Fontenelle Reservoir

We woke up to a cloudy, overcast morning, a good time to be moving on. While Ted was dumping the tanks and adding fresh water, it was spitting snow. After two weeks in Grand Teton National Park, we stopped at the post office in Moose and then headed toward Jackson. Jackson is a pretty town surrounded by mountains. One ski area is right beside the town with another a shot ways away. I'm sorry we didn't come down and explore this area but glad I accomplished what I did and really enjoyed the kayaking in the park and just being by the lake with our spectacular view of the Tetons.

We stopped at a KOA in Hoback Junction for propane and the young man who was working the counter was from Brunswick, Maine where I worked for so many years. His father worked at BIW where Ted worked. We keep running into Mainers in the strangest places.

Notice the Bears

Route 180/191 southeast from Hoback Junction followed the Hoback River through Hoback Canyon. The sign said "no passing for eight miles".  As we wound our way down through the canyon, the scenery was stupendous with high, colorful mountain cliffs on both sides. The aspens and cottonwoods are taking on their fall yellow colors and the shrubs and bushes are all yellow and rust colored as well. Although not as wonderful as the fall colors of New England, their contrast against the dark evergreens is stunning.

Once out of the canyon, the vistas opened up to wide open fields. In one field we saw more than two dozen pronghorn. Although most people call them antelope, they are a species all their own. There are no native antelope in North America. The song should have said "where the deer and the pronghorn play".

In the town of Daniel, WY, population 150, we saw two bald eagles circling overhead. I keep thinking about the hiker who said he had never seen a bald eagle. We have seen four this week.

We stopped for the day a little after two at Fontenelle Reservoir Campground. The reservoir is on the Green River which is part of the Colorado River Watershed. The campground is run by the BLM and besides the campground host and one creepy guy sleeping in his truck, we were the only campers. The fee for the campsite was $3.50 or one tenth of what we had been paying at Grand Teton. The wind was blowing hard by the time we reached the campground and there were huge whitecaps on the lake. I took my book out and sat in the sun in the shelter of the motorhome and the picnic shelter and read. That is when the strange man in the truck came over to talk to me. I don't know what he was on, but I was nervous and hoped Ted would come out to rescue me. After awhile, he went away and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Once the sun got lower, it started cooling off fast. After dinner, I couldn't get comfortable sitting reading so I went to bed early. Ted stayed up and was watching out the front window. He said he saw an big white goose flying toward a flock of Canada geese who were much smaller than the white one. We think it must have been a snow goose which is rare for the interior of the country but not impossible.