Be Clean and Be Bear Aware

After our late arrival, we decided to sleep in a bit at our Pocatello, Idaho motel. The complimentary breakfast ended at 9:30 a.m., so we were munching away by 9:15. Along with the standard fare, we also shared my caramel apple from Ethel M. The

hardest part was trying to cut the apple into wedges with a plastic knife, since the knife kept bending. The tangy crisp granny smith apple with a layer of caramel and white and dark chocolate swirls was well worth the effort.

Originally, Pocatello was just a stopping point close to our first National Park, Grand Teton. But when I told Jasmine, one of our science teachers where I was headed, she told me about the Museum of Clean. It then became very apparent that we would need to visit this intriguing museum despite the jesting from my sons. It was so much fun! The museum was created by Dan Aslett who started off as a janitor, built a cleaning business, wrote 40 books on cleaning and organizing, and became a famous speaker on the topic. The museum was great for kids (including the adult kind) with a ton of hands on exhibits allowing the visitor to touch and use antique gadgets. If it had to do with cleaning, we saw it. It sounds crazy, but it was really fun. Near the end of our visit, we dressed up as chimney sweeps and posed for a photo in front of a brick wall where the chimney sweep scene from Mary Poppins was playing overhead. One of the museum workers took our picture and then asked us if we'd send it to her so she could post it on their Facebook page.

We were back in the car around 12:30 and driving to Grand Teton National Park. It was about a 3 hour drive, but with a stop for gas and snacks, it took us a little longer. The drive took us through some farmland and then along the Snake River as we headed toward the mountain range. There was very little traffic and David commented again how much he liked Wyoming. Cheyenne was one of his favorite cities on a previous trip. We arrived at an entrance to Grand Teton that was on the southwestern side via Moose-Wilson Road which is normally closed in the winter. You can tell it is the less traveled road, since after about a 1000 feet of pavement, the road turned into a narrow gravel road filled with potholes. The 8 mile drive toward the main part of the park took us about 30 minutes.

There are three visitor centers, and we stopped at the first one we came to the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center to get our bearings (no pun intended), and talk to a ranger about some quick and easy hikes. He suggested two hikes a couple scenic drives. We bought our bear spray, and drove to the Taggart Lake trailhead while Joe read us all of the safety tips for bear encounters. We hiked 1.5 miles along a rushing stream until we reached a lovely lake and dipped our hands in the water looking at the little fishes or tadpoles swimming near the edge. Unfortunately, we missed a moose sighting. We were walking across a bridge and another family told us they had just seen a moose heading into the woods across the lake. Bummer. The lake had great views of the mountains though and we soaked in the beauty while gazing at the towering mountains in the distance. As we continued the drive through the park, we took the Jenny Lake scenic drive and stopped for a while to look out over Jenny Lake. There is a shuttle boat that you can take across the lake toward Cascade Canyon. It wasn't running when we arrived. But the view of glacier cut canyon across the lake was spectacular.

We were getting tired and needed to wash off the dust and sweat from our hike, so we postponed the other two ranger suggested activities and checked in at the Jackson Lake Lodge. We are staying in a very nice cottage with the best wi-fi we've had so far. The lodge is an historic building and very impressive. We ate dinner at the Pioneer Grill and then watched the remnants of the sunset from an observation deck over the lake. By the time we were back in our cottage, it was near 10:00 p.m. and we were settling down for a good night's sleep. We all agree that this is a park we'd like to return to and spend more time.

For another perspective:

David's blog: http://favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.com

Joe's blog: https://joesage.wordpress.com