TETONS AND HOME

Grand Tetons

After two weeks in Yellowstone with no cell phone and limited email, we were happy to move south to Coulter Bay where we would be within driving distance to Jackson.  Hopefully in Jackson we would be able to make some phone calls.  But again no cell service in Jackson, so off to the Verizon store where after an hour or so, our SIM card was replaced and then we were back on the grid.  

National Wildlife Art Museum

Of course we drove around every day and took plenty of photos of all the many natural features, but one of the very best places we went was to the National Wildlife Art Museum which houses over 5000 pieces of wildlife art by various artists ranging from contemporary back to about the 1600's.  

Allan giving a moose a hand.

Outside of the museum was a wildlife sculpture walk and the sculptures were not just Wyoming animals, there were other animals represented, such as penguins.

Inside was a striking lobby with a totem pole of animals along with sculptures all throughout the museum with a special room for all the small sculptures which were inside a glass case.

King of the Forest by Rosa Bonheur

One of the largest paintings was also a pastel.  Rosa Bonheur had two paintings in the exhibit and one of them was a soft pastel on linen done in 1897 from a subject outside her home in Fountainbleu.  She was a strong advocate of believing that men were not the only gender that could have artistic talents. 
This painting is about 6 feet tall. 

There were many paintings from the artists of the Hudson River Valley and of the Early American Impressionists.  This painting is by Albert Bierstadt with the wildlife taking second place to the landscape.

There was a section of the room where wildlife art was displayed to show how most artists (and photographers) choose the male of the species to portray.  This painting is of 3 female moose.  "Ladies Lunch" by Ken Carlson in 1994 is depicting a usual scene when showing female animals; they are either eating, or nursing, or protecting their young.

"Deer Among The Aspens" 1939 is by Ernest Martin Hennings of the Taos Society of Artists and shows the influence of the Japanese Woodblock prints that were so popular during that time.

There were many examples of the work by Carl Rungius who was a German artist who initially came to the West to hunt in the early 1900's.  He said that at first he hunted for 6 days and then painted for one day, and then that changed to him painting for 6 days and hunting for one day.  Most of the paintings in the Teton Lodge are by him and his paintings were commissioned by many museums and private parties.  He ended up living in New York in the winter in order to complete his studio pieces although he did do plenty of plein air as well.
This was such a great museum that although we just stopped by for a few minutes, we ended up staying for hours including having lunch at their lovely cafe looking out at the prairie and mountains to the east.  I would have stayed longer but my partner was busy being a turkey and so I thought it was time to go.   

ON TO YELLOWSTONE

Jim and Mary's RV Park

From Glacier NP, we headed south to Missoula where we stayed at Jim and Mary's RV Park.  This was not our first visit here and we can highly recommend this rv park for its beauty, cleanliness, and large rv spaces.  This was our time to get the laundry done using their laundry facilities so that we could do all of our blankets, sheets, etc as well as the little stuff that I usually do in our rv washer and dryer.  We also headed to Costco to stock up on meat and purchase more vitamin supplements to keep us going for a few more months.  And we had timed the visit so that we would be able to take advantage of their wonderful double farmers markets, one near the railway station and the other by the river, both on Saturday morning.  I was able to purchase a big bag of huckleberries along with all the other produce that I normally find.  So for the next few days I  made huckleberry pancakes with the whole grain hand milled flour that I had purchased in Columbia Falls.... and I also made huckleberry scones from scratch.  

Montana Valley Used Bookstore

While we were in Missoula, we made a concerted effort to find a used book store, but we were disappointed with the few we found, until a seasonal baker at the Le Petit Outre (a wonderful bakery we found, as if we needed more baked goods) told us about a used book store about 15 miles west of Missoula.   This was one very old and rickety book store with books piled up ceiling high and a basement with bookcases from one end to the other.  Allan found lots of personal memoir war books and I found a few books on books as wells as some books of essays.  

Allan, lower left corner, with Bud Light

From Missoula we headed east, stopping in Anaconda at the Fairmont Hot Springs RV Park.  After setting up, we drove 15 miles to Butte for lunch and found a great used book store run by the daughter of a man who traveled in Europe and send back books for the bookstore.  Again we both left the store with boxes of books.  That evening we went over to the resort and paid our $4.75 each to use the hot springs.  We purchased a Bud Light at the outdoor bar and settled in for a lovely soak.  They have two pools inside and two pools outside.  The water is clean, not sulfuric, and it is very relaxing.

Yellowstone NP Bison

The next morning we headed out early to the West Yellowstone gate where we stopped briefly for fuel and lunch and a huckleberry ice cream cone.  Then we proceeded on through into the park where I am always amazed how we can use our National Park senior pass for entry at no cost.  We drove on through to the Fishing Bridge RV Park at Yellowstone Lake.  This is actually a great location with most of the bison action just to the north of us and some of the hot springs and mud pots to the north as well.  

Old Faithful

We took a drive even further north the following day to see Mt Washburn which at 10,000 feet did not look all that imposing, but then we were already at 8,400 feet.  The altitude was a bit of a problem at first, as I got a very bad headache and didn't feel well for a couple of days, but then I got acclimated and all was well so we thought we would head over to Geyser Village to see Old Faithful.   You would think that if you saw one mud pot or hot springs, they would all be the same.  Here is a selection of just some of the volcanic features on view around the boardwalk.

All of these features have names but I did not write them down.  There are bison prints all around the pools and crusts of mud and algae.  They come here in the winter to eat the grass that stays under the shallow snow.  They use their big head to push the snow away and then feed on the grass.  

In spite of the many signs of danger, we saw many human footprints out on the crust near the pools and a ranger told us that occasionally a bison gets too near the edge and falls in.  They have had human incidents as well.  There are also warning signs everywhere about approaching the bison.  But there have been 5 people gored already this year and one hiker eaten by a grizzley this year.  For some reason, no one believes the signs.  

When we got back to our rv at fishing bridge after a very long day, we drove up to find water pouring out of the seams of our rig.  Allan shut off the water and we opened the door to find all of the kitchen/living area inches deep in water.  The poor dogs were up on the couch and were glad to see us.  Allan found the problem right away,  the water supply control valve to the water heater had broken and of course this had to happen on the one day we took to explore.  We had stayed home for the two days prior because of my headache, but no, it could not happen then, fate had to wait for us to leave before dealing us another blow.  
We soaked up as much as we could with towels and Allan went to the service station at fishing bridge to see if they could do anything.  Well they said to bring the rig right over and they would make a temporary fix for us.  They closed at 5 and it was already 3:30, so we literally crammed all the stuff sitting around on our bed, in the shower, and any other place we could put something without it being in the living room.... then we got the dogs into the truck and zoomed over to have the water leak fixed.  The following day we drove the 80 miles east to Cody where we purchased a shop vac and hair dryer at Walmart (along with needed food supplies), had a great breakfast at Our Place and returned home to begin the drying process in earnest.  I guess it takes a disaster to get us to do a really deep clean of the rig.  The rug is now dry and looks good.  Most everything is back in its rightful place and we are just kicking back a little, painting a little, and hoping to have an uneventful final week here at the Park.