July 4--Flagg Ranch Roach

When it comes to mountains, you have to take advantage of days when there are no storms. Especially when it comes to dirt roads in the mountains. For a long time we've wanted to take the Ashton-Flagg Ranch road into Yellowstone, which is a 50ish mile dirt road between Ashton, ID and the northern border of Grand Teton National Park. It's definitely the most direct route from our house to either park--er, except for the fact that you have to drive so slow that you can almost walk it faster. But yesterday was clear and storm-free, so we tried it. And it was interesting!

At first it looks an awful lot like dirt roads in Arkansas. My mind kept telling me I was on a familiar road, one I surely must have driven a thousand times before:



But then we came to this lake off to the side--it had a sign about loons, but I'm not sure what it's really called. It was beautiful, though! Covered all over with lily pads. We saw no loons, but we did see a trumpeter swan, and also lots of electric-blue dragonflies.







Then it started to NOT look like Arkansas. We don't have these kinds of mountains there!



The only "traffic" we passed on the way. I don't know who this outfit is, but they are WAY off the beaten path!!



Also, if you spend too much time on line, you get sent to Camp LOL(L), which is about as far from any internet as you can get:



Another lily pond:



Grassy Lake Reservoir, almost on the Grand Teton border (and Yellowstone, too, actually), where my daughter paid no attention to the surroundings and instead read Sarah Williams's PALACE BEAUTIFUL quite obsessively. The reservoir was nice, but driving in to it, the water came within about two inches of the road, and we nearly didn't get over the large, eroded channel going out.



Combination of volcanic hill, marsh grass, and willow clumps.



A "creek" that feeds into the Snake River, rather close to Flagg Ranch at the north tip of Grand Teton National Park.



Apparently, my FIL drove it once with his dad. At some point he wondered if they'd have to just start homesteading on the Idaho-Wyoming border because the road was so bad. I imagine after a rain or snow, it would be pretty hard to get through, and there were some moments where we gritted out teeth, but we made it through. (OTOH, I think if I DID have to start homesteading on the ID-WY border, Grandpa Green the Mountain Man would be the guy to have along.)

Yellowstone, July 4

Driving up to Yellowstone from Flagg Ranch involves some terrifying cliffs on the side. I almost couldn't even take this picture. (And there were worse places where I couldn't even look.)



We saw tons of mosquitoes, as well as this lovely butterfly, who tried to hitch a ride with us:



Yellowstone Lake, which was frozen over last time we saw it.



There's a natural bridge up by the lake, which we wanted to hike out to earlier this year, but it was closed due to grizzly activity. (!) This time it was open, and well populated by tourists. It's an easy walk (a mile?). We also saw some marmots there, and a chipmunk.







Then we had to drive through the Hayden Valley, which everyone says is a good place to watch wildlife, only we have seen very, very little wildlife there ever. There were tons of cars off the road and people walking in front of oncoming traffic to take pictures of very, very faraway buffalo--but you can go just about anywhere else in the park and see huge herds, so I don't see what the point was. Shortly after we passed that area, we encountered three police cars and an ambulance headed that way, so maybe someone got hit there. That, or someone did find some wildlife to spar with. I don't see anything in the news yet, but I'll be checking the paper when it next comes out.



We saw the Brink of the Upper Falls, up by Canyon, but were careful not to get too close. (A few weeks ago, a brand-new employee from Russia fell to her death by bypassing the barriers and trying to take a picture at the Canyon. Maybe it doesn't matter in some places, but here, please, PLEASE stay behind the barriers and on the paths! We're not worried about you getting a fine--we're worried about you getting killed.)



Interestingly, the tourists yesterday were largely Chinese, as opposed to the Japanese ones from last week.

We are maybe getting to be buffalo snobs, but we still stop for baby buffalo.



On the way out, through Island Park, Idaho. Another lily marsh, one we always see blip by, but never stop to look at. This time, we did, and found another trumpeter:



The Tetons rising, ghostly, above Ashton.



I LOVE where I live!