Day 9 – Sunday : Dubois to Grand Teton National Park (257 km) The possibilities of the water rising in the valley had played on my mind for much of the night, so we decide to leave early in case the waters rise following the heavy rain, trapping us. The previously warm and dry gravel road is now muddy.
We stop for breakfast just up the road in Dubois; at Coyote Blue, a nice café with friendly locals. One of them suggests we check out their local music venue: www.dennisonlodge.org.
We also top up with diesel while in town. We have been surprised by the lack of diesel in some gas stations since you won’t find one in Europe that doesn’t stock it. A gas station owner in South Dakota told us he would love to stock diesel, but there are too many hoops to jump through and associated costs these days – he had pointed me another 10 miles down the freeway to where I could find diesel. After that I was more careful about filling up the tank while I still had plenty to spare, or at least I was for now.
I ask the attendant to fill the empty propane tank. He is very helpful and removes the cylinder for us, though it is a struggle and he has to find an appropriate wrench since the plastic screw-on part has jammed. Once removed he shows us the problem – a piece of the plastic - something attached to the cylinder, had got caught in the thread when previously refilled and someone had done it really tight with a wrench in an attempt to stop it leaking. With the plastic removed it does up hand tight. We thank him profusely, but he says that heck, he has nothing else to do; it isn’t like there are many customers stopping by early this Sunday morning.
We stop for the obligatory picture at the continental divide.
We will be crossing this several times in the coming days in various places. The weather, hot and sunny until now, has changed with last night’s storm. People are saying it will blow through in a few days, but we are only in the Jackson / GTNP / Yellowstone area for a few days – so this is not good timing.
As we drop down into the valley on US-26 it becomes evident the Tetons are completely obscured by low cloud. I had previously marvelled at photos of the Tetons looking stunning with their white caps against the blue sky, including photos Bryan Appleby (bka0721 on rv.net) has taken.
We are due to meet up with Bryan later today, together with LaDawn and Brian Towell from Golden CO (btggraphix on rv.net). But since we are earlier than expected Sally wants to see Jackson. We stop at the visitor centre and I try to get a cell connection to get internet, but to no avail. The visitor centre staff point me to an area where I can sit and use their wifi, which is slow, but allows me to catch up with messages.
I had voted in advance for the general election in Britain, but now was the first time seeing the result. It is strange when you are away because the news always assumes you were aware of the happenings during the last week, so only talks about the ongoing developments, from which you get a tantalising feel for what you missed without seeing the whole story.
To our relief the weather has now improved.
Sally wants to see the Jackson Hole ski resort, since we are close by, and because she is always looking for ways to entice me to try skiing in the future.
Arriving at the village the parking guy points us to an empty lot, so I park at a strange angle necessary to get the camper level. Unknown to me at this time, a couple of hours later when we return the parking lot will be almost full, so our randomly angled camper will look like it was parked by idiots.
We take the Swiss built cable car to top. It is a very smooth ride, but I’m surprised by the $80 cost for 2 tickets.
Sally talks about walking back down, but I point out that we don’t have the time and all the trails are still closed due to snow.
I set the GPS and it directs us left out of Jackson Hole, rather than back through Jackson – this is good in my books since I prefer to try a new road than retrace my steps. This leads us to the entry station at the south end of GTNP. We pull up to the ranger hut and flash the America the Beautiful card once more. I have to take a slightly wide line approaching to ensure we don’t hit the overhanging roof of the ranger’s hut. She notices this and looks up – “Wow, you are pretty much on the size limit – just keep well to the right please” and waves us through. Actually, I suspect we are well over the size limit. This is not a problem for us since no-one else with similar sized vehicles is coming in the other direction. Compared to the roads that run through British parks, often dropping to 7 or 8 ft wide, this gravel road is a veritable highway. However, that doesn’t stop our appearance from panicking oncoming drivers who clearly have difficulty judging their vehicle’s widths. I guess many are used to city driving with nice wide lanes separated by painted lanes. Pretty much the only vehicle that doesn’t need to slow down or stop as it approaches us is a flatbed dually truck used for park maintenance. He is longer and wider than all the other traffic by a large margin, but the difference is, he is used to driving that truck in narrow roads and can see there is plenty of room for him to pass, where Ford Focus drivers struggle.
We make it unscathed back to the highway, with only one oncoming driver looking disapproving and wagging his finger at us.
Now it is time to find our friends. We pull into the ranger station where Bryan Appleby is working – or rather isn’t – he has gone for a kayak trip (OK, I guess it is a ranger-lead kayak trip, so still technically work). We walk down to the boat dock and as we approach I spot Brian and LaDawn with their rental kayak. I am going to play it cool and sneak up on them and ask directions, pretending to be a stranger, but they spot me before I can trick them. It is lovely to meet up again. After only a few seconds our favourite ranger, Bryan Appleby, appears, fresh from kayaking. The day is getting better and better.
All three, together with their mutual friend Liz, have just returned from kayaking. The weather is perfect and the mountains look amazing across the lake. “Fancy renting a kayak and going out on the lake?” comes the suggestion. Why not? I have been looking forward to some group kayaking with our friends on Jackson Lake for many months. It would have been easy to say “Oh, we can do that tomorrow, let’s get ourselves settled first…”, but given the variability of the weather there is no time to lose. Remember, I live in England, and you don’t turn down the opportunity of making the most of the rare sunny day back there.
Bryan Appleby has to return to the visitor’s centre to man the information desk, so Sally and I rent a tandem kayak ($42 for 2 hours) and us, Brian, LaDawn and Liz take off onto the lake. I am a bit worried because I have left the camper in the short-term parking area near reception; “Well, you would need to talk to a Ranger about that” Bryan winked – so I guess it won’t be a problem.
There is some confusion and struggling initially, at least in our kayak. Liz calls out “Are you sure you don’t have left-handed paddles?”. Well, she is right – they are adjustable, and are set to left-handed. I didn’t even know there was such a thing and certainly can’t believe how much of a difference it makes. The store we bought our own kayak from had figured out the best paddles for us, so I guess we didn’t appreciate the options available. A bit of adjustment and paddling is so much easier – we are now going in a straight line and can stop arguing about whose fault it is that we are paddling around in circles.
We enjoy a marvellous couple of hours on the lake, but as we head towards the boat dock we are racing against a storm that is heading in the same direction. We get back just in time.
We finish the evening sharing pizzas and stories washed down with beer at one of the restaurants.
Bryan Appleby is doing us a big favour and letting us camp with him. Squeezed in next to Bud’s big bus.
Bud scours the huge amount of storage under his coach to find a relevant adaptor so we can hook-up to the 120v mains supply. Collectively we manage to couple together enough connectors and extension leads to reach. I’ve learned from French campgrounds to always carry a huge amount of mains cable in my own camper.
LaDawn has bought her Toyota Four Runner and a tent – quite a departure from their regular Kodiak + Lance 1191, but they are in the middle of a truck change, so tenting it is. Unfortunately bringing a tent to an RV party has clearly tempted the rain gods.
