The patrolman approaches the car and says:
- Sir, do you know what the maximum speed limit is here?
- 55 miles per hour, I say.
— And what speed were you driving?
— I was driving with the flow of traffic!
- No, sir! The traffic was going 60 miles per hour, and you were doing 70!
- OK, I won't argue.
— Where did you come from?
— From Michigan.
- Okay, sir. I'm giving you a warning, no more violations!
- Thank you, officer!
I had a conversation like this with a traffic police officer just before entering the national park. Grand Teton — the mountains were visible right ahead. In fact, those mountains were the indirect reason I was pulled over: seeing the mountains, I stopped on the side of the road to take a photo, then sped up a bit, catching up with the group of cars I'd been driving with before… I was lucky the officer was kind, or maybe he didn't want to ruin my clean driving record: I haven't had a single violation for 15 years. But I learned my lesson and, from then on, simply put the car on autopilot to avoid exceeding the speed limit. And I later deleted the photo with the mountains because I had about a million of them, each one more beautiful than the last…
Grand Teton was the first park on our "must-see" list, and it was definitely worth it. From the very first moment, we couldn't stop admiring the views (and I kept remembering the joke:“Oh, Vanya, how beautiful!”). At one point we couldn’t resist stopping to take a few photos and walk along the path along the lake…
It was morning, too early to head to our campsite, so we headed straight to the trail. There are about a million trails there, but I had already made a list of the most picturesque ones.
As I walked along the trail, I discovered something pleasant: despite the fact that we had climbed quite a bit (the altitude was about 2,300 meters at the parking lot, and about 2,800 at the highest point of the trail), we didn't experience any signs of altitude sickness or even shortness of breath. This is probably because we we are in good physical shape We drove here for several days, gradually gaining altitude, and had time to acclimatize. However, physical fitness is also important: last year, when we drove from 0 meters above sea level in Hawaii to 900 meters above sea level and then walked to 4125 meters above sea level, we also felt relatively good.
One of the few inconveniences of the altitude (besides the cold nights) was that bottles of mineral water had to be opened very slooooowly. However, this rule is easy to remember after a few mineral water showers.
After the trail, it's time to check into the campsite—we'll be spending the next three nights there. It's a cozy, spacious site, close to the lake. The price is a bit outrageous: $60 a night. A year ago, we rented an entire house on the island of Crete, complete with a bedroom, kitchen, and living room, 100 meters from the sea, for less. But then again, what's Crete like, compared to Grand Teton?
Well, since there is a lake, you should swim in it and float in the inflatable boat you brought with you:
We had a meeting scheduled for the evening with my colleague Kevin. Kevin and his wife are homeless, in the truest sense of the word. They sold their house (at a tidy profit) a few years ago and now live in a van they've customized. It has a large bed, a kitchenette with a gas stove (and oven), a compact shower and toilet, and a kerosene heater. All the available space seems to be taken up with sports equipment—skis, bicycles… And on the roof, they have solar panels and a Starlink antenna—which is how they both work. It's wonderful to be able to live and work without being tied to one place. When I was planning the trip, I asked Kevin about his experience using Starlink, and it turned out they were planning to visit roughly the same places. So we invited Kevin and his wife to stay at our site and meet in person: we all work remotely at the office, and before this, Kevin was just a picture on a monitor.
The guys arrived on time, and we had a really good time. It turned out we had a lot in common, especially a desire to travel. Although, of course, theirs is much stronger.
Paths
You have to go to Grand Teton for the beauty—the mountains, the lakes, the alpine meadows… And these beauties are best seen while hiking the trails. The park has plenty of them, for almost every level—from short paved trails to trails that, with our considerable experience, were truly challenging for us.
So all we did was hike. Taking advantage of the fact that local time is two hours behind Michigan, we easily got up early—around 6 a.m. We'd drink coffee, get ready, and before 7 a.m. we'd be at the next trailhead parking lot. This is important because later the parking lots will be full, and you'll have to get up somewhere further away. Walking is fine in the cool, but later it gets hot. But there's plenty of water here—streams are almost everywhere, so you don't have to skimp. We usually hiked until 3 or 4 p.m., then headed back to the campsite, swam in "our" lake, cooked dinner... In the evening, I'd briefly turn on Starlink to send a message to the family chat, download email, do another Spanish exercise... And in the morning—another trailhead.
Of the three days we spent in this park, my watch showed more than 40,000 steps on two days. That's about 30 kilometers, and we were also walking through the mountains. So we slept wonderfully, much better than at home. 🙂
Over the course of these three days, we accumulated about a million photos, despite trying to clean them up every evening. But it's so beautiful there, so there are still a lot left.
Here are a few that I like the most:
Well, and a few more:
Living creatures
Besides tourists, the park is home to many other animals. The ubiquitous chipmunks scurry practically underfoot. Moose can be spotted in the distance—they like to hang out near water. And then there are the bears, of course. When we arrived at the campsite, I noticed that the local guard had a special "anti-bear" pepper spray canister hanging from his belt. I had one too—I'd bought it well in advance of the trip, but I'd carelessly forgotten it in the car several times. And then, on one of the trails, someone walking toward me said there was a bear up ahead. There was no canister—I figured we didn't need it with so many people there. Natasha, a few others, and I stepped aside and stood on a rock. And then he came walking toward us. We started shouting loudly to scare the bear and stop him from eating us, but he just walked past, not paying any attention to us. He probably thought to himself, “I’m so sick of these loud idiots…”.
There are two types of bears in the park: black and grizzly. This one clearly wasn't black, so we assumed it was a grizzly. Later, we discovered it was actually black, even though it was brown. 🙂 I looked online later to see how to tell a grizzly from a black bear: by the length of their claws. Grizzlies can have claws up to 10 centimeters long, while black bears are 2-3. So, you'll need to carry a tape measure...
Time to hit the road, old man, the climb is over...
Three days flew by. Early in the morning, we packed up the tent and headed from our now-home base camp to Yellowstone Park. It wasn't far—only 40 minutes. But before that, we stopped at a "wild" hot spring. A cheerful nudist was already there, so Natasha simply warmed her feet in the spring, and I waded in. After three days of swimming in a cold lake, it was nice to be in the warm water.
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