Me and You and a Dog Named Boo: Part 3, Grand Teton National Park-September 2016

The temperatures got a little colder and snows covered the mountains, just in time for our visit from Tom and Kathleen. Boo even donned a sweater.

How much do we love this cutie wootie!

We drove up to the Signal Mountain summit where we got a fantastic view of the sunset the night before our friends arrived.

We had lunch at the Jenny Lake Lodge, a very special building across the water from Cascade Canyon where we hiked the last time we were here.

We spent quite some time trying to find the entrance to the southern portion of the 25,000 acre Elk Refuge and were greeted with some amazing views and a very enthusiastic guide at the Miller Ranch who regaled us with stories of life in the late 1800s.

Elk ranged throughout eastern, central and western North

America for hundreds of years before settlement of our

country. By 1900, elk had disappeared from about 90%

of their original range. Because migration routes were

disappearing and severe winters were reducing

forage and habitat, thousands of elk in the area

died. in 1912, The National Elk Refuge was one

of the first big game refuges established, as the result

of public interest and committment to reestablishing healthy

elk herds.

Robert Miller married Grace Green and the couple became important in the life of the Jackson Hole valley. Robert became supervisor of the Teton Division of Yellowstone, Superintendent of Jackson Hole National Monument and was a founding partner in the Jackson State Bank. Grace became the mayor of Jackson, heading up an all female town council-the first governed entirely by women in the country.

This "cross buck" fence was common in its day. It
eliminated the need for digging holes in the rocky soil.

Miller's homestead claim was only the third to be filed in the valley.
This is now the headquarters for the National Elk Refuge. This was quite
a "trophy home" at the time. It served as an important meeting place
for civic and social gatherings.

The beautiful Snake River

Fall has arrived

We had an amazing picnic in our campground by Jackson Lake. Great
taste treats and lots of laughs with our friends, Tom and Kathleen.

As the night wore on and it got chillier,
Jim created a wonderful fire for us.

No ghost stories, but lots of stories!

The next day we stopped by the Menor's Ferry area and enjoyed a really nice fall day walking through this beautiful meadow by the Snake River, where William Menor constructed a ferry which
became a vital crossing for the early settlers of the area.

The Maude Noble cabin
Maude ferried visitors across the Snake on the ferry and
also ran the Ferry Ranch Store.

Maude hosted a meeting here in her cabin in the early

days of the past century to address concerns over

commercialization of the valley. They decided to

approach John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to save the valley and

in 1929, he donated 32,000 acres to the Department of

the Interior. That donation, the national monument and

the 1929 park became what is today the Grand Teton

National Park.

This shed on the property houses a collection of early wagons and coaches representing frontier transportation.

This sled is how Maude got around to visit neighbors.

A buggy which used to transport visitors around to some
of the first dude ranches.

One of three wagons that made it over Teton Pass
in 1888!

The Snake
Yep-fall is here!

The ferry is a simple platform on two pontoons.
The cable keeps the ferry from going downstream.

The little store on the property where we were treated to
homemade ginger cookies.

Not a bad view from here either...

Friends told us about a beautiful area on the southeast part of town called Cache Creek. It is dog-friendly: our favorite kind of trail. We had a delightful stroll along the boardwalk here and picnicked once again.

We rushed home to quickly freshen up in time to do happy hour at the Blue Heron outdoor patio. Tom and Kathleen won the prize for finding us the perfect table by the fireplace. Unfortunately, they had run out of propane and it wasn't exactly toasty out there-BUT, it was dog friendly!

We turned in early and woke up early the next day to this absolutely gorgeous sunrise!

A rainbow greeted us on our way out of town.

We stopped for lunch at a casino, Shoshoni Rose,

on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Believe it

or not, they even let Boo share our booth! We,

of course, had Indian Fry Bread Tacos.

We were again planning to go half way home on our last day on the road. Again, we encountered some pretty rough winds. We knew they had gusted to 50 mph yesterday so decided to stop as soon as they got iffy. That happened around the same place as we had been stopped on our way to the Tetons. We really didn't want to encounter Matt from the Annalope Cafe again, so we stopped around the Green Mountain area. There is a campground up in the mountains there. Because the winds were crazy and the road, although it was advertised as improved gravel, turned out to be really bumpy, we pulled over into a flat spot in the prairie grasslands to spend the night. We encountered only about 5 or 6 cars going by.

Staying out of the wind

This sweet puppy spent the rest of the afternoon with us.
He had a collar but no tags. I told Jim that, if he was still
with us in the morning, we would have to try to find the
owners but, if not, take him with us to a shelter. Jim was
less than enthusiastic.

He was such a love; I was kind of hoping he'd stay with us.
But alas, he left at sunset and went rambling down the road
towards what we knew was probably his home.