Our Trek - Day Six (July 25)

We left Rock Springs, Wy. and drove across Wy toward Grand Teton/Yellowstone area. We stopped a couple of time in the middle of nowhere to look for rocks (my Dad is a rock hound and found lots of interesting rocks, fossils and Indian artifacts while living in this area), but because of time constraints weren't really able to put the time needed into our search.By this time, we had been seeing antelope as we drove through the countryside. On this day though, we really saw a LOT. We were amused by our son's attempt to say antelope. It came out something like "ameloke."

Lunch time found us at the Hoback campground on the Hoback River. This was the perfect place for a picnic lunch. The Hoback is a beautiful mountain river (shallow, wide and cool). We enjoyed our view of the beauty while eating, then skipped rocks and other waterside activities.Another vacationing family was there and we got to talking to them. They were from Oregon and were on their way to Yellowstone. They had been mining somewhere in Oregon recently and showed us what they had found. They told us the name of the stones, but my memory fails me. I believe it was Oregon sunstone, but I don't know the scientific name for it. They gave us a few of the lower quality stones that they had found. It was fun to talk to them and we actually ran into them again later that day further down the road.Our journey took us through Jackson Hole, Wy which looked like a fun place to be! Joel was excited to see the snow ski slopes there! Just outside of Jackson Hole, we saw perhaps one of the most exciting views of the trip. We noticed a lot of people pulled off to the side of the road looking at something, so we pulled over and got out too. It turned out to be a mama grizzly bear and her three cubs. They were pretty far away, but easily seen by the naked eye. A park ranger (from Grand Tetons) was there to keep everyone and the bears safe. The bears were making their way toward the highway and the ranger said they might cross it. This was taking a while, so we left before they actually made it to the road.Our destination for the day was Flagg Ranch Campground. It is located between Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park in the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. We drove through Grand Teton to get there so we stopped and took pics of the park sign.After we set up our tent at Flagg Ranch, we cooked supper on our gas camp stove (oh, we found out when we got there that our tent site didn't have electricity or water.), And just as we were sitting down to eat, a major rain storm hit. We scrambled for the inside of our tent and ate our supper in there. Fortunately, our tent is large and we sat on our lawn chairs and enjoyed each other's company.

Anyway, camping here was an experience because of the precautions you have to take for bears. All food, cooking utensils, toiletries, wash basins, etc. had to be in a bear box. They could not be left around the campsite or in the tent. We got a warning citation one day, because we left the citronella candles out while we were gone sightseeing.PS. I would not reccommend Flagg Ranch campground. We stayed there 5 nights. The bathrooms were not maintained properly, the trash was not picked up often enough. Of all the campgrounds we used on this trip, it was the worst.

More photos of this day are in slide show below: (if you want to see the pictures in a larger size, click on "view all images" below.)

(photos by Leah Belle @Sweet Tea are copyrighted and may not under any
circumstances be used without express permission)