Let's Just Go Somewhere: Grand Tetons & Yellowstone Lake

After leaving Old Faithful, we continued south and stopped at the first picnic area we came to. Hope Yogi Bear doesn't come out of the woods and try to steal our picnic!

I looked at the map and realized we were probably only about 40 miles from the Grand Tetons. Rather than spend another day driving all the way through Yellowstone to see the Tetons, we decided to go ahead and drive there today. Also, it stays daylight so long out here. It doesn't even start to get "dusky-dark" until around 10:00 pm so we thought we would have plenty of time.

As we drove toward the south entrance of Yellowstone, we went by Lewis Lake on the west...

and Lewis Falls.

As we started to descend toward the south entrance, we began to see the Grand Tetons in the distance.

If they were this beautiful far away, we knew they would be beautiful closer up.

And they did not disappoint us.

Of course, an hour was not enough time to see all there was to see of the Grand Tetons; but it was better than 5 minutes at the Grand Canyon. :) Hopefully, we can return to see them again some time maybe in the fall when the aspen leaves will be golden, the wildlife plentiful, and the summer crowds lessened.

Chuck had been doing all the driving so I offered to drive awhile. We headed back north through the south entrance of Yellowstone. There was a big canyon on the east side (passenger side) of the car that was close to the edge of the road. Chuck got to experience the "thrill" of riding on the edge of the canyon from the passenger seat. He suggested I keep my eyes on the road. :)

When we turned back on to the lower loop at the West Thumb Information Center, we noticed cars pulled off on the side of the road. This time it was for a bull elk. This was the first bull elk we had seen in Yellowstone.

We followed the coastline of Yellowstone Lake all the way up to Lake Village.

At 136 square miles of surface area (or 2,221,766 acres), Yellowstone Lake is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet in North America. As a comparison, Percy Priest Lake in Nashville is only 14,200 acres. Lake Lanier near Atlanta is 37,000 acres. The lake is a beautiful clear blue.

We stopped at a general store in Lake Village for some ice cream. The temperature was pleasantly cooler here near Lake Yellowstone.

After ice cream, Chuck was ready to drive again so we continued up the east side of the lower loop which took us through Hayden Valley where I had read was a good place to see wildlife including bears.

It was beautiful; but the only wildlife we saw were more buffalo.

When we reached Canyon Village, we headed back west but cutting across on the common road between the upper and lower loops over to the west side of the upper loop to avoid the construction that we encountered yesterday on the east side of the upper loop.

Driving north on this road we had traveled south on yesterday and this morning gave us a different perspective...

...like not realizing we were actually driving on a bridge hung on the side of a cliff.

There were these huge boulders that we had seen previously near Mammoth Hot Springs. Can't you imagine these big rocks spewing out of Yellowstone Volcano 640,000 years ago?