Day 5, Monday, Sept 21st

We woke early…… the call of town food and the colder than usual morning got us hiking out by 7:30am. We had heard what we think were moose mating calls all through the night and this morning. They were close, but we didn’t see them.

On our short hike out, we did get to momentarily see a large male full rack elk on the trail just ahead of us. Then we stopped to shoot some distant photos of elk in a meadow off to our right just before the trail leveled out near the end.

Another exciting moment was when we heard a thin tree being bent by a bear (we couldn’t see) obviously rubbing up against the tree.

9:45am and back at our car we happened to see David, our taxi driver, drive in ready to pick up some other backpackers. I asked him about a good breakfast place and he mentioned Signol Point. We were in heaven eating our eggs, sausage and whole grain, yummy, bread. And coffee for the first time in 5 days!!!

Still in our backpacking clothes, we decided to stay stinky and drive to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. It was a short visit watching Old Faithful go off. We visited the Old Faithful Inn where I met David Peterson, a local photographer, who was selling his photography books. I enjoyed my visit with him before buying one of his books.

Everything was closing up in the Yellowstone Park as the season was coming to an end so our visit was short.

We had a long day. On the 77 mile drive back to Jackson, we dropped off our bear canisters and saw lots of elk along the road. We checked back into the Cowboy Village Cabins around 9:30pm, after having stopped at Dornan’s for a quick dinner surrounded by a very happy, young and old, drinking crowd. Oh memories flooded back and I couldn’t wait to get out of there, even though the view of the Tetons through the floor to ceiling windows was intoxicating.

Once at the Cowboy Village, Tina and I got into action washing all our clothing and dirty gear. It was a long, late day.

I’m glad I got to hike the Teton Crest. I’ve always wondered what it would be like. Tina and I had a great time.

Now back to the point…..Shopping. That’s what we did all day Tuesday, Sept 22nd. It was a shop till you drop kinda day. I picked up my new photo carrying system I’d ordered from Eric at the local camera store. The Think Tank system. I love it. Tina finally splurged on a ring she saw the first day we went shopping.

We are in the Four Season’s Hotel. Tina got us a 3 day special reduced rate. The hotel is in Teton Village about 15 minutes from Jackson.

More later……..