Grand Teton National Park - Les Trois Tetons

First full day in Grand Teton National Park ... a full measure of life!

Movies and magnets - We first went to the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at the southern or Moose Entrance of the Grand Teton National Park.  It has become my ritual (and Paul humors me) to see the orientation movie for any national park and to pick up a magnet to memorialize our visit to the park.  Yes, there are criteria for purchasing the magnet - we must visit the park ourselves (no gift magnets); we must visit the visitor's center and see the orientation movie/film (if there is one); and, we must take a hike within the park.  Life can be tough traveling with me, but Paul seems to bear up well under the pressure.

We then decided to take a hike to Taggert Lake, had lunch, and then over a lateral moraine to another lake, Bradley Lake, a bit higher in elevation.  There truly are no words to describe the majesty of the mountain vistas as we rose higher and higher ... clear skies with only wispy clouds blowing over the peaks, spring flowers in yellow, purple, red, white, and cream dotted the way, breezes blowing off of the glacial meltwater lakes cooling us down, and around each bend in the trail another magnificent vista of the surrounding mountain peaks.  And, at the end of each hike ... Paul and his GPS provide the data.

One of the interesting geologic features is that there are no foothills.  The Tetons rise above the river valley abruptly due to the tectonic plates along the Teton Fault which are pushing the mountains up and the valley down.  The mountains have been pushed up so far that some of the earth's oldest layers of rocks constitute the craggy peaks yet the Teton mountain range is one of the geologically newer ranges.

Bambi is tucked neatly under some spruce trees as we are camped at the Headwaters Lodge and RV Park at the northern end of the Grand Teton National Park (actually closer to Yellowstone than to the central area of Grand Teton).  We have found our cool (70s during the day and 40s during the evening).  We are on the headwaters of the Snake River ... Bambi is quite happy ... as are we.