roads to get there.  We were out there hoping to see wildlife.  What we saw was bugs- lots of bugs.  So many that we just went to the lake, took some pictures and returned immediately to the truck.  Looks like a nice place for a hike if you can handle the bugs.

Heron Pond

Back at the truck we, decided to go to Colter Bay and take a easier hike up around Heron Pond & Swan Lake.  Saw momma bear & her two cubs - meeting our wildlife requirement - and lots of people.  Took the Colter Bay Lakeshore Trail out to Heron pond, ended up talking with another couple for a while, decided to just go back to Colter Bay for lunch, and come back home.  Somehow we still exceeded our 10,000 step metric for our Fitbits.

Two Ocean Lake - surprised the camera could take a pic thru the mosquitoes

Otherwise, we've spent the week talking about fish.  Our dentist, his wife, and their friends dropped by the hatchery for a quick visit.  Somehow, I just don't recognize people walking down the path from the parking lot.  So like Beau and his family, they had to introduce themselves.  I guess if our dentist had been in a smock and had a mask over his mouth, I might have recognized him!

We're also getting ready for Terry's arrival tomorrow.  Terry is our first visitor that'll be staying with us for a little while.  Donna's already got plans made for her.  Hopefully, she'll enjoy her stay with us - if we don't drowned her on a float trip or get her carried off by mosquitoes.   We're keeping our fingers crossed!

So that's been our week.  It's finally gotten warm here.  The local (Idaho Falls) news, when giving the weather this morning, noted that Jackson was the place to be.  I guess so and, apparently, so does everyone else.  A quick trip into to town this afternoon showed the crowds to be as large as they were on July 4th.   I guess that makes tourist trap season in full swing!

Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  We're having a good time & learning a lot each day.  Until next week, David

Happy 4th of July

Cascade Canyon as seen from the east shoreline of Jenny Lake

Happy 4th of July!  Hope everyone had a good holiday.  Been a busy week at the hatchery as vacationers hit in full force.  This week we went back to Jenny Lake (Grand Tetons) and walked the east side of the lake from the String Lake trail head down to the Jenny Lake visitors complex and returned.  Got a good pic of the entrance to Cascade Canyon and we saw our first bear of the season.  The next day was a trip over to Rexburg, ID to get things we just aren't finding in Jackson and to just check the area out.  We'll be taking the truck to Rexburg later this summer for service.  Found a great hamburger joint that we'll visit when we're back there, again.

Next day of note was the July 4th holiday parade in Jackson.  Both the Elk Refuge and the Fish Hatchery entered floats to show off each unit's mascot.  At right is the fish hatchery's larger tank truck with our favorite mascot - The Blue Goose, "Puddles".  We were there to hand out candy (Swedish Fish, of course) as the truck rolled along the parade route.  I told everyone it was cutthroat trout - just packaged incorrectly!

Back at work, we'd been trying to get a pic of the local fox.  She's been doing a good job taking care of some of the ground squirrels.  Turns out Thursday she was walking along side us on the pathway from the visitors parking lot.  Can't wait to see her kits!

Another visitor that we finally got on camera was the local hummingbirds.  Have to be fast to catch them on camera, but it was hot enough (& possibly they were thirsty enough) that they let me get a few pictures.

So that was our week.  Again, hope yours was fun.  Thanks for dropping by and checking on us!  David

Fox food

What's a parade without the mascots?