Grand Teton Adventure: Bike Ride Shuttle/Paddling the Snake, Celebrating at Jackson Lake Lodge

Grand Teton Adventure: Bike Ride Shuttle/Paddling the Snake, Celebrating at Jackson Lake Lodge

Lisa was really anxious to go for an adventure on the Snake River. One of our favorite trips on the Snake is the float from the dam to Pacific Creek takeout. Our planned adventure would have us start at the dam, unload the boats, drive over to Pacific Creek, put the bicycles together, ride them back to the dam, do the float, and then drive the car back to the dam and pick up the bicycles and truck.

So this is what we did. Packed ourselves a lunch which we left at the truck until we returned from our bicycle ride and set off to Pacific Creek. The day looked beautiful except for the haze from the smoke but it was calm and not very cold.

Got to Pacific Creek and got the bicycles put together and were ready to set off. We told Lisa that we needed to be on the lookoout for bear and maybe other wild ones because we had seen them on this road on previous trips. We had a pleasant ride back to the dam. It was early enough in the day that the traffic was not too heavy and they were very few vehicles that tried to crowd us as we bicycled along.

Got back to the boats and gathered up the things we had left in the truck for safekeeping and set off. The mergansers were floating down the river with us, magpies in the trees calling to us and the fish eluding our view in the beginning.

We saw osprey flying along seeing what they could catch and some smoky views of the Tetons in the distance. It was a shame we were not able to have a good clear view of the Tetons while Lisa was here.

Decided to do the Oxbow and went in search of moose and other creatures. We saw a large group of swallows hanging out in the trees which we had not seen this kind of behaviour before. We then stopped for lunch and a short rest.

After this we continued on our excursion around the oxbow. Lisa and Laura had gotten ahead of Robert and he signaled for them to turn around and they were glad they did as he had a pair of otters in his view.

They put on quite a show for us, swimming, lifting up out of the water to look at us, and finally coming to a stop at a hollow log. They spent a great deal of time there, one of them actually eating on something. They moved in and out of the log and it was a very entertaining time for us.

We moved on and were rewarded with a bald eagle sitting in a tree. Across the river was another raptor that Lisa and Laura thought was golden eagle. We were later proven wrong by a birder with his Sibley's that showed us that this actually was an immature bald eagle. Still was a nice sight to see.

While in the Oxbow we also saw white pelicans, commorants, and harriers hunting up the hillside. All to soon the float was over and we got out and loaded the stuff from the boats, then loaded the boats on top of the car and headed back down to the dam to get the bicycles and truck.

We had not gone very far down the road when..............right where we stopped for a water break on the bike ride to the dam............was a black bear moving out of the woods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoa! What do you suppose we would have done had he come out of the woods while we were bicycling along?

Got back to the truck without further incident and decided this was a perfect evening to go have a drink and dinner at Jackson Lake Lodge. Had a nice time there. The bartenders had stories of wolves they had seen right out the windows of the Lodge but especially in the winter months. While we were sitting there, we were able to go outside and view 5 elk in the field.

So it was quite a day for wildlife viewing!