Heading southwards to Grand Teton National Park (12th Oct 2011)

The weather is good today! Yay! We're hoping that we'll be able to capture fantastic pictures of Grand Teton today. But before we can head to Grand Teton National Park, we'll be driving through Yellowstone once last time. And we were intending to drive southwards, that is driving past Old Faithful to get to West Thumb. However, when we were at the gateway, the ranger told us that the road from Old Faithful to West Thumb was closed. Our guess was could be due to last night's snow covering the roads. Hence, my sister was going to head upwards, i.e. to drive to the northeast side of yellowstone then pass through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. However, when I examine the map, I told her that we could in fact just drive straight from Madison junction to Grand Canyon then make a right turn and drive southwards to West Thumb. In this way, its faster and shorter.

The craggy surface of the Caldera Rim 

As we were driving towards The Grand Canyon, we saw some cars stopping in the medows, and guess what we saw in the far end of the plains??? We saw a fox (it could be a coyote) running into the woods! I was not quick enough to capture the fox. The heading towards the east, it was the Grand Canyon. Since we were heading to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park, my sister thought that it was worthwhile to pay a last visit to the Grand Canyon. Hoping to capture 'an award winning' picture that shows the rocky walls of the canyon is yellow. (@_@) hahahaha.....Yeah I know it sounds crazy.... but that was what we did, visiting the Grand view of the Lower Falls again!

Morning sight of the lower falls in Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Grand Canyon Yellowstone

With a little of the morning sun shinning down on the walls of the canyon... the walls did really appear yellow. hahhaha.... We also visited the Upper falls. Not much of a difference... only that the canyon does not appear that scary. hahaha....

Upper falls in Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

After that is further southwards and the roads were slippery... coz at most portions, it was still covered with a thin layer of snow or ice. Finally we came to a picturesque place, known as the Ox-Bow Bend. Its really beautiful. However, when I saw my sister's photos of that place taken in late summer, I think the scenery is even more awesome in that period.

Snow capped mountains

Ox-bow bend (view 1)

Ox-bow bend (view 2)

After snapping a few photos, we went to another and also the last major sights we'll see in Yellowstone in this trip. And that is the Mud Volcano. Amazing... this is one of the place that you can see lots of mud pots bubbling or 'bloping' away. and seriously the hydrogen sulfide in the air is super potent. U must be wondering what's hydrogen sulfide smells like... its rotten eggs smell or when u peel a hard boiled egg... there's this smell... and that's hydrogen sulfide.

Mud volcano (think this is pH 2). it was very violent. Can u see the cracked surface surrounding the mud portal?

Over looking at the carpark & sulphur cauldron 

Dragon's Mouth Geyser

That's me breathing out the 'dragon's steam'. hee hee

After viewing the Mud Volcano region, we drove off wanting to reach Grand Teton as soon as possible. Coz we'll be covering some areas in Grand Teton National Park. However, as we were driving along the Yellowstone Lake, we saw a couple of cars stopping by the road. When we turned to our right... guess what we saw??? Its a mama Grizzly Bear!!! Yes! we finally see bear! hahaha.... so all of us got off the car and walked towards the fence where the Grizzly was behind in the grass patch. As we were walking towards the Grizzly, we saw a baby Grizzly coming out from the trees on the right side heading towards its mum! Double wow! We thought we were lucky to see 1 Grizzly, but to see 2, its like striking lottery! hahaha... coz its really really rare to see Grizzly. And more and more people stopped their cars and took pictures of the mama bear and baby bear.

Mama Grizzly & Baby Grizzly

Snow capped mountains on the other side of Yellowstone Lake

After that we headed further south. For now, we've finally finished the 3 main animals that we gotta see in Yellowstone. hahaha..... As we drove further south, the scenery changed quite a bit. Coz now we no longer can see geysers and thermal pools. and the air no longer smell of hydrogen sulfide. but its the crisp smell of pine, mountains and autumn.

It's a board informing of the continental divide... no idea why there is this board.

Lewis river cutting through the canyon

Grand Teton National Park

Very soon, we saw the chains of mountains beside us, in front of us. Yup! they are the famous chains of mountains in Grand Teton National Park. These mountains are really weird. When you look directly at them, they appear sort of dark brown with snow on them, however, when u look at them  from certain angles, they appear purple! Seriously I'm not bluffing.... they really look very very beautiful. Pity was most of the places in Grand Teton National Park was close. Apparently the only place that was open was 'Signal Mountain'. We drove to Jenny Lake (1 of the iconic place in Grand Teton National Park), however the winds were so strong its hard to capture any great photos with the reflections of the mountains on the lake.

Golden trees (an indication that its autumn!)

Think this is Jackson Lake

More mountains

Grand Teton Glacier (that the white smooth patch in the middle) Grand Teton is the one on the left with the pointy tip

Chain of mountains that appear purple

But I must say that over in this national park, numerous trees had changed their colour to yellow, orange and red. Its really a very pretty sight. =D

Autumn colours. Ducks wadding in the pond. (taken at Jackson's visitor center)

After driving through the park and capturing the pictures, we headed to the town where we'll be putting up for the night. That's Jackson. We found a motel to stay. (I can't remember what's the name). Although the price was low, they do not provide proper seasoning for the cooking. Basic things like pepper, salt, sugar, creamer were absent. Anyway, we told ourselves that its just 1 night... tomorrow, we'll be viewing some more parts of Grand Teton before taking a couple of flights back to Seattle. Why a couple of flights you may ask. Coz there are no direct flights from Jackson to Seattle. So the best way was to take a flight from Jackson to Salt Lake City and from there we take another flight to Seattle.