We used Firehole Canyon Campground on Flaming Gorge Reservoir as an overnight stop en route from Fort Collins to Grand Teton. We talked about staying in the KOA at Rock Springs, but as soon as we saw it from the freeway, we knew that wasn’t happening. Going farther turned out to be such a good choice. The landscape around us harkened back to the southwest… bands of color, rock spires and quiet. That night, we reveled in the cool fresh air, sleeping with the ramp door down. 
We were awakened in the middle of the night by the haunting sounds of a chorus of coyotes not too far in the distance. From what we’ve read, the southern end of the gorge is the more beautiful, but that wasn’t in our travel plans.
If we had it to do over again, we’d have taken more time to get to Grand Teton. We saw a couple of BLM campgrounds south of Jackson, right along the banks of the Snake River that looked very inviting but we felt time pressure so we didn’t stop. Entering Jackson from the south, we were impressed that diesel was posted at $4.39, comparable to what we had seen earlier in the day. Perhaps here, they weren’t so interested in gouging the visitors to the National Parks. We were disabused of that notion as we reached the north side of town, and found it at $4.69 and later, within the park at $4.96 (I think that’s the highest we’ve seen since Death Valley’s record $5.33!)
We found the campgrounds at Grand Teton less than inspired, but the beauty of the lake, the surrounding mountain vistas, the wildflowers still in bloom in late August and the stunning scenery more than made up for it. We camped in Colter Bay campground, a short walk from Jackson Lake. The water was clear and beautiful, and surprisingly not too cold. It was a treat to walk along the lakeshore, throwing sticks into the lake for Noche to retrieve and enjoy the multi-colored rocks shining just below the surface. They reminded us of the rocks we used to build the wall on Fern Flat. Hiking at this higher elevation was a bit of a challenge, but fortunately we chose a trail that was not overly strenuous and had enough birds that we hadn’t seen before to justify stopping frequently in order to identify them. We thought it looked like great moose habitat, but apparently the moose had other ideas, because we didn’t see any. Our last morning there, the wind had picked up significantly and the character of the lake had changed dramatically. Instead of the placid view we had enjoyed, now the surface was covered with whitecaps and the wind howled through the tops of the trees like a freight train. Time to move on to Yellowstone.
Now what is causing you time pressure? You two are the only people I know that retire, buy an RV and then have as much stress as you did when you worked!
Wow! Very pretty – from above head to below the toes!
Wow! I am with Michele! I didn’t go beyond Yellowstone on
my first trip. I remember Bad Lands, etc. on way there
but don’t remember this beautiful scenry except in park
things were beautiful. Aunt Dude says we saw moose and she
would remember! We laughed about how afraid she was. I have never seen such beautiful stones in water. Hope your
trip is going well. Dad is working on window and it is looking very good. We have lots of light in basement from
it. We will have a plant shelf on sill for some of his
plants which will be nice. Miss you guys. love you both
Did I miss the picture of the 50 bison around your camper somewhere?
I have an annoying request. Can the bubbleshare link open in a new window? When I browse through all the photos and then click “back” in my browser, I have to go reverse through all the photos before I get back to the website. Picky picky, I know but thought it might be easy enough.
Okay… responses:
Michele: Time pressure doesn’t go away when you quit work. This trip has turned out to be about visiting friends and family and we end up doing it on their timetables as well as considering weather and money, etc. The current pressure is to see what we can of the Northwest, and friends in Oregon, before settling down for the fall in California. Did you know we are going to be campground hosts at Seacliff State Beach this fall? We’ll be a bicycle ride away from Westi and Mike, and we’ll save on camping and fuel for two and half months.
Westi: The bison were in Yellowstone so stay tuned. That’s the next post. As for the link opening in a new window, you have hit on a personal dilemma of mine. To do that would be to write invalid code and that goes against the grain. Or to use javascript in a post and that is a hassle. So I’m going to mull your request. I get why you want it and I’ve been wanting to add a gallery section, with my own code, that won’t take you out of the site at all. That takes time I haven’t had though. For now… a couple of suggestions. You can right-click the link and choose to open it yourself in a new window. Or you can set our site as your home page. Then you can always get back to it in one click!
OK…I guess that means, party down at Seacliff beach this winter. Glad to see you having fun out there. Those pictures with the lake and the Tetons in the background look just like the scenes from “Forrest Gump” during his running phase.
See you soon,
Jack