Last Day Among the Tetons

Our last day in Grand Teton National Park was bittersweet. The morning was cold, so I slept in under nice, warm blankets. When I finally got up, I spent the morning finishing up a baby quilt I’ve been making for a friend in Austin. She has been waiting for this quilt for way too long, and I really wanted to finish it before we left the park so I could send it from Idaho Falls, our next stop.

It wasn’t until afternoon that I finally got up the nerve to go outside and say goodbye to the beautiful park. As I stepped down from the trailer, I was greeted by my constant friend, a ground squirrel. He has a hole just beside our door. He scampers in and out of his hole depending on how menacing we look. Sometimes we just silently stare at each other. Adolfo was preparing for our departure. When he turned on the air pump to inflate our tires, the ground squirrel was quite unhappy. He came out of his hole and started complaining quite loud. I felt quite guilty about being so intrusive.

Later I went to take a final look at the owl living in our campground. The owl has made a nest in a hole in one tree. We have gone over to see her several times, but on our last day, rumor had it that the owlets were also visible. I went to see, and sure enough a tiny fur ball with huge eyes and beak was looking out at us. At times the top of the second owlet’s head would pop up, but I never saw its eyes. The mother didn’t look a bit interested in the campers who were all looking into her nest. The area was partitioned off, so we did have to stand at quite a distance and use binoculars.

When I went to the campground office to talk with the friends I’d made there, a ranger informed me that a moose with a new calf was just outside the campground along the river. Taking into account the ranger’s warning that moose cows are very protective and dangerous when with calves, Adolfo and I took off to find the moose.

At first we saw nothing. Then we saw the mother looking right at us from behind a bunch of trees. We slowly made our way to the side to see if we could get a glimpse of the calf. No luck, but we did get to see the moose cow better. She had given up on staring at us and was grazing. Adolfo took a few pictures and began to make his way back into the campground when he saw the calf walk toward the cow. We watched as the calf fed. When the mother started walking, the calf followed close to her side. They finally took a drink at the river and moved back into the forest.

We ended our stay with a final drive around the park. Tomorrow we leave. We will miss this wonderful place.



(photos of owls and moose taken by Adolfo.)